Read a lot of outer/inner gear wire discussion on here, likely due to the lovely weather ya’ll got.

SP41 outers get mentioned again and again, ideally full-length coupled with slick (not coated) 1.1 mm gear wire to reduce friction (e.g. Jagwire Sports Slick), and sealed XTR plastic? ferrules at each end.

Is this the dream (given that you’re up for a bit of drilling, zip ties or other attachment system)?

If you want perfect shifting I’d have thought Di2 or SRAM Eagle AXS is the answer…

If you want perfect shifting I’d have thought Di2 or SRAM Eagle AXS is the answer…

Yea, but everybody knows that’s witchcraft, so your essentially inviting the devil into your home.

I’d happily sell my soul for a Di2 groupset 😉

Di2 is not the DrEaM for me until it’s cheap as chips and battery life is 2+ years w my use.

To be honest you’re 90% of the way there as soon as you go with full length outers.

I’ve not ran an MTB for years that doesn’t have full length outers

They do a nice kit for all your 2x shifting needs. Have this on one of my bikes and it’s been much better than the stock stuff that was on before hand.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-xt-m8000-optislick-gear-cable-set/rp-prod146154

non-full length outers will go down as one of MTBs daftest ideas. Thankfully most don’t bother these days.

Cant say I’ve had any issues with split outers tbh. The only time was down to some shitty jagwire cables & outers.
I tend to use SP41 outers with sealed ferrules and teflon coated shimano cables and I have zero issues. A lot of it is down to frame design and routing.

perfect shifting for me ( hub gear or derailleur) sp41 outer, teflon coated inner, middleburn cable oilers, properly set up shift mechanisms, proper maintenance.

Most of my bikes do not have full length outers. I still get no issues

Non-full length has worked fine for me too, but now it’s time to get more cable, so why not go full-length which is easier to replace (just one outer to cut once the frame is ready for it) and will likely maintain perfect shifting longer / be more maintenance free than non-full length?

Non-full length has worked fine for me as long as I change housing yearly, but why not go for full length and change it bi-yearly instead with less faff?

Shimano inners piss all over Jagwire.

When I built my hardtail race bike 5 years ago with 2x external routing with exposed cables, I bought a Black Snake gear cable set. 4 & 1/2 years later when I bought a new frame and it was still shifting on original inners as sweet and crisp as day one. The kit used thin sleeving to cover the exposed cable between lugs so effectively making it a sealed system. I can only give it the highest praise as that bike was used continuously in some pretty shitty conditions too.

+1 for this, aa jim says, very nice set of wires and tubey bits. Works very very well.

They do a nice kit for all your 2x shifting needs. Have this on one of my bikes and it’s been much better than the stock stuff that was on before hand.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-xt-m8000-optislick-gear-cable-set/rp-prod146154

perfect shifting for me ( hub gear or derailleur) sp41 outer, teflon coated inner, middleburn cable oilers, properly set up shift mechanisms, proper maintenance

See, split outers works fine but requires the bit I’ve marked in bold. It’s not that they can’t work perfectly well, but they do require regular maintenance. Depending on the split sections, this can be a pain.

By contrast, a full run of outer with a cable that doesn’t have a coating (contributes to wear debris in the cable run) requires NO maintenance for long periods of time.

The question is, why would you voluntarily add additional work to your schedule if you don’t have to?

Got the Shimano xt cable kit for 10 gbp incl shipping on amazon.de! Then a jagwire 1.1 mm ss cable for 2 pounds extra. Full length here I come!

Full length is so far definitely the dream!

never had better shifting

Seeing as a huge proportion of people are now running 1x I don’t for the life of me know why shimano haven’t released a gear cable set for it. I need new cable for my build and I’m having to order the bits separately rather than a kit. Also in the kits I find it annoying that there isn’t the full amount of outer so I can’t even justify using the other cable for my dropper. I mean come on, get with the times!

Just get the XT kit with 3 meters of SP41 housing and sealed endcaps? I paid 10 £ for it! Plus £2 for a 1.1 mm jagwire slick cable at my LBS.