guruguhan

Hello,

I'm building a bike and just wanted to clarify which cables I should go for. It is a touring bike, shimano FD (ultegra), RD (xt), cassette and xtr v-brakes. I have't decided on if I'll use barcons/STI shifters yet. I'd like to know if I get the XTR SIS shift cable set, and XTR brake cable set if I'm ok, or if I should get something else instead.

Thanks

khuon

They'll work fine. Any quality set of shifter and brake cables will work.

HillRider

The only way the XTR cable set wouldn't work is if the housings provided are too short to work with the shifters and/or brakes you settle on. As to quality, any Shimano housing and cables will be fine.

guruguhan

Thats good - thanks guys!

Retro Grouch 

What are you planning to use for brake levers? XTR brake cables have the wrong ends to work with road style brake levers.

If you get new STI brifters, they'll already come with new cables and housings but you'll need a cable pull device, like a Travel Agent, to operate the V-brakes.

HillRider

Very good point. I should have picked it up too.

Also, the OP is planning to use V-brakes so if he uses STI levers he will need Travel Agents to make them work or Dia Compe's V-brake specific road brake levers if he decides on Barcons.

guruguhan

I know all about travel agents, the question is about cables. Thanks for throwing it in though.

Primarily just interested in knowing if I should get dura-ace, xtr or something else. Thanks again

HillRider

I don't think Shimano really has quality levels for it's cable sets. That is I think the same quality cables come with 105 as with Dura Ace and with LX as with XTR. They are all good.

khuon

Erf! I totally missed that too. I saw the OP mention V-brakes and my mind went into MTB brake levers.

guruguhan

Great - I wanted to be certain because I know some say that Dura Ace (referring to components, not the cables) might sacrifice in some areas to keep the weight down.

Should I get an extra set of both to keep on hand?

guruguhan

I was happy you and Hillrider simply answered the question (and within seconds I think ), nothing more, nothing less!

khuon

I believe they have different quality levels but they're very limited and the differences between them are pretty slight. It's kind of like their chains. They have around three different "popular" types that they distribute amongst the groups where one is for budget/entry-level, another is for recreational-performance and the third is for the top-tier groups. The differences are that the higher level ones include things like stainless steel cables and teflon lined housings. LX, XT and XTR I think share the same cable sets as does 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace while Deore and below (Tiagra and below) use a lower quality set. And then there's the bottum-rung stuff meant for groups like Tourney.

moxfyre

Or, you can get "generic" teflon-lined cables and housing for a whole heck of a lot less at any LBS I just bought a couple of generic teflon-lined cables for $4/each at Performance Bike, and they sell cut housing for like $2/foot, or you can buy 25 ft packs of good quality housing for $15-25.

In my experience, the way to get good performance from your cables is not to buy fancy sets, but to buy decent cheap cables and replace them when they get dirty and worn (depends a lot on riding conditions).

Also, as others have pointed out you'll need Travel Agents to operate your V-brakes with drop bar levers. They're annoyingly expensive, which has kept me using canti brakes for a while... And FWIW, Sheldon Brown thinks that V-brakes with Travel Agents are no better than traditional cantis:

Retro Grouch 

I just use generic "slick" cables from QBP. I don't even get the stainless ones because I solder the ends.

HillRider

Yeah, my experience has been with 105 and Ultegra and Dura Ace and the cable sets that came with the brifters all seemed to be the same quality, differing only in color. Some were black and some were grey. I'm sure you're right that the X-Mart level components don't have the same high quality cable sets.

moxfyre

Does soldering have any advantages over capping? I have a soldering iron handy, but it seems like a pain compared to just crimping a few caps on the cable ends...

khuon

Solder doesn't fall off. Personally, I just cap mine too. I'm just too lazy to solder and all my cables are stainless steel.

moxfyre

Caps don't fall off either if you do 'em right Use needlenose pliers or a crimping tool with narrow jaws (= lots of pressure at the edges) and long handles (= lots of leverage). Don't think I've had a cap fall off in a year or two.

khuon

The one thing I do like about caps is that you can throw in a little bit of accent colour if you want.

Retro Grouch 

If you do a neat job of soldering you can slide the cables in and out of the cable housing if you need to for maintenance. It is a little more time consuming to do but I don't charge myself labor.

khuon

You don't? I do. But then I buy myself a beer and call it even.

moxfyre

That is a nice advantage! I've destroyed two perfectly good derailer cables recently by getting them frayed while reinserting them