Sources of bulk-ish brake and gear cables please..

[wafter]

I've got a few possible cable replacements on the horizon; possibly on the Fuji as well as on a mate's bike.

If possible I'd prefer to go with bulk-ish rolls of brake and gear outers since quantity is usually cheaper and less wasteful as you don't end up with little short bits you can't use). I'm after unlined stuff as I want to run it with waxed inners and am after lengths of maybe 5-10m..? A few suppliers do bulk boxes of cable but we're talking 30 or 40m which I doubt I'd get through in a lifetime. It's also a bit of a nightmare distinguishing decent quality stuff and identifying what's lined and what's plain.. so I'd welcome any guidance anyone has please

I'm also looking to source some cables inners separately (partially because I want to carry one of each as a spare without having to spend more on a section of redundant outer if buying a kit), but this seems more straightforward with some ebay sellers flogging multiples of shimano items for seemingly reasonable money.

Ta

 

[Johnsop99]

I use Hopkinson cycles on ebay. They do various quantities of cables at a reasonable price with efficient delivery. I normally buy packs of 10 at a time. Hopkinsoncycles

 

[wafter]

I use Hopkinson cycles on ebay. They do various quantities of cables at a reasonable price with efficient delivery. I normally buy packs of 10 at a time. Hopkinsoncycles

Thanks - appreciate you taking the time to provide a link too

As it happens I recently bought some brake blocks from them.. do you know if they do unlined gear shift cables or if this is even a thing? I know you can get unliked brake cables but the construction of gear cables might be less conducive to this..

 

[roley poley]

try fibrax they have an interesting range of cable reels and are uk based with an informative web site

 

[wafter]

try fibrax they have an interesting range of cable reels and are uk based with an informative web site

Thanks - they seem well-priced; perhaps I'll try one of their kits before taking the plunge on any larger quantities - although realistically what they have to offer might still be a lot more than I'll ever get through..

 

[Gunk]

Are you really buying that many? I just get them as I need them for all my rebuilds from Decathlon ( I keep one full set of brake and gear inners and a couple of metres of outer cables as spares) , they‘re not expensive. Problem with buying in bulk is that you end up with tons of stuff in the garage or shed that you’ll never use. I keep some useful spares but try to limit it, as it can border on hoarding.

During the pandemic I offloaded nearly £2500 of a lifetime of bike bits that I’d collected that I was never going to use again. one or two items I probably should have kept, but most of it I don’t miss.

 

[Juan Kog]

@Gunk i can see a side line to your bike renovating, counselling other bike “ bits” hoarders on offloading there collection.

 

[wafter]

Are you really buying that many? I just get them as I need them for all my rebuilds from Decathlon ( I keep one full set of brake and gear inners and a couple of metres of outer cables as spares) , they‘re not expensive. Problem with buying in bulk is that you end up with tons of stuff in the garage or shed that you’ll never use. I keep some useful spares but try to limit it, as it can border on hoarding.

During the pandemic I offloaded nearly £2500 of a lifetime of bike bits that I’d collected that I was never going to use again. one or two items I probably should have kept, but most of it I don’t miss.

Tbh I'm coming round to the idea that bulk out might not be viable. I can get sensible multiples of cable inners easily enough, however outers seem to be split between quantities intended for a single bike and tens of metres intended for workshop use. Ideally I'd like maybe 5m of known-good stuff that I can just tuck away so it's on hand should I need it in future.

I could probably get any length I wanted from the LBS as he has everything on the reel, however prices (which of course are one big motivating factor) are somewhat "uncomprimising" and what I'd pay there for a few metres would no doubt buy me a lot more elsewhere.

After more fiddling yesterday I've come to the conclusion that the RD cable on the Fuji is toast and I want to get that sorted ASAP so might just bite the bullet and get a couple of kits for mine and my mate's bikes. I think the Fuji is going to need a tandem set thanks to the length required by its bar end shifters..

 

[wafter]

So... predictably on the day I'd hoped to spend re-cabling my bike, I'm still say here with my head up my arse having ordeded nowt

If it's of any use to anyone else I've spoken to the two leading budget UK suppliers (Fibrax, Clarke) and neither supply unlined brake or gear cables. I did consider the potential to remove liners, but this might bring its own set of issues.

It occured to me that brake cables probably see much greater tensile loading / movement than gear cables, so there's more incentive to avoid liners in this application.

I did find some very well priced Fibrax outer gear cable on ebay at around £0.75 per metre for 4m+, plus postage.. however a mate recently bought a complete Shimano gear cable set for £7.50 so these seem less splendid when the cost of inners is accounted for...

In summary it looks like I'll have to go with lined cables regardless; it's just a case of choosing appropriate sources and it's difficult to identify the best value solution between complete kits and outers / inners sourced separately..

 

[Gunk]

Why unlined?

 

[wafter]

Why unlined?

Rightly or wrongly I get the impression that it might last longer, as liner degradation seems to be what kills a lot of cables.

Probably a moot point anyway since all I can find is lined!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Can’t remember where but I bought 5m of cable outer a few years back. Still working through it when I replace cables.