Yes, I wanna witness (about cable quality)

I'm not actually a Dura Ace kind of cyclist. In the summer time I'm at
Ultegra level. But I confess that during winter I go real low: On my
rain and snow winter commuter I have a miserable Shimano Alivia rear
derailler, that has annoied me daily, since I have had to shift three
steps down and two steps up to move the chain approximately one sprocket.

The cable and housing being but a few months old and well greased, I had
concluded I had to upgrade to at least a Shimano 105 derailler to get
proper shifting. But then one fine day this newsgroup pointed me in the
direction of the Sheldon site, that reveals that poor shifting is mainly
caused by bad cables - not bad deraillers.

Having seen the light, I sent for a set of Dura Ace cables and housing and
connected it to the miserable Alivia derailler. And Alas, all of my
shifting trouble was over.

I think the spring on the derailler is not as strong as it should be or
has been, but with the Dura Ace cable, gear shifting is no longer
miserable. It shifts one sprocket up or down with every click of the shift.

I am surprised that high quality cables and housing makes so much
difference. And it pleases me to find another example of the old
maxime, that true quality lies in the hidden details.

Ivar (of Denmark)

Ivar Hesselager wrote:
I'm not actually a Dura Ace kind of cyclist. In the summer time I'm
at Ultegra level. But I confess that during winter I go real low: On
my rain and snow winter commuter I have a miserable Shimano Alivia
rear derailler, that has annoied me daily, since I have had to shift
three steps down and two steps up to move the chain approximately one
sprocket.

The cable and housing being but a few months old and well greased, I
had concluded I had to upgrade to at least a Shimano 105 derailler to
get proper shifting. But then one fine day this newsgroup pointed me
in the direction of the Sheldon site, that reveals that poor shifting
is mainly caused by bad cables - not bad deraillers.

Having seen the light, I sent for a set of Dura Ace cables and housing
and connected it to the miserable Alivia derailler. And Alas, all of
my shifting trouble was over.

I think the spring on the derailler is not as strong as it should be or
has been, but with the Dura Ace cable, gear shifting is no longer
miserable. It shifts one sprocket up or down with every click of the shift.

I am surprised that high quality cables and housing makes so much
difference. And it pleases me to find another example of the old
maxime, that true quality lies in the hidden details.

Ivar (of Denmark)


I had the same problem with my mountain bike. I upgraded the cables to
XTR and all my problems went away. (Well my gear change problems did
anyway.)

Marty

Marty wrote:
I had the same problem with my mountain bike. I upgraded the cables to
XTR and all my problems went away. (Well my gear change problems did
anyway.)

I had XTR cables for a while (on an otherwise XT level bike), but the
coating rubbed off the inner where it entered the last bit of outer
before the rear mech. I changed to some from Gore and these have been
trouble-free for three winters - never lubed, worked fine.

Ivar Hesselager wrote:
I'm not actually a Dura Ace kind of cyclist. In the summer time I'm at
Ultegra level. But I confess that during winter I go real low: On my
rain and snow winter commuter I have a miserable Shimano Alivia rear
derailler, that has annoied me daily, since I have had to shift three
steps down and two steps up to move the chain approximately one sprocket.

The cable and housing being but a few months old and well greased, I had
concluded I had to upgrade to at least a Shimano 105 derailler to get
proper shifting. But then one fine day this newsgroup pointed me in the
direction of the Sheldon site, that reveals that poor shifting is mainly
caused by bad cables - not bad deraillers.

Having seen the light, I sent for a set of Dura Ace cables and housing and
connected it to the miserable Alivia derailler. And Alas, all of my
shifting trouble was over.


Too bad the 'light' didn't include seeing that many LBS inner wires and
lined housing are 'XTR/DA' quality w/o the high price. Most aftermarket
inner wire/housing combos, the highest quality ones, are on par with
the 'branded' ones...just less money.

I think the spring on the derailler is not as strong as it should be or
has been, but with the Dura Ace cable, gear shifting is no longer
miserable. It shifts one sprocket up or down with every click of the shift.

I am surprised that high quality cables and housing makes so much
difference. And it pleases me to find another example of the old
maxime, that true quality lies in the hidden details.

