foomonkey

How often do you replace your brakes and cables on your road bike? Do you wait until they are dangerous or do you waste money by replacing them once or more per year?

surgeonstone

I am sort of a crisis intervention kind of guy- I wait until they snap.

surgeonstone

It's amazing how long they can last- going on 5 years with current set.

foomonkey

I just don't want to be like my racer boy friend who had to finish a crit with his right hand crushing the lever to keep his rear derailer (sp?) from flying into his spokes. And I don't want to be coasting down a mountain only to find out that my brakes should have been replaced a while back!

asok

2500 Miles for me. My shift cable frayed at 3000 miles so I just do all the cables at 2500. My MTB cables held together for about 8 years, I figured that was long enough...

foomonkey

Damn, I said "racer boy friend". That should have been, "racer-boy friend" or, "my friend the racer-boy". Confident heterosexual here. Just clarifying.

hhnngg1

Brakes - as needed. You can eyeball them, and when they're looking well-worn, it's time for new ones. (When they're approaching exposing the metallic holders.) I ride a lot of steep mountains, so it was after a year of intermittent riding before new brakes were required.

Cables, I'm still going strong 2+ years later. I change them when I feel like it, which is rarely.

Velo Dog

Not that you'd want to follow my example for maintenance, but I've been riding for more than 40 years, owned at least 15 bikes (plus maintaining my wife's and kids' rides), and I've only seen one cable fray. I replace them occasionally, usually when I replace the brake pads, which I do when they look like they need it. But as far as I can tell, cables last forever.

SwimBike

I replace cable and housing each year. Typically in the winter. As far as breaks go, I replace them as needed. Really it is not expensive and I would rather do it and make sure everything is running just fine vs waiting for something to break.

-Swimbike
northernendurancecoaching.com

longbeachgary

Just replaced my pads on the MXL that had about 10,000 miles on them. Never replaced cables or housing.

EDIT at about $9 per set of pads I got my money's worth/

Accordion

Changing cables is unbelievably cheap and easy. I think I spent $8 for both the brake and shifter cables. Takes about 5 minutes to change them out.

The problem for me is that then I have to spend about an hour and then 15 rides worth of adjustments to get the FD and RD to shift to my liking again.

So, yep, I've changed the cables. Once. In almost 6000 miles and I'm going to think long and hard before I do it again.

keisatsu

I replace the brake pads as needed. I probably replace the cables at least once a year.

Nachoman

About once a year, or two.

operator

Get back to us when you've worked for a high volume road shop, for a while.

Home wrenching is completely different than shop wrenching. And your experience, unfortunately does not reflect reality. Cables will fray usually at the anchor point where they've been crushed. Rear Derailleur cables especially will tend to break off at the head, leaving the rest stuck in the shifter. This is not good for shimano STI's.

Brake cables are much more durable. You don't need to replace these periodically, only when there seems to be a problem. You'll likely get contamination/rust that requires replacement before you break one.

Kimmo 

Yeah, almost never. I tend to change cables only because I've gone for longer housing for some reason, or the cable's been off and on so many times it's fraying at the clamp point. Then back cable goes on the front and the back gets a new one.

crazy canuck's

+1 ... same for me

crhilton

Brakes: When there's not much left.
Cables: When there's something wrong with them.

crhilton

Do you have recommendations on when one should replace their indexed cables?