I recently took my bike to a mechanic to have it checked up before spring, so I can ride when the weather's finally good.
They are telling me that I should get cable housing changed, 'cause it's messing up my shifting. I've read that incorrect housing length can have negative effects, but that's not what they're saying is wrong. They say my housing is of inferior quality and want to talk me into buying some pricey stuff. I can't help feeling like I'm being ripped off. It didn't feel like anything was wrong with it and I've checked prices for cable housing online and it seems to be one of the cheapest parts ever.
Can you guys tell me, if this can really affect my shifting or am I being scammed?

Cable housing absolutely CAN affect performance. In fact I'd say it's the most probable thing affecting your shifting if it's not shifting correctly. Most bikes shop sell it for a few $ per foot. I generally replace mine once a year, more if the shifting starts acting up.

It can hugely affect shifting but the biggest thing is simply aging and dirt not the housing quality. If the cable is simply inexpensive it would be of no consequence but if it is old and frayed internally or dirty or worn inside the cable housing it can absolutely be an issue. Better than a very expensive set of cables changed infrequently is simple, inexpensive cabling that is changed somewhat regularly (each season?). Worn cabling housing can show itself by becoming more difficult to change gears, particularly up front where it requires more pressure to go from a small chainring to a large one and an even bigger clue can be a failure to fall down to a smaller, harder cog in the rear. The solution does not need to be expensive cabling. The difference between new, basic cabling and very expensive high end cabling is pretty darned small for most people. Proper routing with proper lengths of good, decent cables should be all that is required even if your cables are old. I would not bother popping for super expensive stuff if money is a concern but if your cables are more than two years old you might well need new cable housing. Any good lined housing will be fine. If you have -any- visible kinks...areas that show they are not a nice easy curve...then you know for sure it's time to change them. You can try a drop or two of light oil on the cables...there are videos that will show you how to release the tension on the cables so you can move the housing around and oil the cable. Sometimes you can reuse the cables but most shops will recommend you just replace the cables with the housing. Don't buy the most expensive stuff around or the cheapest junk. Good housing with a slippery inside will be just fine for anyone but a serious racer. A good example of decent housing would be Jagwire Road Pro.... nothing special but it does have a teflon lining and will be just great. This is also something you can do yourself with minimal tools.

You don''t say what you are riding. If it's a bike from the '70s with down tube friction shifters, your mechanic is stretching the truth. If you have a modern bike with index shifting on the handlebars or brake levers, he is completely right. IN the old days of just 5 cogs spaced far apart and shifted by feel with shifters close to the derailleurs and almost no cable housing, shifting was not a precise operation. Using very mediocre cable housing that compressed real amounts was not a big issue. But now we have 9 to 11 closely spaced cogs, teeth and chains enabling the chain to jump onto and off of the cogs easily. And the shifters are twice as far away and have around 2 feet of cable housing with several significant bends. If that cable housing isn't allowing the cable to slide exactly as the shifter intends and the derailleur demands, the chain will not end up exactly over the intended cog. In the old days, that mattered little except making noise. Now you get delayed shifts, unintended shifts and even the chain wandering back and forth between cogs.

So, without seeing you bike, if it is a modern bike with index shifting, that mechanic is probably right on. Now, if our shifting is now perfect, wait a while. But be on the lookout for the misbehavior I mentioned.

You can replace your own cables. Buy good quality housing and cables. (Do this with new cables. You may be cutting the housing longer than the old to get the best big, gentle bends and the old cable will now be too short. Plus the cable is the regular replacement item here, No point of doing all this work and leaving an old one in there.) Tools needed are good cable cutters (bike specific like the Shimano ones are nice but not required), a sharpened spoke, a file and the appropriate hex wrenches. (3, 4 and 5 will probably do you.) Go on-line or to a bike coop to learn how to start the cable at the brake lever.

When you cut the housing, dress the housing ends with the file and stick the sharpened spoke in to bend the metal out of the way of the cable. (That bend can break cable strands quickly. A broken strand or two will really mess up the shifting.) These are all tricks you can see online or learn at the coop.

Ben

Thanks for the replies guys. It's a pretty old road bike with down tube shifters and relatively few gears. I think I have 2 cogs in front and 5ish in the back.
I'll get the housing and the cables changed, but probably in a different shop. They were telling me quality cable housing starts at 40 bucks and I should make the investment. I cycle for a hobby, mainly in the summer so I felt like that wasn't really my thing and you backed my suspicion.

I use Pedro's cable & housing cutters, and straighten out the housing openings with an old ice pick sharpened to a needle point. Works great.

Yes, housing is a wear item.

Better housing with a teflon lining goes high-friction quicker than older/lower quality unlined because the cable strands act like saw teeth, with the kerf pinching the cable for sluggish shifts to smaller cogs.

I get about 4000 miles (it goes high-friction around 4500) and 16-20 weeks out of lined rear shift housings with under bar-tape routing.

The better housing is supposed to be lower friction than unlined housing when brand-new, which makes it more tolerant of under bar-tape routing, and more accommodating of increased cog counts where the tighter spacing makes a slight hangup more likely to cause problems.

Rear loops also accumulate gunk and develop kinks.

