Finishing cables..

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wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
I know the usual approach is to cut to length and crimp on cable ends, however I'm less keen as this usually requires cutting them off if the cable inner needs to be removed for any reason.

I've read of soldering the ends to prevent them fraying; however I've not had much success with this (maybe I'm doing it wrong).

I'm interested to hear any thoughts or experiences the good folk of CC might have on this subject - ta :smile:
 

roley poley

Veteran
Location
leeds
I use spoke nipples on the cable ends and find them easy to pull off gripping the head with pliers...still need to trim a few mill of splay at times
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I'm interested to hear any thoughts or experiences the good folk of CC might have on this subject - ta :smile:

I once didn't have a cable end available after fitting a new cable but I wanted to go out on the bike so I just hopped on and set off with the end of the cable unprotected. Within an hour the sharp cable ended up stabbing one of my legs...

So, my vote is to use the cable ends! :laugh:
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
My approach to OP's dilemma is to leave a new cable a cm long before crimping on a cable end. Then if one needs to remove and rethread a clean snip will leave a nice tight end, which may need a bit of fingertip twisting care.
As it happens I have just done this to replace front and rear (rim) brakes, but using the in-place cables.
A bit of bending sometimes required to make sure there's no interference caused by the FD cable end eg catching shoe/crank.
 

presta

Guru
If you pinch the nipple across the opposite axis to the one you crimped it on, it'll open back up, and you can just take it off again. Soft solder won't take to stainless steel.
 

T4tomo

Legendary Member
My approach to OP's dilemma is to leave a new cable a cm long before crimping on a cable end. Then if one needs to remove and rethread a clean snip will leave a nice tight end, which may need a bit of fingertip twisting care.
As it happens I have just done this to replace front and rear (rim) brakes, but using the in-place cables.
A bit of bending sometimes required to make sure there's no interference caused by the FD cable end eg catching shoe/crank.
^^this
and this:
cable ends and you can use a nice colour for the bike.
plus matching valve caps!
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
I leave a couple of inches of cable showing so that should I need to remove the cable for any reason there is enough spare to nip off the cable end if it won't pull off.
 

chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
Whilst I completely concur with the responses above and also leave my cables slightly long to allow for future possible fettling, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket you could always purchase some cable cherries :whistle::

Screenshot 2022-09-28 at 10.27.48.png


Removable cable end crimps, available in a variety of colours from this site:

https://foragercycles.com/collections/cable-cherries/products/cable-cherries
 
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