paulb_in_bkln

Thanks! I'll ask around locally.

cudak888 

They're overpriced, but I usually get one of these modern ones and install them through Raleigh ribbed housing, when the combo calls for it: https://www.amazon.com/CABLE-Speed-S.../dp/B000AO5K5G

I always save the adjuster end off of trashed cables to re-use - I always solder a brass sleeve onto the end of the new cable after cutting it to length, instead of dealing with that terrible cable clamp provided on the aftermarket sets.

-Kurt

gster

You can buy the cable kit and re use your original housing if you prefer.

paulb_in_bkln

Gster, all I want is the inner wire. I have plenty of fresh housing. But I can't find a source for just the wire. Well, actually, I noticed that Jagwire offers them in the UK, so I've emailed to ask if they have them available here. My LBS guy tells me he grinds down the nub on a derailleur wire to make it work. I may have to bring a wire over and use his grinder. We'll see.

paulb_in_bkln

Thanks Kurt. I'm just trying, until there's no other choice, to avoid buying more housing I don't need.

browngw 

I have used stainless shift cables many times. I usually use a a small (1" diameter) stone in my bench drill press to size the end and finish with a file.

barnfind

The last time I ordered cables I think it was actually cheaper to buy the whole kit then to buy just the wire.
None of the local shops stock anything here, many don't even do repairs. They tell you 'go to our website' or 'drop it off, we have a guy who comes on xday to do repairs.

The last time I ordered the kits they were under $6 each but its been a few years now.
I like the idea of using the stainless cable and making it fit, it sort of makes it a forever fix since rust is usually what kills cables.
It wasn't all too long ago I was still able to buy ribbed cable housing, but I don't remember who had it. I ordered a roll of it in red for a project I was doing about 5 years ago or so.

On most of my bikes I try to run only the original one piece original cables, I hopefully have stashed enough away to last me the rest of my life.
The last drawer full of them came from a shop that closed up in the 70's.

barnfind

Nice find! Those are getting kind of rare lately. I'm not sure whats up lately but nearly ever steel rim I get is worn through the chrome. I never remember seeing that so much before.
I've got bikes from the 50's that came to be 10 or so years ago with perfect chrome, and several of my personal rides still have perfect chrome after years of use.
Worn through rims were never an issue until lately for some reason, and I can't see it just being contributed to them being used for so long because many of the wheels I came across have been parked and have sat for decades or more. I've got a Dunelt myself that I've owned for 45+ years, it was my beater bike for the first 10 years and it lived outdoors under a tarp for another 10 yet the rims are like new. I rode that bike all year long, through road salt, rain, dirt, everything and the rims shine like the day they were new. The old Lucas Cyclometer turned over a dozen or more times back in the day and the rims still look just fine.
These bikes had decent chrome, and mine shows no wear after all these years, yet I see bikes that were obviously garage queens that have worn out rims.
All I can figure is like my grandpop used to say, "Some folks can break a crowbar in a sandbox".

The bikes that really get me are those with the oddball jury rigs. I had a guy bring me a bike a few months ago because he couldn't figure out how to get the tire off.
The fact he couldn't change the tire or get the wheel off didn't surprise me, but the fact that he rode the bike with the rear fender pushed in and rubbing the tire for so long that the reflector screw basically cut the tire in two halves right down the middle. An hour after he picked it up, he calls me to tell me its the best tire he ever had, the bike even pedals easier now. (I bent the fender back out away from the tire while the wheel was off, plus I adjusted the brakes so they didn't rub, and trued the wheel a bit). The tire wasn't anything special just a $12 Kenda tire. It won't last though, that sort of bike owner sooner or later screws something up one way or another. Its only a matter of time he bashes that fender back into the tire and grinds down another tire.

I never understood how someone could ride a bike with something dragging like that, so much wasted energy for nothing.

thumpism

Colt!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...46742776768803

SirMike1983 

This one has 1962 hubs on it, and that seems about right for the bike. It originally had a very heavy and somewhat damaged West German drop stand on the back instead of the kickstand. One of lugs on the drop stand was totally sheared off and it was really, really heavy for a stand. I ended up replacing with one of the ESGE type bottom kickstands, which helped how it rode. It originally appeared on Ebay for sale a number of years ago, but was local pick up only in western PA (or maybe far western NY State? I don't recall.). Eventually another bike guy bought it but he didn't end up doing anything with it. It appeared a few years later on the CABE and I recognized it because I had wanted to buy it when it was on eBay, so I made an offer and bought it from the bike guy, who shipped it to me and did a good job of it. It's funny how some of these bikes will turn up a second time, which often is not the case when you actually find something you want to buy.

I wish 3-speeds would get a sub forum in C&V. I suggested that a couple of years ago, but no dice. This thread alone has thousands of responses. Maybe one day...

paulb_in_bkln

The way the rack is mounted on the blue Colt makes me nauseous.

paulb_in_bkln

"Hey boss. You know that 3-speed shift wire that was too short? Fixed."

markk900

As the saying goes, "It ain't stupid if it works"........

Salubrious

I just buy shift cable. Ace Hardware sells brass tubing in some really small sizes; I bought some of that and cut it to size, fit it over the shift cable and crush it to swage it to the cable. A little solder doesn't hurt either. Cheap, easy albeit a bit geeky but that is what nutters do.

paulb_in_bkln

Huh. That is some thin brass tubing. I'll duck in the next time I pass an Ace hardware.

SirMike1983 

There's a Bell Systems crimper tool that makes good crimps for brass hobby tubing over shifter cables.

JohnDThompson 

+1. When you crimp something with that bad boy, it stays crimped:

gster

Hey man!
Don't crimp my style.

thumpism

With the seat slammed there might not be an option. I bet if you raise the seat a little you can make that rack position less sickening but there ain't a whole lot of seat stay to work with. Y'know, there are bigger things to worry about, but they're on BIGGER BIKES!! Gotcha.

cudak888 

An excellent tip; didn't think of reshaping the lead end of a shift cable to slide into the narrow Sturmey receiver.

I'm not as offended by the rack as some others, but I'm almost certain that it is designed to fit a Sports. There's no way that's going to fit right, saddle adjustment or otherwise. The nose of the rack simply doesn't have enough droop.

'62 sounds right based on that seattube transfer.

A 3-speed subforum? Perhaps a bit too separate, but the amount of discussion here does suggest that a 3-speed subforum would not be wasted (but would it be too divisive?). Still doesn't negate how much I hate this pseudo-Discord thread. Maybe it wouldn't irritate me if they'd just install software to downsize the photos to 600 or 800 pixels or so, with "click for full size" as an option. I have a 2K monitor in the middle of my three-screen setup here, and even then, it's easy to miss text between images.

Still, C&V is second only to Road Cycling for post activity here (2.1 million posts to-date vs. 3.9; we're about half the size), and Road has no subforums, which ought to suggest just how unlikely it'll be that we'll get one. Lousy upper-management.

Silly unless it was a side-of-the-road repair - at which point, it becomes smart

Brass tubing for the shifter end, or the indicator end?

-Kurt

paulb_in_bkln

I wouldn't go so far as silly, but I will cop to whimsical.

nlerner

I learned years back on this list that crimping a #3 fishing leader makes for a nifty cable end.

Unca_Sam

☝🙂 that right there is the heart of this thread. Thanks for unearthing that gem.

cudak888 

So that's what they are. I've seen them a few times before.

-Kurt

gster

very clever.