Good lined shift housing is about $1 a foot for materials, with one foot required for the rear loop on a bike with down-tube shifters. Even running Campagnolo branded housing bought 660mm at a time you'd use $5 worth. Generic cables can be found for $1 although expensive ones run $5. They'd probably want to do the brakes and front derailleur at the same time, although things don't wear out at the same rates. You may also be getting a fixed price which applies to newer bikes with brake/shift levers that have more housing routed under the bar tape.

I strongly suggest doing your own work. Apart from wheel building I can't think of anything which is more work than driving to a bike shop, especially if you need to make a return visit for pickup.

Usually the tools needed for a job which last a lifetime are priced similarly to one-time service at the bike shop with a nice repair stand being the one notable exception.

I'd go with un-lined housing because with just 5-8 cogs and down-tube shifters you really don't need lower friction to begin with, and it'll last a really long time. I changed mine once in 15 years.

My commuter road bike has nearly 10K miles on it now, since I bought it in September 2012. I've changed the housing on it once, just about 1 year ago. I'll probably try to get another year out of it, because it was a PITA when I did it. Took me over 2 hours doing it for the first time, and dealing with the bar tape and getting it all back in place.

Note that things wear out at very different rates. I usually only deal with the rear shift cable that sees the most use.

I go back to my first post. Yes, $40 cables and housing, for your bike, is a LOT of money! You can get by very well with old style coil wound unlined cable housings and just grease the cable with a lot of Phil Wood before you pull it through. Take my advice on filing and spoke poking the housing ends after you cut it. An old school shop should be able to sell you a foot or two of cable housing off a roll for very little money.

Ben

Unlined housing is bad. Lots of friction.
Lined housing is good, and should be in the neighborhood of $1/ft.
Fancy lined housing is a little bit better than good, and prices can go up essentially arbitrarily.

It's just like speaker cables.

I ran it for 15 years without issue starting with Campagnolo 8 speed in 1997 and finishing with Campagnolo 9 from 2000-2012, including under-bar-tape cable routing.

It worked great, and AFAIK I only replaced it once in that interval.

With lined housing I need to replace it about as often (at 4000 miles) as I needed to swap out 8/9 speed rear shift cables because it gets MUCH stickier than unlined housing.

Before that I put 10 years on the original housing which came with my 12 speed road bike, back when "12 speeds" was the total of 2x6 and not the cog count.

Did that $40 include labor?

Old or worn cable can screw things up, but don't let them sell you anything overly fancy.

Shimano SP41 housing is as good as you'll ever need.

There are only two possibilities here:
1. You have misunderstood the service adviser.
2. They really are trying to rip you off.

I tend to think it's the former.

A bike that old with down tube shifters usually only has a short section of shift cable housing adjacent to the rear derailleur. It's only about 8 inches long so that would equate to $5.00 per inch. Even the highest end cable housing doesn't cost that much. I think that you have misunderstood what he was saying. If you aren't comfortable talking with the folks at that shop I can certainly understand that. If that's the case, I'd certainly find another shop.

Since I do all my own work and have replaced cables and housing on various bikes several times in the past year, I just bought 25' shop rolls of both brake and shift cable housing from Amazon. I usually pick up cables from the LBS when I need them, but I like to keep the shop rolls of housing on-hand.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GZEZ0O

This is a little off topic, but I don't understand why housing is sold in sensible "amateur enthusiast" bulk amounts like 25' (i.e. a few bikes / changes) but e.g. Jagwire's stainless slick cables are only sold in batches of 1 (expensive) or 100 (lifetime supply)...

Why were, at one time, hotdogs sold in packs of 8 but hotdog buns sold in packs of 10? The big companies don't really care what the enthusiast wants. Their main business goes to shops.

In all honesty, I just looked online, the retailers that shops use only sell it in bulk (100) or single (1). Why would the shop do anything different?

Speaking of which, you can buy freaking EXPENSIVE cables and housings. One derailleur cable for ~$30 retail. I'm failing to understand the person who would want this. Over time any cable/housing will degrade. The more you use the bike the faster it will degrade. Professionals surely wouldn't use it, they probably have their cables replaced after every race (wait, the pros use electronic shifting... nevermind.) Who the heck would want this? Even the cheapest (galvanized) cable does a near-perfect job with new housing.

They still run brake cable. Haven't seen any wireless braking just yet. Although I'm sure someone will try to invent it at some point, brakes with some type of servo actuator on it.

I feel like that'd be a terrible idea and the first time it fails and sends someone off a cliff the governing system for professional biking would ban it.

No doubt, I was just saying somebody will likely try it at some point, if it hasn't been tried already.

hydraulic is wireless ... . of course cables are wires .. of metal .. several joined to be as one..

posters here seem to have high end tastes .. Then are concerned about being 'ripped off' maintaining them ..

good materials can be poorly installed ..

Yes, I know. It's just odd that they have decided that housing is OK in intermediate quantities (you can also buy a 50 meter roll of that or a one bike combined kit too).

I'm not selling anything, just pointing out - a group buy between four would net 25 Hyper brake cables each for ~$40, vs $125 bought one at a time.

Good for 12 "normal" bikes plus 1 fixie with a front brake only