That picture was a bike that was all-campy original, so I suspect that particular cable was campy as well. When you say 'friction only' is that because it's too compressible for the accuracy needs of indexing?

I have one of them that's been in my parts box for many years and I don't recall what it came with or from where. Certainly not my 10-speed Campy or 8 and above speed Shimano groups. Perhaps Sun Tour from the mid-'80's. It's only 170 mm (~6-1/2") long end-to-end including the ferrules so it's too short to be used on any newer frame I have. I don't know why I've kept it except as a curiosity.

Good point, Campy also used that housing some, though I believe it was larger in diameter than the SunTour housing.
Yes, its too compressible to be used for indexing. Its really just a bunch of coiled stainless steel. I have some of the SunTour housing sitting in a drawer and its really odd to see when compared to current stiff compressionless housing and even comparatively stiff older compression shifting housing. Its like a wet noodle and just flops all over.

its round stainless steel wire rolled into a coil .. part of the flexibility .. brake housing is square wire ..

BITD the SS housing was Un lined too .. braided steel cables were really flexible too.


friction shifting required rider attention to task at hand,

now the index schemes reduces that.. people want virtually automatic shifting like their cars, I guess..

the engineers want you to buy it at least so thats what they make.

Anyone tried PowerCordz or other non metallic cable? It seems like an interesting idea. Do they work for indexed shifting?

Can the braided housing be cut to length the same way standard compressionless housing can be?

-j

I believe so.

I had no problem with the rear derailleur cable install and setup. Well, I also still have Ultegra 9-spd so the derailleur cables exit out the side of the brifters. So combining that with the stiffer brake cables helped cause the slight steering "stiffness".

Index shift housing seems to come in two sizes. Which do I want for what?

I'm used to 5mm spiral for brakes, and 4mm compressionless for shifters (with all the strands of wire running straight down the housing, you see wire-ends in a circle when you cut it)

I'm referring to the compressionless for shifters that comes in two sizes.

I've been using generic stainless cables off of E-Bay for $1 to $2 each.

I also have generic bulk cable housing, both twisted, and linear wire, with plastic or teflon liner, but the the jury is still out on that.

Then 4mm is normal/usual, and 5mm is abnormal/unusual, a.k.a. I don't know what situations would call for it.

Me neither but they both seem pretty common.

...I use a lot of the 5mm indexing housing on complete rebuilds, which include all new housing/cables. A lot of the 70's and older bikes I work on (especially the ones with friction shifting) just look odd to me with two different sizes of housing. So for me it's mostly aesthetics, but you do run into situations where the 5mm better fits into a braze on or other fitting for the housing run.

Certainly on friction stuff, you can substitute the 5mm spiral wound stuff, but the compressionless stuff shifts more crisply, and cable housing is not a huge expense anyway.