Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
After I'd broken a FD cable (and it had broken a strand already) 65k into a 600, I started carrying a cable (again). But a wise man (OTP) said "if you think it's worth carrying a spare cable, replace the cable before the ride and don't carry it as a spare".
On my 600 (BCM) I screwed the lower limit screw up to fix the chain on the middle ring, removed the broken cable, rode on the 60k to Rhayader (Clive Powell Mountain Bikes - just west of the town centre) bought a cable, fitted it and rode on.
One can procure cables with the correct head one end and a secure end the other. No cutting required, and no requirement to carry cable cutters.Reasons were that, breaking a cable is an extremely rare occurrence.
If I want to replace a cable, I need to cut the ends. This is because, two ends have diffrdiff "heads" to fit different brake types.
On my 600 (BCM) I screwed the lower limit screw up to fix the chain on the middle ring, removed the broken cable, rode on the 60k to Rhayader (Clive Powell Mountain Bikes - just west of the town centre) bought a cable, fitted it and rode on.
As @Dogtrousers has observed, on the modern STIs (cable routed along handlebars) right by the head, inside the STI, seems the most usual point of failure. One cannot inspect this without unclamping at the derailleur and subsequently redoing the tension/indexing, which is a pain if it's set up just right.If you haven't spotted a fraying cable