Middleburn Cable oilers

Somebody recommended these yesterday to solve winter cable woes.

Are they any good?

A practical alternative to (the expensive) sealed Teflon units on the market.

Thanks

WGA

These are one of the best bits of kit I have ever bought for any bike, I had serious cable issues on a couple of bikes until these were fitted, I've had no problems since.
Plus they are cheap.

They're good.

Although if you ride in winter that much why aren't you using hydraulic discs & a singlespeed?!

I can't see how they work 😕

great bit of kit

I've got a packet of them but I've yet to actually fit them. Imagine they'll be very useful with full-length outers too.

Use one on the full length outer on my Yeti.
It works.

I can't see how they work

Er, its got a hole in it, sealed by a rubber ring. You reveal the hole, squirt GT85, WD40, whatever in the hole and it lubes the cable from one end to t'other. Simples.

bonesetter… cut outer, insert oiler, thread inner through…. to lube roll o ring out of the way and use the little hose thing on your can of diddlydub40 or 3in1 and spray.

dunno what they work like, all too new to tell..

Used them for years.
Great piece of kit and if it saves the need to go singlespeed, its gotta be worth it! lol

Ooh, what a sparkly frame 🙂

Got some for my Five but not yet fitted them

They are fantastic. I have made a nozzle from an XTR cable ferrule that goes on the WD40 can so that it fits and seals onto the oiler. That way when I squirt it in you see it go all down the cable and squirt out of the mech end of the cable as well as the shifter end. I reckon that my cables last virtually for ever and shift perfectly despite being out every week in winter,

C

agree, very good piece of kit, particluarly on the winter/hardtail. I haven't tied them with full length outers yet as not sure if they are really any benefit there…. ??

where do you fit them on the cable run as you get a pack of three ta

on a conventional routed hardtail (cables along toptube), I have one between the shifters and the top tube, slightly nearer the shifters ; one on the section at the seatpost and one one the curve between the chainstay and the rear mech. When positioning think about how far the lube will go in each direction under gravity

I only actually used two. one about 300mm fom the shifters and one about at the seat post.

C

brilliant bit of kit

love them, think there ace but don't see the point on running them and full length cables… where is the mud going to get in?
Have had mine sitting spare since I started using full length outers, and still don't have any issue shifting.

Recommended if you don't run full outers – hense why they supply 3… for the three short piece of cable outer you usually get on a bike.

zippy – glad you said that – I have run them on the HT for years, but I have full length outers on the FS and have sometimes wondered about fitting them, but as you say, where can the crap get in (maybe the oilers would introduce moisture etc as well ??)

Dumb question I know but if you're using sealed (XTR) cables with full outer these aren't needed?

leftyboy – I would agree, not needed.

Iainc, Z1ppy,

Muck gets in at the ends. I use a single run of outer from the TT to the mech, with a middleburn oiler about where the Vee brakes would be. You'd be amazed at the carp that comes outthe bottom end…

This is also true of sealed cables, of course. And the oilers are much cheaper than fancy sealed cables…

You'd be amazed at the carp that comes outthe bottom end…

I think your hubs will be knackered before the cables if you're riding through water that deep….

Only used one on final run to rear mech but still sorted out sticky gear shifts, cheap and effective. Well worth it.

I got the 2 on the bends up by the bars (see pic), and 1 on the loop for the rear mech, I had this theory that it would be the bends that caused the most drag on the inner so it was the bends that should be kept lubed.

Have one in each shift cable about 6" from the shifters and one in the loop before the rear mech. I run full outers too, crap still gets in the end eventually and with these I can blast it out and lube in. Very effective.

Well that sounds quite convincing, just ordered some from CRC, let's see how they go.

WGA

is it the 4mm ones for shimano gear cable?

I think you do need the 4mm's, but not 100% on that. I'm going to try some to on my XTR cable set, so need to know…

Silly queation time

If you have one on each shifter cable up near the bars, yes it will wash all the crap out the end near the front and rear mech

but at the same time wont it degrease the shifters if you use stuff like WD40 and it gets inside them ?

Still going to fit mine on my Five after i saw what state the cable on the front mech was like today 🙁

I've had some for ages, not quite sure what it is they actually 'do' though, other than just look pretty?

(1) If you can wrestle with the little fiddly O-ring and finally prise the bastard thing open enough to get the nozzle of your WD-40 etc can in to the little hole, great.
(2) Then you can marvel in wonder as, reaching for the can of WD-40, you'll find it happily sprays through the hole, WD-40 runs outside the cable outer and drips straight on to the carpet, never coming anywhere near your filthy skanky inner cable.
(3) I find it's altogether quicker and more effective to simply pull the cable outers from the slotted stops – al la old skool way – and do the classic shimmy-shimmy-spray-spray – works every time!

…but they do look pretty.

Or am I just missing something here? 8)

??…………..so are they worth it or not…………??

They are not a lot of money to buy bonesetter, offset the cost by buying cheap cables and give em a try…

However if you have 3 piece cables or your XTR ones pretty sure they are pointless.

I'm expecting some delivered in the next day or so, I'll fit them, see how I get on, and post my results.

tinsy – the bike i am thinking of running these on has an xtr cable with a full length jagwire outer, with the xtr ends, if that makes sense.

so i think it's the 4mm ones i need to fit the jagwire as the xtr ends are smaller than normal i think…?

Bonesetter… I dont know about the XTR size sorry, I had to use the 5mm for the fibrax braided cables I bought.

If you fitting the oiler in the middle of the cable do you have another 6 XTR ends to put on then? I think the oilers are supposed to fit direct to the cable and not have the extra ends on, I can olny see the extra ends as extra faff and places for moisture to creep in and oils to squirt out.. see the pic.

Yep, 4mm ones in my gear cables. And yes, they should install directly into the cables.

no need for 'ends'?

put the ends only at the ends of the cable runs, but NOT into either side of the oiler.

If you need ends into the oiler, you've got the wrong size.