Inner gear cables

What are we using?

I bought a load of the Shimano full gear cable kits a while ago and I’m now all out of inners so want to stock up.

Looking around, Optislick are about a tenner and a basic stainless (Shimano) one is about £3. Are they 3 times better? Do they last 3 time longer?

I know the coated ones are meant to have less friction. I have XT shifters on both bikes and they have a fairly heavy (could say, ‘positive’) action to them, is the low friction going to make a blind bit of difference when it’s full of grit

I guess an important thing is are there any inners which are ‘kinder’ to the outer? While I have no issue replacing the inner as and when, a new outer is a motor out job which I’d prefer to never have to do again. I know it’s inevitable but the longer I can put it off, the better!

Jagwire slick polished are probably the kindest to the outer as they have the surface smoothed, expensive though, I buy optislick ones whenever I see them going cheap, biketart often have bargains on Shimano cables, it’s worth checking their site regularly, I even bought a few dirt cheap deore shifters in the CRC clearout just for the optislick cable.

Full set of Optislick inners and outers were £14.99 for my CX bike.  It made a huge difference to the shift on my 10 speed STI over and above Decathlon stainless cables.  10 speed and above needs good cables – Jagwire on my 2 x 10 FS MTB.  Any stainless on my 8 speed bikes.

Just checked Biketart, optislick inners £4.95, personally I’d buy a few to make the postage worth it.

There’s a good deal at Merlin on Shimano standard inners. They’re £2.50 each but with a great multibuy option which brings them down to £1.50 if you buy 5.

https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-steel-inner-gear-wire-57503.html

Fibrax slick here, die drawn to smooth them out. Buy them direct and support UK manufacturing, what’s not to like?

I probably have some spare Shimano stainless left from buying a box a while back if they are what you want. Fire a PM over OP if your not after anything fancier

Optislicks are much better for smooth gear shifting. Would go for those.

Polymer coated (brown) are the best and really slippery (and expensive) – but you may need to sand paper the coating off at the derailleur bolt so it wont slip, as the coating is really that slippery and only meant to be used with certain top end models. But sandpaper the coating where it sits under the der bolt and you got really slick shifting.

I also use polymer cables with internal gear hubs, and they are very resistant to freezing inside the casing in sub-zero winter conditions.

You can also use the polymer cables with road brakes – just remember to sandpaper the coating at the brake bolt, unless you have Dura-ace brakes that they are meant for. With other brakes, the cable WILL slip for sure under hard braking otherwise. There is very little friction with these and the difference in braking / shifting feel is very noticeable.

https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/technologies/component/details/polymer-coated-cable.html

I’ve just fitted a Jagwire pro slick inner. Die drawn and then polished/ground for smoothness I believe.

Seem to have very low friction and maybe a touch cheaper than the Shimano equivalent.

Jagwire also do an elite ultra slick which is apparently even better. I would assume the lowest abrasion lowest friction cables will extend the life of the outer, so it might be worth the investment in the more expensive inner.

https://jagwire.com/guides/inner-wire

TBH I just use clark stainless inners (in shimano outers). I’ve tried fancy ones, they can feel a bit nicer especially when brand new but I’m not convinced it’s a difference that actually matters unless your bike has really tight cable routing.

Are you all running these cables with full-length outers? Nobody using a high-end inner cable with split/ interrupted outers?

My preference is for Shimano sp41 outer with sram pitstop inner cable.

Sram inners are .1 smaller and far cheaper than optislick

Imo the coating on Shimano brown cables rubs off and jams up bikes with internal cable routing. fine for full casing bikes though

Northwind

I’ve tried fancy ones, they can feel a bit nicer especially when brand new

This is kind of what I was wondering. Are they worth it in the long run.

To be fair,  they’re only a fiver on biketart so I’ll probably grab a few of those. It was Merlin that had them at a tenner each.

I fitted a Clarks cable to my dropper the other day. It was the emergency spare that lives in my rucksack and the difference between it and the Shimano that came out was quite noticeable. The shimano felt much thicker but also less flexible. It didn’t really translate to anything noticeable at the lever though.

I’ve found road shifters feel great initially with coated cables but they fur up at the shifter really quickly.

You get a lot less furring on MTB shifters but you also get less benefit to the coating.

I’m still running Optislick on the gravel bike but the MTB gets Shimano stainless. Big box of 100 picked up in the recent sales so they work out at pence each. Little squirt if buzzys slick honey in the housing and they’re great and stay so for a long time.

Yeah full casing only for me with those polymer cables, should have said that. As @orangeboy said the coating can rub off if not using full length or ferrules with extra lip part (that are meant for these cables when using split casing).