Repalce broken derailleur cable

[brickisred]

Found out last night my rear derailleur cable has frayed inside the shifters ...bah!.

Explains why gears had gone from always smooth reliable shifting to gradually getting worse no matter what I adjusted. Was trying to sort last night when the derailleur stopped shifting completely, then noticed inside the Ultegra flight deck the frayed wires poking out.

I've never changed cables before on a decent bike (only on my Grifter when I was a kid!) but will have a go tonight if I can get to a bike shop in time to get a cable.

Some questions I have -
Reading up on forums and Shimano pdfs I need an inner cable only and need to feed through from the shifter once I've removed the old one. I struggled last night I see how to get in to do this. I understand need to shift to highest gear and pull brake but could not see much (garage was a bit dingy by now!)

Bike is a 2009 Focus Mares Expert with Ultegra shifters and derailleur (outer cable is Jagwire?)

Any pointers would really help!

 

[Alien8]

Personally, for best performance, I'd always replace the cable inner and outer unless it's on my hack bike.

 

[brickisred]

Should say Bike is a 2010 Focus Mares Expert not sure what model Ultegra shifters they are

Will be a few days or more befor I can get replacement cable kit so looking to replace the inner cable for now

 

[PatrickPending]

my handy tip is to use a cable tie to keep the brake lever pulled in. The gear cable goes in from the side - being shimano, as its frayed and broken - hence wont push out ( I assime) you may need to use long nosed pliers to get the nipple out, or push it out from the other side,

 

[GazK]

The trick is to undo the quick release on both brake callers - allows the levers to be pulled right out for easy access

 

[MacB]

It's quite straight forward, definitely release brake calipers, makes life easier. Then release cable at derailler and pull through. First time my biggest concern was threading through the new inner, thankfully it was a smooth process. The only tricky bit is getting cable tension right for gear changes. If you haven't got one then a 'thrid hand' tool is a revelation. As a kid I always did this bit with pliers and a bit of creativity, the proper tool really makes it easy.

I find the videos on bicycle tutor to be really good and clear:-

http://bicycletutor.com/

 

[brickisred]

Sorted now, thanks for responses anyway. Problem was the mess of broken strands making it difficult to see how the cable sat, but managed to remove with some poking arround with tweezers.
Temporary fix with cheap clarks inner cable, took advice on replacing outer as well. Thought I would have to wait till after weekend for delivery of new cable set but wiggle delivered in less than 24 hrs! Now back to smooth gear changes!