Middleburn Cable oilers

My sets arrived this morning – 2 sets, one 5mm, one 4mm, just fitted the 5mm set into my brake lines, they're a snug fit WITHOUT needing any cable ends (Clarkes cables). Once fitted I opened up the o-ring poked in the GT85 tube and squirted. A little bit of lube leaks out around the insert hole, but plenty of lube also jets out of the cable ends, so it's lubing the entire lengths nicely. Initial feel is lovely and smooth brakes again.

Will fit the 4mm set into my gear line this afternoon. I'm hoping that they'll improve the shifting a bit.

Ooooh sounds goood. Mine are on their way…

Just got my cable cutters out

remember to take the cable out first 🙂

"if you ride in winter that much why aren't you using … a singlespeed?!"
Because (wheel) spinning in granny gear is far easier up a steep sloppy climb than singlespeeding up it?

"where do you fit them on the cable run as you get a pack of three"
If you've not got full length outer, eg most HTs, then put one in each of the 3 sections of outer cable
If running full length outer cables then I've got one in the front mech cable and 2 in the rear mech cable
I positioned mine such that when I turn the handlebars the front and rear mech outer cables no longer touch the frame. Instead the rubber O-ring of the cable-oiler touches the frame so they make a great frame protector/bump stop for the outer cables if positioned right

"don't see the point on running them and full length cables… where is the mud going to get in?"
Mud gets in the rear mech end eventually. Used to take about 3 months for me before decent shifting went completely to pot. Once you get mud in a full length outer it seems to bung up far worse non full length outer
The cable oilers mean you can use WD40/GT85/etc to push all the mud/grit/wet out and relube your cables. I only do it when the shofting starts to become ropey (blocking up), and every time the shifting returns to being really light and easy

"the oilers are much cheaper than fancy sealed cables"
Yep. £6 for oilers + cheap cables plus cheap full length outer cable is way less than avid/gore/XTR sealed cable sets

"is it the 4mm ones for shimano gear cable? "
Yes, though some outer cable is too fat to fit. eg the Jagwire full outer that comes supplied on some Specialized bikes

" you can wrestle with the little fiddly O-ring"
I can roll them back with my fingers just fine

"WD-40 runs outside the cable outer and drips straight on to the carpet"
You thought using WD40 indoors (over carpet) was a good idea?

"so are they worth it or not"
Yes, go for it

One final thing, you'll need to use standard outer cable ends (ones that don't have elongated cable hugging tubes on the ends of them to allow WD40/GT85 to push muck out of the cables

EDIT: and another, thats a ridiculously long post. I apologise

Brilliant! Thanks for that

Bad news for me then as they wont fit my Jagwire outer 🙁

so will the 4mm ones fit the XT cables?