Is the best cable and housing worth it?
 

I generally use Jagwire stainless steel die-drawn derailleur cable and the LEX housing on my Shimano 6800. So far my mechanical 6800 has been almost flawless and has 25,000 miles on the groupset. I have a Ti frame with regular exposed cables which I happen to like better easier to change and maintain. My question is I see now Jagiwire was some pretty pricey super cable they call Pro Shift that sells of $31 for 2 cables and the housing. Anyone use this or find that the top of the line stuff really does shift better/ I don't wretch every day at a shop so someone who does might know the point of diminishing returns.

That's about the same $$$ as 2 Shimano Optislick cables and some housing...so not really all that spendy. They're probably worth it to a lot of people.

If the others don't work well enough in your riding environment and bike setup, then they might be worth it.

I've never been too particular with cables on my road bikes. I just use the cables they came with or the cables supplied with the group sets I've bought.

Is there a big price difference?

Yokoeuna Reaction brake cable housing is the most expensive but worth it for mechanical disk brakes.

I tend to purchase the cheapest stainless cable that I can find in semi-bulk. Name brand if possible. I avoid the galvanized. I've bought a couple of rolls of lined Jagwire housing which should last me for quite some time.

I don't know if the "fancy" stuff would do anything more for me.

I buy Jagwire regular lined brake and shift housing in 30' coils and Shimano die drawn stainless steel wires in boxes of 10 and they work perfectly for all my standard brake and shifting needs. The exception is I use Jagwire "Pro" (incompressible) brake housing on my bike with TRP mechanical disc brakes and it is very satisfactory. It's a bit more expensive than Jagwire's standard brake housing but not terribly so.

I love Yokozuna but don't believe any housing for $ than SP41 is worth much and frankly exposed cables can be cheap older shifter groups although for your internal routing, under tape, etc. good smoothed cables help a lot.

Two of my bikes have Alligator iLink housing on them. If your bike has mechanical brakes, it’ll be about $100 per bike for the setup. It’s basically aluminum beads with a liner inside. Absolutely no room for cable compression or wires bursting out the ends. Replacement is just adding a new plastic liner and cable.

Jagwire makes a similar product but it has a section of regular cable to go under the wraps, so that could become an issue over time.

Is it better? Not when new. The idea is that it never gets much worse over the years.

I find no benefit from expensive shifter cable/housing. Anything half decent all works perfectly, in my experience.

Brake cable is different. Absolutely worth going for compressionless housing like Jagwire Pro.

I've found the iLink to be a bit nasty; the supposedly spherical interface between beads is sub par. Pretty happy with the Jagwire Elite Link.

Aside from being lighter and adding bling it's housing you can reuse indefinitely and, wait for it, lengthen. The liner sleeve is cheap as chips, so it pays for itself pretty easily.

Jagwire and TRP recommend a short section (~5") of standard spiral wound brake housing from the brake lever itself to make the 90º bend from the lever to the bar's straight section. Then a double end ferrule connects it to the much longer compressionless housing run to the brake calipers. This is very straightforward and has no negative effect on braking or lever feel.

I have been using their Pro and Elite link stuff for a number of years and I can say very much it is worth it. Cables, housing, pads and shoes are the best way to upgrade a bike without spending a ton. You can buy really nice stuff and you probably won't be spending a ton in the end.

In my experience the polymer coating on the expensive Shimano shift hables peels off and gets stuck in the ferrules. The Optislick coated cables marketed for Tiagra and 105 might be marginally better than the standard mid-grade polished stainless that most shops use in bulk. It definitely doesn't peel. For my money the midgrade polished stainless cables, by Shimano, SRAM, Bontrager, and Jagwire, are all excellent. Perhaps the housing liner by Shimano might be a little slicker.

Coated cables are a no go for me. Give me polished stuff save the coatings for something else.

+1. The coating seems to peel off rather quickly and didn't provide any benefit in braking effort or shifting smoothness. Worse, the coating causes slipping at the brake and derailleur clamp bolts no matter how tight you make them. The one time I bought coated cables, I had to scrape the coating off at the clamp bolt area to get them to hold the adjustments.