Originally Posted by
PhilFo
If the cable has the fixed soldered tips on both lever and caliper ends, you could just buy new whole cable assemblies or even have them made. I wouldn't want to risk my safety just because of the look of a 70+ year old cable. Going back to the original question, of the cable needs lube, that means somewhere in that housing it is almost certainly worn, maybe not enough to fray, but is that worth it? Compound that probably worn cable with the extra force you are going to need to use because the pads are also 70 years old, and you may just miss that stop sign or stoplight, at the wrong moment. Maybe this is just a display bike? Just my $.02.
Phil
Warnings appreciated, but I went over the inner cables when I had them stripped down, and there are no abrasions, hard creases, thinned strands, or other signs of mechanical breakdown. Same for the outer cables. Remember, steel doesn't "go bad" with age, it goes bad with corrosion (if it is carbon steel), creasing (weakness due to metal fatigue) and chemical corrosion due perhaps to acid. I think there is just dirt on the cables, perhaps due to haphazard lubrication which dried on the surface. They inner cables are getting a little Park grease, and the outer cables will have a little Finish Line synthetic oil dribbled in.
I wish I had all the original ferrules, or at least a full set of well-fitting ends, but other than that I think they are mechanically pretty good. I am not racing this bike or descending the Rockies. I was worried about the original levers, but it turned out they are bent in odd places, and don't clamp the bars well. The Balilla I'm replacing them with are not bent or dented, but they are very lightweight. But again, they are near new, in-period and I am not riding PBP with them.
If you didn't spend your teen and pre-teen years making-do with ancient and questionable bikes, I can understand the worry about my approach, if taken by the general public. But I do have those experiences, and survived. On steel rims, yet!