Best super slippy gear cables?

Hi folks.
My gear cables need replacing and I’m not sure which ones to go for? I’ve tried normal XT ones, black snake and flying snake and they all seem to work at first but then become stiff again. My bike is a 575 so it has full length cables. I’m looking at Gore Ride On cables but want to make sure they’re pretty good before spending the money on them.
Cheers.

+

Gore work for me here – a year in and still smooooth

+1 Rock”n”Roll Cablemagic – keeps gears slicker for longer based on regular commuter use.

I just use it with normal Shimano SP40 cable outer (full length), probably even better if used with properly sealed cables.

Those who like Gore (@40!!) get em quick…..they’ve (jagwire) stopped making them.

Cable magic here too on bare stainless steel inners, not galvanised and not stainless with a so called lubricating black coating. Of course with full length outers – does any one have exposed cable runs any more?

Gore on both my bikes. If they’re stopping making them I might stock up on a couple of sets.

XTR. Flourine coated and just work well for years

XTR !!!

SP41 outer, shimano ptfe coated cables, middleburn cable oilers and sealed cable ferrules. On a split cable run. I use finish line teflon lube on the cables every couple of rides to purge moisture and crap back out of the outers.
I personally don’t believe any cable run is maintenance free, but cheap cables and outers don’t help.

SP41 has a silicone grease inside so you have to be careful if you use additional lube in case it gums up.

As for inners….

I have the black PTFE shimano XTR ones on one bike, I bought them as a full kit (£20) as separately they are bloomin expensive now. On another bike I have shimano stainless only inners and I also have some Clarks black PTFE ones.

I do think that the shimano cables are smoother as I think they draw them through a die. The Clarks ones seem to have a coarser surface.

I use the XTR rubber dirt shields on the exit up to the derailleurs and on interupted outer bikes I use the £3 Transfil sealing kit in the outer breaks.

Xtr kit.

Another vote for XTR—my current cables sets are 4 years old and smooth as butter—of course I seldom ride in the rain/mud like you do in the UK.
Had Gore on a bike a few years ago—worked fine, but not any better than the XTR

If you buy a 10m roll of SP41 from Parkers they aren’t pre greased. Only the kits come pre greased. Its a bloody bargain though!
When I upgraded mine it cost the following
10m SP41 £23.95
1 x PTFE Shimano cable £9.50 (reused an older PTFE cable for the front mech)
10x Sealed Shimano cable ferrules £3.99
3x Shimano rubber shielded sealed ferrules £6.50
Total cost £43.94

Jambo +1

If you buy a 10m roll of SP41 from Parkers they aren’t pre greased. Only the kits come pre greased. Its a bloody bargain though!

Are you sure? All the SP41 I’ve bought off the reel from different sources has always been pregreased.

I use full length SP41 outer with XTR sealed ferrules and the rubber shielded ones on exposed ends.

I did use XTR cable but as mentioned it’s price has gone up loads. I just get the cheapest PTFE coated cables I can find now.

“Best” – Gore Ride On, mos def. They do take some work to set up, but then they just work, properly, with basically no maintenance, for years.

I’m a ‘no maintenance, no cleaning’ type rider, and they’re absolutely great.

At the moment I’m using normal cables with cable magic to lube them but they’re still not smooth. Maybe time to bite the bullet and try Gore.

Powercordz, tried all them gortex things etc, Powercordz rule, not cheep but super slick and nothing to get rusty 😀

my sp41 roll is definitely greased. Maybe you got a roll of sp40?

Not if it says SP41 on it!

Gore every time for me, it’s not even that much of a faff to install these days. Newly installed Gore vs newly installed SP41 performs the same, it’s just the Gore will stay that way for a couple of years vs a couple of months. I wouldn’t ditch a working set of SP41 jsut to switch to Gore but once the SP41 was shot I’d def stump up the extra cash for the Gore stuff.

I use gore on my commuter and they really are very good. Quite fancy the powercordz for my road bike but only place I can find them is on ebay at £60 for either a brake set or gear set. Now I like spending money on my bike but this may be too much for me unless they look particularly handsome. Do they, or do they just look the same as any other cable?

Powercordz, tried all them gortex things etc, Powercordz rule, not cheep but super slick and nothing to get rusty

+1, very good, and last well.

SP41 outer, shimano ptfe coated cables, middleburn cable oilers and sealed cable ferrules. On a split cable run. I use finish line teflon lube on the cables every couple of rides to purge moisture and crap back out of the outers.
I personally don’t believe any cable run is maintenance free, but cheap cables and outers don’t help.

This +1

What’s the Finish Line spray like compared to WD40/GT85? Silicone spray works really well too as it’s very slippy and as does Everbuild P19 which is silicone and teflon.

Middleburn cable oilers are the key part here though and work great on non XTR cables too

+1, very good, and last well.

where did you buy them from njee20

Looks like SRAM have bought up all the old Gore stock and will be selling it as their RED Road cable for the ‘foreseeable future’.