I'd like to buy some Dia Compe CT180 brake levers for one of my bikes but after looking at my current stock of new brake cables I'm not too sure if they will fit correctly. I found the following photo's of the cable installation for the Dia Compes and noticed the nipples seem quite a bit bigger than mine. (yes I know how that sounds lol)



I dug around the garage and found an old cable with a nipple of similar size to the above (still looks a bit smaller to me though) and compared it with one of my new cables.



I then grabbed an old Tektro lever I had laying around and inserted each cable to see how they would fit.



As you can see the difference is quite dramatic with the old cable fitting nice and snug inside the hole while the new cable is so loose I can pull it right to the end of the pivot. Does anyone know if this would effect the functionality? Would it alter the amount of cable pull or anything like that? I'm a little worried I might run into the same issue fitting my new cables to the Dia Compes so I'm holding off on the purchase until I can confirm if they will work or not. Any thoughts?

You should be fine as long as the nipple stays within the cage and the edges are able to pull at the nipple. With tensioning on the cable, it should pull the nipple to the edge anyways so it doesn't fall out of the cage

Ok good to know thanks!