I had a bike shop replace my front derailleur wire. There are two types of bike shop in Japan. Those that service shoppers and those that cater to road bikers. The former are very cheap, the latter very expensive. The gear wire (inner and outer) replacement was 15USD including wire. I want to go and give them a present.
The wire replacement required the removal of my bar tape and 'drop tube' (my name for road bike handlebar padding) which split when being pushed back on. I used some more Chinese bar grip covers from aliexpress at less than 1 USD again to replace it. I will get another two more grips for symmetry.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2Pc-...311.0.0.lriDr7
Drop Tube Replaced with Chinese Grips by
Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
I just don't know how I managed to cycle 10 years without padding my handlebars. I got the idea because my local road-bike-related bike shop charged me 16USD for some paper thin bar tape.
I still have not sourced some padding for the hoods. The yellow grips are a bit too smooth. The stripey red ones above are a bit too short (10.5cm - I need 13cm)