Originally Posted by
joeyduck
Just out of curiosity why did you not feel safe on the Fuji?
Cables and housings are just about the easiest and cheapest things to change and they can be a great starting point to make a bike feel nicer. It improves shifting if there is anything in the housing causing friction which may slow shifting or cause mis-shifts. It ensures brakes rebound and pull smooth and evenly.
As far as the older fuji bike, the brakes are really stiff, the gears where not the original and it didn't shift well and did miss shift from time to time. Plus it only had 9 speeds. My brother who bikes a lot called it the "Frankin Bike" since it was a nice frame, but they put really cheap parts on it from 10 different manufactures and basically just rode it to the ground. It was a good bike to determine if I like riding, but that's about it. As a matter of fact it's probably going on Craigslist tonight.
As far as changing the cables and housing I think I'm going to try and do that soon. How do I know what parts to order or what parts I need? I already picked up some handlebar tape since it's currently hanging off, but I think I'm just going to hold off until I get the cable parts and do them all at once.
Thanks all for the feedback and tips!