Originally Posted by
northcave
I have an Airnimal folding bike. Since the bike folds the casing is in one section all the way from the drops bars to the brakes and gears. I've found that after a while the cable gets sticky in the housing and makes the brakes take 2-3 seconds to relax back to their original position. Also it makes shifting gears sometimes delayed.
Is there a casing / housing which is particularly good and what sort of lube should I use to prevent it from eventually getting sticky?
The cable and housing could be gummed up and you would have to pull the cable and clean the cable and housing with solvent and Relube with the proper lube as stated above. What happened to me when a Derailleur was dragging, was one single strand of the cable frayed up inside the housing and was twisted around the cable rubbing against the housing causing it to drag. Either way you would have to pull the cable out of the housing and find out what is going on. Since you will have the cable out, they are relatively cheap, change the cable with a high quality cable, thoroughly flush the housing, I like CRC Red Brake Cleaner with a straw, and Relube both with one of the products recommended above that won't gum up. When you are finished use one of those little crimp lugs on the cable end to keep it from fraying to at least keep it from sticking your fingers. Thanks,mjac.