Friction Shifter cable housing

I have just fitted friction barcons to one of my bikes. They are a new copy
of an original Suntour item and they work beautifully. When I first looked
at the cable housing supplied I thought "This isn't so hot!" because it was
ordinary spiral wound stuff like brake cable housing. On further reflection,
I figured out that non-indexed shifters don't need compressionless housing
because there isn't any precise adjustment of cable length that needs to be
preserved. That's a plus for me because I don't possess shears that will cut
compressionless housing. I use a Dremel cutting wheel and it is a tedious
pain to cut it square.

Question One: Just to make sure, I'm asking if there should be anything
special about housing used for non-indexed shifters or can I use the normal
good quality plastic lined housing I keep in bulk for brake cables?

April 1st is the date of the Canberra, Australia Sheldon Brown Memorial
Ride. I can't be there because it's 1500 miles away but I commemorated
Sheldon in my own way last night by lacing up my first ever pair of bicycle
wheels. I was armed with a Park tensiometer and spoke key, a Minoura truing
stand and dish stick and a printed copy of Sheldons wheelbuilding
instructions. The wheels just fell together almost of their own accord and
came up true, and on the rear wheel correctly dished and with the expected
tension differential between DS and NDS. Time will tell, but I feel they're
pretty good for a first attempt.

Question Two: The rims are from Velocity and the front one has a slight
irregularity on the braking surface where the splice is. It's not a step,
just a slightly raised roughness. This manifests itself as a tick-tick-tick
every time it goes past the brake shoes. Should I attack this irregularity
with emery cloth or should I ignore it?

Peter H.

On Mar 30, 7:11 am, "Peter Howard"
wrote:
I have just fitted friction barcons to one of my bikes.snip
I'm asking if there should be anything
special about housing used for non-indexed shifters or can I use the normal
good quality plastic lined housing ..

Shimano barcons came with metal (stainless steel?), spiral wound,
unlined cables. I've set them up with ordinary brake cable, and with
the stronger cable used for index shifting. You can use either for
friction shifting.

Best,
Larry

In article ,
"Peter Howard" wrote:

Question One: Just to make sure, I'm asking if there should be anything
special about housing used for non-indexed shifters or can I use the normal
good quality plastic lined housing I keep in bulk for brake cables?

Friction shifters offer stepless control of derailleur position.
However positional control is still at the shifter and not at the
derailleur. If you do not use the constant-length shift-specific cable
housing, any change in housing length will still deviate your preset
position, causing the derailleur to "chatter". Granted, that
misalignment can be easily fixed by micro-shifting the friction shifter
(unlike indexed systems), but why not use the right housing?

Question Two: The rims are from Velocity and the front one has a slight
irregularity on the braking surface where the splice is. It's not a step,
just a slightly raised roughness. This manifests itself as a tick-tick-tick
every time it goes past the brake shoes. Should I attack this irregularity
with emery cloth or should I ignore it?

Either is fine. My preference would be to sand it smooth (because I
don't ride much in rain) because I would be annoyed by the noise.

"Peter Howard" wrote in message
...

Question One: Just to make sure, I'm asking if there should be anything
special about housing used for non-indexed shifters or can I use the
normal good quality plastic lined housing I keep in bulk for brake
cables?

Brake cable housing is fine. Shifters always used spiral wound housing until
the advent of indexed gearing.

Question Two: The rims are from Velocity and the front one has a slight
irregularity on the braking surface where the splice is. It's not a step,
just a slightly raised roughness. This manifests itself as a
tick-tick-tick every time it goes past the brake shoes. Should I attack
this irregularity with emery cloth or should I ignore it?

Just ignore it and after a few weeks/months the brake blocks will do the
smoothing job for you.

Nick

In article ,
"Peter Howard" wrote:

I have just fitted friction barcons to one of my bikes. They are a new copy
of an original Suntour item and they work beautifully. When I first looked
at the cable housing supplied I thought "This isn't so hot!" because it was
ordinary spiral wound stuff like brake cable housing. On further reflection,
I figured out that non-indexed shifters don't need compressionless housing
because there isn't any precise adjustment of cable length that needs to be
preserved. That's a plus for me because I don't possess shears that will cut
compressionless housing. I use a Dremel cutting wheel and it is a tedious
pain to cut it square.

Question One: Just to make sure, I'm asking if there should be anything
special about housing used for non-indexed shifters or can I use the normal
good quality plastic lined housing I keep in bulk for brake cables?

All cable housing is suitable for friction shifters.

April 1st is the date of the Canberra, Australia Sheldon Brown Memorial
Ride. I can't be there because it's 1500 miles away but I commemorated
Sheldon in my own way last night by lacing up my first ever pair of bicycle
wheels. I was armed with a Park tensiometer and spoke key, a Minoura truing
stand and dish stick and a printed copy of Sheldons wheelbuilding
instructions. The wheels just fell together almost of their own accord and
came up true, and on the rear wheel correctly dished and with the expected
tension differential between DS and NDS. Time will tell, but I feel they're
pretty good for a first attempt.

Congratulations.

Question Two: The rims are from Velocity and the front one has a slight
irregularity on the braking surface where the splice is. It's not a step,
just a slightly raised roughness. This manifests itself as a tick-tick-tick
every time it goes past the brake shoes. Should I attack this irregularity
with emery cloth or should I ignore it?

Take it down with fine emery cloth.
You will be the happier for it.

--
Michael Press

On Mar 30, 6:11*am, "Peter Howard"
wrote:

Question Two: The rims are from Velocity and the front one has a slight
irregularity on the braking surface where the splice is. It's not a step,
just a slightly raised roughness. This manifests itself as a tick-tick-tick
every time it goes past the brake shoes. Should I attack this irregularity
with emery cloth or should I ignore it?

Park rim joint cloth, #500 grit.

"Peter Howard" wrote in message
...
had some snipped questions.

Thanks to all for the replies re friction shifter housing. I think I saw a
general consensus emerging.

BTW, the problem with roughness at the rim splice causing braking noise
cured itself in two days with no intervention from me.

Peter H.