How long does your cable's last

[Blue Hills]

OK I'll bite (and am with @Dogtrousers and @Ming the Merciless here).
If not secured (crimped) properly, yes they can come off.
"Hell of a job"? ". . . near impossible to get one of those crush-on caps on the end."
Relay the cable strands with fingertips. The hole in a cable end is 50+% larger than the cable diameter. Poke it! If a challenge: cut a few mm off, to a 'clean' end'.
Cable ends are best bought 10 at a time at your LBS. How many are you likely to 'get through' in a year (personal use)?
How do you decide when gear cables are "past their best"?

>>If a challenge: cut a few mm off, to a 'clean' end'.
often not a lot to cut - on many of my bikes the cables have to be cut very short beyond the clamp in the first place to avoid interferebce with other bits of the bike/me.

>>How do you decide when gear cables are "past their best"?
Fraying the business end of the clamping point.** Or now and again when I replace the outers because of issues.

** never again will I ignore this after once having to ride to a fixed time train in the small front ring as a cable had bust/detached.

 

[ColinJ]

Fraying the business end of the clamping point.** Or now and again when I replace the outers because of issues.

** never again will I ignore this after once having to ride to a fixed time train in the small front ring as a cable had bust/detached.

Or perhaps suffer what I did, which was to stab my right calf with the frayed end of a front mech cable - it didn't go in far, but it hurt a lot!

 

[presta]

My rear gear cables last between 4000-10,000m, typically 6500m. Others 20,000+. I've been known to recycle rear brake cables at the front if they're frayed at the clamp not the nipple.

 

[Blue Hills]

My rear gear cables last between 4000-10,000m, typically 6500m. Others 20,000+. I've been known to recycle rear brake cables at the front if they're frayed at the clamp not the nipple.

top tip there.
(not being sarky)

I do have a few brake cables spare - though not a workshop box - they sure do last - part of the reason I gave up on hydraulics.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I think FD cables succumb to fraying, caused by repeated clamping, rather than rear ones. Because, unless you install an inline barrel adjuster, the only way to adjust the front cable is by clamping, trial and reclamping till 'right'. At the rear you can get it about right and tweak to perfect with the RD cable adjustment barrel.
This reduces the opportunity to shorten a rear cable and repurpose on the front (see my post #7 ^^^ from 10 days ago).

 

[DCBassman]

Usually until I mess with the bike and have to cut them off...
I've never worn one out.

 

[Blue Hills]

I think FD cables succumb to fraying, caused by repeated clamping, rather than rear ones. Because, unless you install an inline barrel adjuster, the only way to adjust the front cable is by clamping, trial and reclamping till 'right'. At the rear you can get it about right and tweak to perfect with the RD cable adjustment barrel.
This reduces the opportunity to shorten a rear cable and repurpose on the front (see my post #7 ^^^ from 10 days ago).

good point - I don't think you get any attempts to reclamp a mech clamp point "long" - ie you can only really shorten.
Some RD mechs don't of course have their own adjuster so it's at the "trigger" or nowt. God knows why that was ever felt to be a good idea/simplification.

 

[DCBassman]

Because, unless you install an inline barrel adjuster

Ah, barrel adjusters! The Scott has 3, the mixte 5! This courtesy of Rapidfire shifters on both, and inline adjusters where the downtube shifters would have been on the mixte. My bikes live in adjustment nirvana.

 

[T4tomo]

Ah, barrel adjusters! The Scott has 3, the mixte 5! This courtesy of Rapidfire shifters on both, and inline adjusters where the downtube shifters would have been on the mixte. My bikes live in adjustment nirvana.

I'm not that bad, but i think there are two on the OH's Gravel bike as it had none so I popped a couple in when converting it back the drop bars and re-cabling. Makes setting up FD much easier.

 

[Venod]

I think FD cables succumb to fraying, caused by repeated clamping

I can't recall ever changing a front cable, I have changed several rears, because of wear in the shifter end (STI) I don't know how many miles I get out of a cable, but it's lot.