Recently I had to buy a bag of Dia-Compe 95 Ferrules because there were none at the local Co-op and these were $9 for a bag of 10!! I figured I'd buy a bag of 200 and donate the majority to the Co-op for karma but not at that price.

Doesn't matter where I look they are all roughly $9 for a bag of 10 Dia Compe plus shipping.

If you go on line you see multiple listings for bulk orders of ferrules that fit every other known set of brakes and cables and you pay around $10 to $25 for 200.

Example Sunlite ones which are very close in shape (but don't quite work in Dia Compe brakes) 200 for $13.58
https://www.niagaracycle.com/categor...-bottle-of-200.

It's only Dia Compe compatible ones that are like this - even the Chinese knock offs are that price.

Does anyone know where these ferrules can be found cheaper?

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...No. I looked for a while online and just bought the bag of ten when I needed a couple. They also work with some other aero brake levers.

I just learned the punchline to the joke!

I left the bag on a shelf in the garage and it appears the entire bag fell in a garbage can and went out to the street yesterday morning and so now these are going to be really really expensive for each one....

I have to wonder if these with a washer would work:



$1 for 20 on ebay.

Gold has a price.

...the ones pictured are surprisingly specific in use. I've tried other ferrules, and you're actually better off with a bare cable end, because with the other ferrules I've tried, they usually shift and bind the cable pull. Those stepped ones are really good for the rear derailleur cable at the stay braze on, though.

I was thinking that you could put the narrow portion through a washer - especially a thin one that would conform to the hole.

I think the AGC251 levers I have actually came with a broad stepped ferrule rather than the ball ones.

And if it isn't too MacGuyver, those stepped ferrules would be easy to turn in to ball ferrules with JB weld and some sandpaper.

You just had to remind me about my last remaining pair of SunTour friction barcons.

I've come to loath the ball-end ferrules. So many times I've serviced bikes with these levers and found the cable had cut a deep trench in the ferrule's tip, enlarging the hole while causing all kinds of frictional roughness.

The later AGC levers mentioned by Kontact forced the end of the lined housing to align with the cable, with the bend radius thus entirely within the lined housing, instead of at the restricted opening of a tilted ferrule meeting the cable at an angle (with metal on metal).

I have actually modified other ferrules to fit into both kinds of these levers, and I try to make the ferrule as supported as possible against tilting off axis with the hole in the lever housing. It's been a while, but I would start with a normal DiaCompe lever ferrule from an older traditional lever and shape with a file to fit as snugly/deeply as possible in the hole, perhaps reaming the hole as needed to give better support to the ferrule against tilting.
So that is my "Alternative Source for Dia Compe ferrules".

A swiveling ferrule is just a bad idea when the cable/housing is going to be forced off-axis with the exiting cable wire.

I wonder if this is one of those things that works better when you make an effort to force the proper amount of housing into the lever body before you tape the housing to the bar? Of course the ball is going to tilt if the housing isn't allowed to curve inside the lever body.

I sure wished that were the case, 'cept the housing exits from a notch in the body, a fixed location, and literally no amount of compression of the housing is likely to impose so tight of a radius on it's own. Surely the housing would creep out of the lever body overnight if it had been stuffed in with sufficient force, since the housing is like a strong spring when curved sharply. I have to admit though that some installations seemed to work better than others (noting that some installations used drilled holes in the handlebar to straighten the housing's path!).
The lever design was essentially defective imo, until they updated to the rigidly-mounted ferrule.
In defense of the 1st-gen levers, I suppose they were a pioneering design, though DiaCompe surely had enough experience with lined housing by that time to know that the housing was the better location for the cable to angle sharply instead of where it exits the ferrule.
Worse problems with cables changing direction emerged around the same time in the mtb arena, where some bike's stems routed the cable through the welded, tubular stem across a too-small roller. I used to replace frayed and broken cables with predictable regularity on bikes with that sort of cable routing.
Thankfully today's component makers are more detail-oriented with cable routing.

Just pretend that those ferrules are made by Kool Stop and then you will happily pay the excessive cost no matter the price.