Ivar (of Denmark)

25 Nov 2005 06:39:11 -0800, Qui si parla Campagnolo
wrote:

Too bad the 'light' didn't include seeing that many LBS inner wires and
lined housing are 'XTR/DA' quality w/o the high price. Most aftermarket
inner wire/housing combos, the highest quality ones, are on par with
the 'branded' ones...just less money.



No, that doesn't matter.

I am celebrating that I succeded in blowing new life into a cheap and old
derailler, simply by installing top quality wire/housing.

On top of the satisfaction I saved around 50 dollars by not buying af new
derailler, as I was ready to.

However, the experience that I wanted to share, was not how cheap I could
get around the problem, but how wire/housing of top quality can make a bad
derailler work good.

I know you, Peter Old Man, know which cable sets are
as-good-as-but-much-cheaper. All I know is that the cheap Shimano cable
set isn't good enough for a cheap derailler.

Ivar (of Denmark)

"Ivar Hesselager" wrote in message
newsps0tne0zvxtdc4g@ivarsnotebook...
25 Nov 2005 06:39:11 -0800, Qui si parla Campagnolo
wrote:

Too bad the 'light' didn't include seeing that many LBS inner wires and
lined housing are 'XTR/DA' quality w/o the high price. Most aftermarket
inner wire/housing combos, the highest quality ones, are on par with
the 'branded' ones...just less money.



No, that doesn't matter.

I am celebrating that I succeded in blowing new life into a cheap and old
derailler, simply by installing top quality wire/housing.

On top of the satisfaction I saved around 50 dollars by not buying af new
derailler, as I was ready to.

However, the experience that I wanted to share, was (clip)how wire/housing
of top quality can make a bad derailler work good.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I think you're thinking is up-side-down. There was no bad deraileur. A bad
cable, replaced with a good one, made a good deraileur start working again.

wrote:
Marty wrote:
I had the same problem with my mountain bike. I upgraded the cables to
XTR and all my problems went away. (Well my gear change problems did
anyway.)

I had XTR cables for a while (on an otherwise XT level bike), but the
coating rubbed off the inner where it entered the last bit of outer
before the rear mech. I changed to some from Gore and these have been
trouble-free for three winters - never lubed, worked fine.

I believe that top quality Jagwire & QBP cables & housings are as good
as top line Shimano. I've heard many times that they are all made by
Jagwire. Even though the fact alone that a product having been made by
the same manufactuer does not assure that it will be of the same
quality. In fact Jagwire does make some lower quality stuff such as
gavinized cables. Never the less I think thleir top quality is as good
as any.
What I'm saying is that one can get Shimanos top quality cables &
housing more conviently & economicaly w/o buying the Shimano brand. If
some of the pros in the group know better, I'm more than open to
listen.

John

john wrote:
wrote:
Marty wrote:
I had the same problem with my mountain bike. I upgraded the cables
to XTR and all my problems went away. (Well my gear change problems
did anyway.)

I had XTR cables for a while (on an otherwise XT level bike), but the
coating rubbed off the inner where it entered the last bit of outer
before the rear mech. I changed to some from Gore and these have
been trouble-free for three winters - never lubed, worked fine.

I believe that top quality Jagwire & QBP cables & housings are as
good as top line Shimano. I've heard many times that they are all
made by Jagwire. Even though the fact alone that a product having
been made by the same manufactuer does not assure that it will be of
the same quality. In fact Jagwire does make some lower quality stuff
such as gavinized cables. Never the less I think thleir top quality
is as good as any.
What I'm saying is that one can get Shimanos top quality cables &
housing more conviently & economicaly w/o buying the Shimano brand. If
some of the pros in the group know better, I'm more than open to
listen.

At our shop, we use any cables and housing that are cheap: QBP, Aztec,
Pyramid, Jagwire, etc. They all work fine as long as they are stainless or
lined. Brand doesn't seem to make a difference... quality seems the same.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Ivar Hesselager wrote:

All I know is that the cheap Shimano cable
set isn't good enough for a cheap derailler.
TOUR magazin had a very big cable test some time ago.


Greets, Derk

Ivar Hesselager wrote:

I sent for a set of Dura Ace cables and housing and connected it to the miserable Alivia derailler. And Alas, all of my shifting trouble was over.

Next time buy 5mm housing instead of the 4mm DA, and use metal ferrules
instead of the plastic DA. You'll get even better performance.

Art Harris