Bicycle Mechanics - Lubing Cables

My bike has been sitting all winter in my kitchen and I want to go for a ride today. I don't have any cash to take it to the LBS so I adjusted the brakes, made sure it was shifting good and lubed the chain. One thing I have never taken good care of is my cables. I have some extra dry chain lube, should I just spray a little in the ends of my housing or is there a better product to be used? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it's easier and cheaper if I can do stuff like this myself.

Thanks,

Mike

Poke,

You can try your Extra Dry (I beleieve the bottle says it can be used on cables as well as chain and pivot points.) I like to use something like Finish Line Cross Country or Phil Wood Tenacious Oil on cables. I usually lube mine when they are installed and take care of them again when I change them. Throwing some lube down the housings probably wouldn't hurt in your case. If your housings are already dirty, it might not do much. Changing out housings and cables (escpecially if it has been a while since the last time) is an easy and somewhat inexpensive job. Most internet sites and every repair book will include a section on replacing cables and fitting housings correctly.

-Moab

You can also usually pick up the housing and cable for 3-5$ total for the regular. I use Finish Line chain lube and it works well. Moab is right this is a fairly easy job to do. Another thing to try is pull all the cables out and clean them throroughly and then reinstall them using the lube.

Without unhooking anything you can take your housings loose from their stops and slide them up and down the cables to check for wear or rust.
Shift up on to the biggest ring or cog and then, without turning the pedals, shift back down. This will give you plenty of slack to get the housings loose.
If they are rusty/corroded and you still don't want to replace them, sand them with a bit of emory cloth and then lube them with something light.
I prefer to run my stuff dry as it does not attact dirt and just change the cables/housings every couple thousand miles.

If you are using lined housing there is no need to lube the cables. If you are using standard housing then by all means lube away!

Thanks for the good tips and info. Also, can any of you recommend a good repair book that’s worth purchasing?

This place is great. :beer:

I use Bicycling Magazine's 'Complete Guide to Bibycle Maintenance and Repair' and Haynes 'Bibycle Book'. These both have plenty of photos, which I like.
There is also Barnetts Manuals at the top of this section of the forum, and Sheldon Brown's site at:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/