Classic & Vintage - A History of Colored Brake Cable Housing?

"Campagnolo gray" seems to be the most common choice for "period correct" re-builds around these parts, but I do, on occasion see a much older bike with a color-coordinated brake cable housing (red, yellow, etc.) This leads me to the following questions:
When did colored housings become available? And when were they most popular? Were they ever more prominant (in the pro peloton or at the local level)that good ol' Campy gray? If so, was this a passing fad? Or has there always been a small percentage of folks who chose to personalize their bikes in
this fashion?
And speaking of fashion, what was the color of choice in the mid-80's, just before brake cable routing became aero? I ask because I am rebuilding a buddy's 84/85 Pinarello Montello. I think Campy gray will look best, contrasting the black Ambrosio Bike Ribbon...but perhaps black is "right"?

Grey? Black? Where's your sense of adventure? :p Post pictures and then we'll help you decide. You'll easily have a dozen possibilities by the end of the day. And we'll suggust bar tape color, Brooks saddle possibilities, fender options, etc., etc. ;) We enjoy designing other people's bikes!

My very first exposure to colored cable housing... other than gray, black, white or clear was on a mid eighties Huffy Omni-10, it was blue. Blue frame, housing, seat, bar tape and tires. Ugh, did I mention it was cheap too.

IMHO, colored housing either looks cheap or spot on no middle ground. YMMV

OEM & aftermarket coloured housings have been fairly popular ever since the mid 70's ( esp by the bmx market) and remained so until after the advent of indexing. nearly all early brake and derailleur housings utilised a spiral wound wire core construction which exhibited too much compression to be suitable for the newer indexed systems. as indexing took over the market, and each component manufacturer began specifying their own dedicated cable and housing products for proper performance, the demand all but evaporated for aftermarket cable goods and with them, their coloured housing options.
fwiw- atm, i personally use a shimano sante' pearl brake housing on one bike to match its white benotto cello handlebar tape. I had to purchase a complete NOS sante' brakeset to get them and then sold off the brakeset sans cables.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/caterham1700/derosa012.jpg

...what was the color of choice in the mid-80's, just before brake cable routing became aero?
... I am rebuilding a buddy's 84/85 Pinarello Montello.

Campy white ,of course

http://www.bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/pinarello85/4.jpg

when I originally built up my derosa in the early 80s I used yellow housing to match the yellow benotto cello tape. My ex's custom with the radical fade had white cable to match the white benotto tape. IIRC it was the in thing to do, at least in my neck of the woods

The color on 75% of the bikes I find from the mid 80's is clear. Followed closely by white. Every once in a while I find one with blue or yellow, but not very often. Black is boring on most bikes. Fortunately some bike shops are beginning to figure this out finally, after a decade of only stocking black.,,,,BD

seems to me that the colour of the bike largely determined what colour housing was used- even the manufacturers went so far as selling special coloured cables as OEM contrasting for various paint schemes & models within their lines.

for example-black bikes usually received yellow,red or white housings, silver bikes got red, blue or black, blue bikes got black,white or yellow, green bikes were often fitted with brown /tan or yellow, red bikes with black, white, yellow, or silver, etc.
there was even one company that did 2 & 3 colour candy-striped housings and many did metallics, translucents, clears and later, neons.
and of course, bianchi had a celeste .

By the 1980s, fancy pantographing and detailing of some bikes had gotten very dramatic, and there were quite a few color options available, but they were mostly for aftermarket application. I know by the early 1980s I had seen quite a few very high-end Italian bikes with dramatic cable colors to match decals and graphics (DeRosa comes to mind, right away). And of course on the commercially sponsored racing teams they also made some effort to match all the bikes to the company preferred colors.

Peugeot was very fond of white housing during the 1970s, and my black with red Motobecane Grand Record originally had red housings. Otherwise, Black, Gray (Silver) or simply Clear transparent plastic (which quickly yellowed) were the most common colors I recall seeing.

Here is a page from a 1986 Dia-Compe Catalog showing a whole crayola box worth of available housing colors. I'd really love to find some of those hues!

BIG Image Here (http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/d/158952-4/Page+28.jpg)

http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/d/158954-6/Page+28.jpg

In the 1960s, everything was either gray, white, or Campagnolo unsheathed stainless. I first noticed black on ca. 1970 Japanese bikes. I started buying and using color-keyed (mostly red) cable housing in the early 1970s. For the bikes with Campagnolo derailleurs, unsheathed stainless is the obvious choice for the gear cables.

I currently run white brake cables on the two ca. 1960 bikes and black on the three 1970s and 1980s bikes, all of which seem historically accurate. Red might be fun on Capo #2 or the Peugeot, but I do not even know where to look for it.

My 87 panasonic came with pink housing before I made it a fixie.

...Red might be fun on Capo #2 or the Peugeot, but I do not even know where to look for it.

John,

Red is not hard to find;

http://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi?d=single&c=Cable/Casing&sc=Brake%20Casing&tc=&item_id=LS-9172AC&id=5797974359
http://www.loosescrews.com/Product_Images/LS-9172AC.jpg

being chromatically challenged I never thought there was a need
for more than black white or grey.
However I do recall seeing mulihued housing mid to late 70's.
but then I saw lots of multi hued things in the 70's but thats another
story
Marty

Campy white ,of course

http://www.bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/pinarello85/4.jpg

Don't get me wrong, I love colored housing as much as the next guy. I searched the world for the right shade of "golden yellow" for my '83 Tommasini and built my girlfriend's '72 Hugh Porter with red.
And while I am a big fan of 80's bikes, NO white bar wrap, saddles or housing for this guy!...
The saddle and bar wrap on the Montello are both black. So my question is, would either gray or black have been the more common choice for replacement in 1985?

black- gray was soooo 'out' by then ;)


http://www.bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/pinarello85/7.jpg

"And we'll suggust bar tape color, Brooks saddle possibilities, fender options, etc., etc." QUOTE.

