Cable housing replacement question.
 

Hello all, here is my problem.

When I got my new bike, (new to me, it was used) my wife got my motobecane Vent Noir. Needles to say this bike is totally black and, although she doesn't complain, I know it's way to manly for her liking. Now, I want to change her cable housing to pink to give her bike a more feminine look. I've done a quick search and the kits I found are $30 and up and thats for either a set of shifters or breaks not both. So im looking at 60. That's kind of expensive to me. I used to ride bmx and know a place that I can get pink LINEAR cable for $10 for 50". My plan is to get that housing and get regular brake and shift cables (if needed, although I might as well since ill be in there already) that will run about $10 bucks.

Now I know that there are some parts on a road bikes cable system that aren't on a BMX bike. I forget the name but I know they are at the ends of the housing that goes into the STIs. Are they at the other ends of the housing? All that stuff I can figure out as I go. My main question is, would a LINEAR cable housing work or would it affect her braking and shifting performance? Is there something special in the $30 kits that justify their price? I estimate the total cost of doing all 4 cables my way to be around $30. Does that sound right or am I way off. Thanks for any advice and pleas feel free to tell me if I'd be risking my wives safety by going with the wrong idea. We ride in the mountains a lot so I need to make sure that the set up is safe and reliable.

Thanks
Joe.

No you do not want linear housing for brakes. You need to use brake housing it can be dangerous as compression housing keeps from splitting all at once. Maybe the LBS has some pink and you can use the existing cables.

As stated above, index housing is wound in a long shallow spiral (almost linear) and depends on the strength of the plastic to not buckle entirely, so it's not suited to braking. Brake housing is wound like a collapsed spring, and so is all steel on steel and cannot buckle under load.

If it helps, I have some very nice NOS Casiraghi (made in Italy) Brake cable kits (2 lined cables including inner wires) in pink or Lilac.. I could sell either for $15.00 including postage within the USA. PM me if interested.

No pink, but other colors. http://www.thethirdhand.com/index.cg...d=685671410071

+1, linear shift housing to be used ONLY for shifters, not brakes.

But no, there is typically nothing special about all those kits that have sprung up!
Some are of very high quality, but the regular ones are almost ridiculously expensive, priced and sold for their supposed convenience.
Yes, the kits should provide all the parts, very convenient, and the colors will match if the brake and shift housing are sold together.

The cable kits and per-foot cost of housing can get to looking like a bit of a racket, but it does keep shop doors open if you buy at your LBS.

And remember that with Shimano, their STI levers use no ferrules at the brake cable housing port.

Jagwire complete set (brakes and derailleurs) in pink, $37. Comes with everything you need, including ferrules and cable end crimps.

Ferrules! That's the thing that I couldn't remember the name of. What are those for? Those are the small black plastic "sleeves" that slip over the housing end?

So it's linear for shifters and regular housing for brakes right. What about the cables themselves? When I was riding bmx I remember coming across some that had a special coating. Is there a road bike equivalent and if so is it worth the cost?

There a lot of coatings used on cable inner wires, even Shimano's best ones have some Teflon or similar iir.

I would totally avoid (inner) cables with plastic covering though, which so often shreds and binds the cable in the housing.

The black-coated Slik-Whips and similar cables (thin, hard coating) have worked well for me.

Remember that brake housings always use metal ferrules where needed, while shift housings can use appropriately-size plastic or metal ferrules (sealed or un-sealed) where needed.

Pre-stress the cable tension (mostly to settle ferrules and cable ends) prior to final adjustment, but not to the point of damaging cables, housings or shifters.

I don't know how you feel about EBay, but you can do a lot better than $60 - even high end sets like Jagwire. Just buy use-specific housings - brake for brake shifter for shifter.

Unless is Yokozuna brake cable, which is a linear housing wrapped with a thin spiral metal band. This type of brake cable firms up braking quite a bit, but it's very stiff, slightly larger in diameter, and as such a bit of a pain to install.

Yeah, I was aware of the linear brake housing, which as you say is reinforced.

Why I said "linear shift housing" was the type not suitable for brakes.

Doesn't Jagwire now also supply a reinforced linear brake housing?