Coated gear cables on Shimano road/gravel levers

Decided to tidy up the housing on a GRX equipped bike that’s only a few hundred miles old. On pulling out the original coated Shimano cable from the shifter, I noticed that the cable has taken a set where it’s been around the ratchet barrel and the coating has gone “furry” already. I know this seems to be pretty standard for road shifters and I also hear lots of people say how friction is the enemy of road shifters. However, would Shimano stainless with a light coating of slick honey run just as well or does the coating on the rest of the cable really make that much difference, especially on 12 speed?

If this were a mountain bike, it would get SP41, sealed ferrules and a Shimano stainless cable and not need touching for the next 12 to 18 months.

Optislick rather than the top end PTFE as I’ve heard they gym up even worse.

The cables I had that went furry continued to do so until they nearly stopped working.

I changed the cable with a standard stainless one and have had no further problem.

Cheers, good to know. My current thinking is that plain stainless would work better for longer. Just wondering if it might be too draggy for 12 speed.

So far so good with Opti Slick SP41 on my CX bike. The Decathlon stainless worked OK for 12 months before gumming up on the rear mech cable loop – dirt and crap got in. I’ve mainly exposed cable on the top tube and seat stay on the CX. I run Jagwire on the FS MTB, but that’s full outer from lever to mech.

If using stainless cables and the PTFE lined cables, don’t use oil or slick honey etc. It will help drag in dirt.

You’ve just got to live with more regular cable changes on 10-12 speed, especially with ‘brifters’.

How do coated cables, specifically SRAM/Gore old stock recently bought, play with SRAM Apex?
Asking for a friend.

I’ve just put an XTR 12sp shifter on and got instant furry cable as it exits the XT rear at that harsh angle, I even put one of those little plastic nose things in the cable stop to protect it, I was gonna see how it goes but I think I’ll just whack an optislick one in as I’ve got several spare ones, very disappointing for so called top end product. I even got the shifting spot on straight away, didn’t even need to tweak the barrel adjuster, love it when that happens.

as it exits the XT rear at that harsh angle

Is it just me who wonders HTF do Shimano engineers not see that and think ‘we could do that better, hold my beer’… It’s been like that for a couple of decades now.

We all want more gears (or marketers do) – I don’t get the issues as much with 8 speed on my commuter – it will work great for a few years then stop shifting well.  The tolerances are much less with 10 speed plus.

I bought a used CX bike with 10 speed rear. Changed the cables. All worked well for a while, but due to the design of the cable run and using cheaper cables without a seal, the crap got in.  Eventually changed to SP41 with the sealed ferrules and it’s perfect on a 10 year old bike.

I think you just need to take this into consideration.

I have a workshop box of Dura Ace/ Ultegra PTFE ones, with 29 inners left in it. All my bikes now have electronic shifting….

Open to sensible offers !