Jagwire and vintage bikes
 

They don't work together very well, especially if you have a bike with no cable stop braze-ons; the cable is routed through the length of the top tube. This means you need more housing; the housing you get with the kit is not enough to cover both brake lines.

Secondly, the end caps are not designed with vintage brake levers in mind, they're too long. This forces more of the housing into a straight line from the brake internals to the "gap" where it exits, which crushes the wire against the handlebar into an angle, permanently. I tossed the whole kit because of this.

What size frames?

Zero issues on my ~57cm frames. Granted my calipers are (most) all modern Campy.

???

I think I get your first problem. I would not toss the kit, but find a LBS who will cut me 15 feet or so of outer cable and make my own set fit to the bike.

I don't really understand your issue with the ferrules and brake levers. I've used modern cables on vintage brakes a few times with no issues. The brakes were Campy and Shimano, from 1974, 1980, and 1984.

jagwire housing works fine with vintage bikes.

EDIT: In my following post, I'm assuming you're talking about the Jagwire Racer DIY kit.

I was looking at this for my own bike and figured this issue would come up on older bikes with the length of the brake cable run over or through the top tube. The other problem is the conflicting information regarding how much brake cable housing you do get in the kit. There are supposed to be two brake housing "extensions" that are run underneath the handlebar tape and then your regular brake line. If you could do me a favor and let me know how long the brake housing is including the extensions, that would be awesome.

For what it's worth, the 1600mm of length I see on most websites would be too short for my size 58 frame, but if it's 1700mm (the length they claim on the product's website) with the extensions, then it would fit just fine, but I'd be using pretty much all of the cable.

They are definitely not designed with older bikes in mind. They give you the bare minimum of housing you would need for a modern style frame. You can make it fit on vintage bikes, but you'll need to measure carefully and if you could fill us in on how much brake housing you get exactly, that would be a big help.

I was just about to do a Jagwire kit on a bike with an internally run TT brake-line. It's a 62, and I'm using blue, so I may have some trouble...I'll measure it and see what I come up with.

At any rate, I'm glad it's being brought up. I searched like mad a couple of weeks ago when I was considering cable kits. I hope he can get back to us with a proper measurement.

I have had little trouble with the jagwire kits being long enough on my bikes with TT cable guides. I actually found the the amount they give you to be more generous than V.O.

I agree with RoboChrist on some points. I used Jagwire because I needed the pink color they offered. Nothing in there kit would work for the short piece that goes from the frame to the rear dérailleur on my Centurion Master. The ferrules would not fit. As I was installing a STI set up everything else worked OK. I normally but all the casing and cables in bulk so Jagwire seems way over priced to me.
EddyR

59cm with a 56cm top tube.

Yeah it is the racer DIY kit.

So I took the kit from my trash...and the brake cable housing is one piece measuring 1700mm in total including the extensions, and after a quick mock setup it either looks like there is absolutely zero room for error, or I'm out of housing by at least several centimetres if I try to use the remaining available for the front brake. It's very hard to tell...I would do it just for the hell of it to post the results here, but nothing that comes with this kit seems to work well with my setup. Either way it's not looking good, and immediately my thought was that I purchased something for a modern bike with exposed cables, and I was right.

I'm going to see if I can find my old cables to salvage the old end caps and use those instead...

Solution:

50 foots rolls of housing with individual inner wires. Works like a charm every time.

fyi Performance will cut you any length you need...as long as it is black or gray.

I buy from" loose screws". Very fast delivery. I am a bike flipper so I keep cabling in stock.
Ed

Most flippers and vintage fans need not apply to Jagwire. You guys are primarily cheap bastards, and I say that in the most endearing way possible. But if you have a nice go fast bike, it's good to put a little flash and technology into your ride. The majority of folks here just aren't the major demographic.

In the shop I work at, we do dept. store bikes all day long and bulk cables and housing do the trick and work great. They will work great on high end bikes, as well. But then again, nicer housings like Shimano Dura Ace, etc. have some slight advantage, and folks who like to spend money will go for that slight advantage.

Robo, thanks for getting back with the measurement. It looks like the kit will work for my steel frame after all.

I just bought a Novara-branded Jagwire brake cable set from REI, there was more than enough for my 1988 Schwinn Voyageur, with non-aero levers and cantilever brakes (there would have been plenty of cable for standard calipers). No issues installing.

:lol: Tis true. I use Jagwire myself, but I buy it by the foot at the LBS. I know this isn't the cheapest way to do things by any means, and I'm a cheap bastard too, but I don't ever need enough of it for it to be a big deal. I do feel it's worth it. Jagwire is nice smooth, quality, cable housing, it looks good, and it comes in lots of pretty colors. :)

Jagwire is great stuff...without question probably the best readily available housing/cables. But...

I CAN'T STAND ALL THE LITTLE "JAGWIRE" SILVER LOGOS ALL OVER MY (ESPECIALLY BLACK) HOUSING!!!!!

So I use Sunlite lined or whatever the co-op has in lined housing when I go to get some.

(So KHatfull, how do you REALLY feel about the Jagwire logos on their housing?)

I've not had any problems with the length of Jagwire housing or cables, and I like their brake pads.
I've been buying the Chinese Jagwire kits, and the cables themselves are not up to "genuine" Jagwire standards.
I'm hoping you just got a kit that either was counterfeit or an error by Jagwire, and not an example of the norm.
I really like their Teflon cables.

Vintage bikes are 95% of my daily work at the shop; we use Jagwire products, and I have *never* had a problem with them. Very high bang for the buck.

Khatfull, you can get rid of the logos with some Mother's. ;) Actually, just use a bit of fine steel wool and some PB Blaster, the logos disappear in short order. Polish out the rub marks with Mother's!

I bought a set to use when I recabled my univega, except I didn't have enough to run under the wrap for the bar end shifters. :(

I just used one of the "racer" kits this afternoon on a friend's Prologue and noticed that there wasn't much housing. I'm pretty sure it would have worked with non-aero levers, but it would be close. As Norm Abrams says - measure twice, cut once.

For what it's worth, the housing did not have any logos, but some of the bulk rolls I've bought did.

I've used jagwire and had trouble with fitting cable ends with the brakes but nothing that cant be worked out.
Now I use Dura-ace from ebay and thats always a proper fit works well to.

I ran Jaqwire's recently on my GP and love them. I had plenty of length, and had to make a few mods for my bike model / application and cataloged them in the below thread for others to possibly benefit from...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...tall-questions...

Standard, lined Jagwire housing is fine for vintage machines. It's their Kevlar cable sets that should be used only on bikes with aero brake levers and partial-length top tube cable housing.

-Kurt

I opted to use their "Racer" kit (with Kevlar) on non-aero levers with little fuss. :)