"PASTORBOB" !

"FENDER OPTIONS", on a Pinarello Montello?!

Have some mercy!


Regards,
J T

(LOL)

John, Red is not hard to find; ... Yup, I should have checked this source. Thanks, Reverend!

I tend to match my cable housing to my bar tape, which is matched to the logo of the bike.

Not sure about the history of this though..

yellow was popular in the 70s.

I wish the clear were still available, myself. What, was it shown to cause cancer?

"And we'll suggust bar tape color, Brooks saddle possibilities, fender options, etc., etc." QUOTE.

"PASTORBOB" !

"FENDER OPTIONS", on a Pinarello Montello?!

Have some mercy!


Regards,
J T

(LOL)

Ya did see my winky smilie? ;););)

"Have some mercy!" MY QUOTE/YOUR QUOTE.

Mercy, mercy, mercy me!

You are forgiven Teacher. (I hope that I am!)


Regards,
J T

I must be going to the wrong bike shops. Everytime I ask for a cable housing they quote Henry Ford during his model T years, "Any color you want as long as its black".

"Have some mercy!" MY QUOTE/YOUR QUOTE.

Mercy, mercy, mercy me!

You are forgiven Teacher. (I hope that I am!)


Regards,
J T

Mercy, grace, love, compasion, understanding, redemption, and all of the above! :beer:

When I needed just the right shade of green cable housing, I bought a can of Krylon rattle can spray paint and painted some black housing. I gave it two coats and let it dry for several days. Although I rarely rode the bike, the paint held up fine for two years (then I sold the bike). The worse that can happen is you are out a few bucks for housing and paint.

I wish the clear were still available, myself. What, was it shown to cause cancer?



You can get the cool braided brake cables with clear housing here. A lot of other colors too.

http://velo-orange.com/caandho.html

On a lot of bikes where it would be hard to accurately match any of the colors, I like to just use the modern silver (light gray?) from QBP/Jagwire. It blends nicely with any alloy components so it doesn't seem "add" and additional colors to the picture. I think this was the basic idea Campagnolo had with their early gray housings too.

My early 1960s Legnano came with green housing that was color matched to the frame.

jagwire seems to be the place to find nearly any color you want. they even have a nice gold.

more here: http://animalbikes.com/products/hard-goods/cables?album=4&gallery=55&pid=001

Never thought of Krylon. They make that flexible "fusion" paint specifically for plastic now, so I suppose it would be a simple matter to spray bomb some cable housing. Brilliant!

Here are some time points for cable housing colors:

1) 1955 Ron Kitching's "Everything Cycling" catalogue: silver, red, bordeaux, light blue,
petrol blue, green, yellow, white, orange, violet

2) 1952 Brown Brothers catalogue: silver, red, blue, green, yellow, black, white

3) 1952 Holdsworth Aids to Happy Cycling catalogue: silver, red, blue, green, yellow, black, white

4) 1949 Holdsworth Aids to Happy Cycling catalogue: silver, red, blue, green

5) 1939 Brown Brothers catalogue: black, silver

cambria bikes has a ton of colors made by jagwire, i'm really liking the clear housing with gold spiral inside.

Certainly in the 50s and 60s there was colored housing; you can tell the old stuff cause its usually textured. In the 70s color was still quite popular, though now smooth; yellow for Italian hot rods, I used blue, others used red; really, you just chose what spiffed up your bike. Like bar tape, you might change the color when it needed to be replaced. Gray was the standard for Campagnolo brakes because their cables were slightly larger diameter; I think the black came later.

Like the ad stronglight posted, EVERYTHING used to come in colors to coordinate to your bike: tape, shift lever and brake lever covers, bar end plugs, cable housing, pumps, toe straps and buttons, and cool little plastic cable clamps I pickup on ebay now and then. Velox plugs were in many colors, as were Mafac half hoods.

My early 1960s Legnano came with green housing that was color matched to the frame.


Yes, never saw that available separately, but maybe it was like Bianchi Celeste.

... Bianchi Celeste.

Now there's an idea for cable housing coloration. :)

I wonder how Celeste tape and cable housing would look on my brown Bianchi, which already has a Celeste Reparto Corse water bottle.

Bianchi Celeste.

Hey, it was made and its out there somewhere... I got some through a Bianchi dealer years ago, for a Bianchi I had repainted Celeste. I found a seat, bar tape, cable housing, a pump AND toe straps in Celeste...

I bought a roll of lavendar cable housing on ebay a few years ago, just cause I had never seen it before...

You want actual Bianchi Celeste 232? Here you go - though I have since retired it:

http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp323/nagognog/IMG_0341.jpg

Although Black brake cable housing probably looks better onmy Paramount, I changed to Campagnolo gray housing only because that's thecolor I saw on a '70's Paramount in a Schwinn advertisement picture.

I know this is a 5 year old thread. :thumb:

I bought some NOS cable and housing with grey plastic covering on it that were supposedly made by CLB. It does not have any plastic inner liner and has a steel casing "spring" that is round in section instead of the rectangular section casing springs we are familiar with from the 80's and later. Would this brake casing of mine be from sometime in the 70's or earlier? I'm thinking of using it on my 1972 project bike, but i'm sondering if the cable casing atually comes from much earlier than 1972. When did the cable casings with rectangular section springs in them first come out??

Chombi