How often to cables really fail?
 

Obviously, the conventional wisdom holds that you should always replace old brake and shift cables -- and nobody wants a brake cable to fail at the wrong moment.

But, I have to say that in reality I've never heard of it happening. When I get an old bike, I inspect the cables and if I don't see any visible rust or fraying, they usually get greased and go back on. I've never heard any reports of problems.

What do you think?

Edit: that should be "How often do cables really fail?"

I agree. Cables can fail, but unless there is visible damage you can't predict when/why/how. I've had two brake cables fail on me, both at the factory end. One was brand new, the other was probably 10+ years old. I believe both had manufacturing defects.

Recent thread

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/brake2.jpg

Where the cable end failed and it could not be attributed to some other problem such as rusted cable housing I have had it happen once to me over 40 years.

On repair bikes, much more often, but in those cases almost always some other mechanical problem or cable housing problem was the root cause. I don't think the shop ever had to warranty a cable.

I don't replace 40 year old cables because they might fail. I replace 40 year old cables because new cables (and housing) are a marked improvement.

I've never personally had one fail either, but as the Colonel says above, new cables and housings are just better--so I always switch them out.

I have had a brake cable fail on me once -- that was not a good feeling. The cable broke off at the cable end -- descending on fixed gear, no rear brake.

at least it was a fixed gear. Would have been worse had it freewheeled.

My VP whose is a cat 1 racer in his age group swears by replacing Shimano STI cables yearly to avoid breakage and shift problems. Of course he probably shifts more in a month than I do in a year. ymmv

I don't even know anyone who has a rear caliper installed on a bike with a fixed drivetrain. I feel like you may have been joking and I am dense. Hmm.

Edit: Oh. Now I get it. It was the front brake cable that failed. I'm an idiot. Carry on!

I replace cables because I don't like the thought of an old gnarly cable sliding around inside my housings and making me slower than Lance.

Ted Shred time!

I do:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/fixed-frame/completed.jpg

Nothing wrong with being a belt and suspenders guy.

I only use stainless steel cables and I never had one fail at the diecast heads, but I had them start fraying near the derailleur pinchbolts and guides under the BB. Same goes for my brake cables. They seem to suffer from some sort of age embrittlement and the strands just seem to crack and break apart. It could be the poor metallurgy where the steel ends up kinda eating iteself after some time. These frayed ares do not seem to have any kind of rust but sometimes do have a slight chalky film to them at the age they fail.

Chombi

sometimes you take your feel off your belt on a really steep hill, and the only way you have to stop is by your suspenders.

I was just replacing my derailleur and found that my bar-con cable housing was destroyed. The metal strands in the housing were pulled out 2cm through the braze-on cable housing stop where the plastic that encases the metal strands was still held. Needless to say, my bike shifts much better and in combination with the new derailleur a bunch of my shifting problems seem to have gone away.

I made sure to put metal cable housing stops on both ends of both cables this time.

Never had a cable snap on me yet, but I did have them go weak from lack of tension over long periods of use without tightening up.

Here's a video of one of my favorite cyclists. He's a super nice guy and rides a LOT of miles, mostly on fixed gears. I've never seen him on a fixed bike with a rear brake, but I'm sure he was thankful he had one on this day!

I've found short pieces of individual strands inside STI shifters.

+1

In 25 years of riding, I have broken one brake cable. Made me realize that it is a very good idea that bikes have two brakes.

I have first generation campy ergo shifters and they definitly do brake the shifter cables right at the end-stop. I seemed to brake about 1 shifter cable/year when I was training a lot and competitivly racing.

Pardon my French but that is facking insane.

It is possible to tell that they may snap soon.

The cable stretches first and you will noice the brake lever may pull all the way to the bars beforethe brakes work. This is the cable fraying and a few more strong pulls and it snaps.

If your brakes feel spongy, don't adjust the barrel's, inspect the cable!

I use old cables on 90% of my bikes, new cables on tandems, wife and baby carrying bikes.

Did he intentionally bail or did he inadvertently unclip?

Years ago I had a clutch cable on a motorcycle fail at a stop light. My wife and I wound up walking a few miles that day.

Never had a cable on my bicycle fail, but seeing as they're pretty much the same thing as a clutch cable I imagine it could happen. How often? Hard to say.