scale

I notice cable housing is a bit too large to go in the small spot on the suntour barcon. Are you supposed to use one of those reducer cable ferrules / stepdown cable ferrules here or is there a special end for your cable that fits into that spot?

Salamandrine 

Those were designed before SIS housing. Old spiral wound housing was smaller and would fit into the hole. In olden days no ferrule would have been used there. (IIRC - it's been a while)

Seems like you have 3 choices:

1) Different shifter housing. Measure first. Some modern housing is smaller in diameter than others.

2) If you are using some sort of shifter housing with a braided outer layer, you could try cutting off the outer vinyl covering at the cable end, to see if that gives you enough clearance.

3) Use a step down ferrule.

dweenk

I don't know of any special ferrule for barcons. All of the ferrules that I have are too large for the detent in the shifter housing. Even the plastic cable housing cover is a bit too large.

I have removed a few barcons, and the housing was stripped or pulled back a couple of centimeters as it went into the housing.

These are old friction barcons.

brian3069

Use a regular ferule on the end of the cable. The ferule presses up against the shift lever, it doesn't fit in that small hole. Tension from the derailleurs holds everything in place.

3speedslow

I have used all three methods Salamandrine wrote of, all work fine. The one which gave me more confidence were the old style cable that was available and also the step down ferrel.

scale

THanks. I was wondering if that would work. I know there is 2 different size housings.......3mm and 4mm i think and i think the most common everywhere is 4. Ill check my LBS next time im there and get a few step downs and some smaller housing to see what i can make work.

Vintage_Cyclist

I've got 3 bikes using Barcons. One is using the original metal housing they came with; this fits right into that shifter notch. The other two are using modern cable housing, which is just butted up against the shifter. In both cases the housing was taped down to the handlebar, then covered with shellacked cloth bar tape; neither is going to budge and they haven't caused me any issues.

Andrew R Stewart 

Don't know of 3mm housing being common but 4mm and 5mm are the current industry standards. I've put thousands of miles on ST "power" bar end levers and always used what is now called brake housing, 5mm. I just square off the end on a bench grinder and insert the the housing, with no ferules, at the lever ends.


If you use 4mm SIS housing you will need some sort of ferule to limit the casing strands from becoming an issue. Then a step down is likely the best choice.


Don't forget to overhaul the bar cons. They like a thin layer of light grease on all the contact surfaces. Don't replace the pawls or ratchet ring in backwards though. Also remember to really tighten the pretty, chromed, lock nuts as they often come loose and are expensive to replace. Andy

randyjawa 

I have been setting the Barcons up like this for many years now. Works just fine and no ferrule required...

JohnDThompson 

Specifically, the SunTour Bar-Cons shipped with bare stainless steel housing that fit into the shifter without requiring a ferrule.

scale

I think i might actually have some of that stainless housing in a bin somewhere. IT was just coiled like a spring. No covering. I might see if i still have that.

I dont suppose with modern lined housing it would matter if i ran that or the old stainless stuff. Perhaps i was overthinking needing the ferulle end and can just use some modern stuff too.


Thanks for the replies all. Best forum on the internet.

Salamandrine 

That's right. It was like the stainless coiled housing that we used for rear derailleurs.

@scale - 4 to 5 ferrules are pretty useful things to have for old bikes, if you don't have some vintage SS housing in your scrap bin. I wouldn't personally run SIS housing without proper termination. It does splay.