friday1970

I'm still new to doing my own repairs, and I'm looking to spend the winter upgrading a few bikes.

My question is the housing. Is there any difference in the housing used for brakes and for shifter cables?

Andrew R Stewart 

Yes, if the gear system is an indexed one it wants to have casing with the structural strands running nearly parallel to the casing's length to better resist the compressive force the inner cable produces. Brake casings shouldn't have the chance of the casing structure failing and a lengthwise running structural strand design can and does "explode" or burst outwards under the forces a brake inner can generate. Both usually have a low friction liner these days.


Back in the day there were no real differences other then some gear casing was uncoated and made of tightly spiraled stainless steel (SunTour bar end casing or Campy gear casing comes to mind).


A quick search of a casing company's info site might give better description and detail. Andy

JonathanGennick 

Traditional shifter housing has close to parallel strands of wire to negate compression and provide for accurate indexed shifting.

Traditional brake housing has wound wire reinforcing it to prevent the housing ripping apart under hard braking.

Today there is also compressionless brake housing that resembles shifter housing, but is wrapped with Kevlar or some similar material to resist braking forces.

Get lined housing whenever you can. I have good luck with Jagwire Sport housing, and there is a whole world of more exotic housing if your budget and inclinations lie in that direction.

davidad

SIS ® Cable Info by Jobst Brandt

friday1970

Thanks. I never knew this info.

The bikes I'm working on is two old peugeots. Both 1985, a PGN10 with Reynolds 501 tubing, and a P8 with Carbolite 103 tubing. The P8 is gets hand me downs from the PGN10, and the PGN10 is being converted to indexed shifting via a Microshift Centos groupset. I'm also working on a Challenge Fujin SLII, converting that from superman style handle bars to a tiller set.

In doing so, I'll need to recable everything. So, I want to make sure I'm using the right stuff, which includes the cable housings.

Thanks for the link, Davidad. Looks like i need a tool to cut the housing too.

79pmooney

Shimano makes a good cable/housing cutter. Also highly recommended is what we call in POrtland the "pokey tool". just a 14 ga (2.0mm) spoke cut to say 8-10", bent into a handle at one and and a sharpened point at the other. It is used to clean up the cuts and ensure none of the cut housing is digging into the cable. I slip my pokey tool into short pieces of housing stapled to my workbench. Very handy.

Ben

Kontact 

You're also going to want end caps for the housing if you aren't able to reuse the old ones. The caps are different inner diameters for the two kinds of housing, and if you don't use them the SIS housing will tear itself apart.

If you were putting together a friction shift bike, brake housing would be fine for shifting.

Bike Gremlin

Some pics. Left one is brake, right one is shifter housing.

Andrew R Stewart 

And note that the pictured brake cable has not had it's spiral filed/ground square with the casing length. The cut end still pokes up. For best cable pulling consistency the end needs to be flat/square. Andy