Best cables and housing for tandem?
 

I have mechanical disc and mechanical shifting (3x10 speed) on my tandem. Upgrading to hydraulics and/or electronic is prohibitively expensive as I would need to change do 2x at the same time. So I try to make the best out of what I have.

I think I have the best performing brake housing out there, as I use Yokozuna Reaction, it was a great upgrade that transformed the mechancial disc brake performance. With shift housing and cables I use what came with the bike which is Jagwire LEX-SL. It works okay, but if there is something that would work better for the long cable runs I'd love to upgrade.

As far as I understand classical brake housing is not compressionless, that's why an upgrade to compressionless brake housing like Yokozuna Reaction make such a big difference, however all shift housing, even budget alternatives, is supposed to be compressionless as they use lengthwise steel strands rather than a coil. So I guess the difference between different shift housing and cables is small if detectable at all. Is this true? If not, what would be the best performing shift housing and cables to get?

I dealt with similar issues with mechanical disc brakes and 3x10 shifting on our Co-Mo. I found the Jagwire Elite DIY housing system gave me excellent results in both braking and shifting. The aluminum ferrules offer a true compressionless path. (And you can add some color bling if that’s your thing.)

https://jagwire.com/products/diy-cable-kits

There was still some slack in the rear runs due to natural gravitational sag in the unsheathed sections. I added a boost spring to the rear caliper to overcome this. The rear derailleur had enough spring force to compensate.

I wish I did a little more research or read a thread like this before replacing my brake cables on my tandem bike. Should have purchased a small / medium or small / large tandem bike but with continuing supply chain issues the two brands I was looking at would have been over a year wait so I settled on a small / small. The bike shop I purchased it from told me the fit looked good on me, not till I started riding it did I realize the top tube was way too short for me, I usually ride between a 57 - 59 and figured I could put a longer stem and wider bars on the bike which I did but needed to replace all the cables. This is the first bike I've owned that the disc brakes are mechanical and not hydraulic, when I was looking for cables I wasn't sure about the length and bought the JagWire sport which said they were long enough for a tandem. Shifting is fine but the braking is horrible. I cut all the brakes cables to a good length but it doesn't brake like the OEM cables did. I've replace many brake cables on bikes over the years and never had braking affected this much by just changing a cable, it must be the length and the quality of the cable causing this.

Yes it seems like brake housing is really important for tandems, the reason being the long cable run to the rear brake and the large braking force required to stop two people on one bike. With the standard housing that came with the bike I could not reach full braking power even with the lever pulled into the handlebar. Nowadays most new tandems have hydraulics of course, but at the same time tandems are often using older technology to start with and are traded second hand etc so there's still a lot of 3x and mechanical brakes around.

Shift cabling is longer than a standard bike, but the forces are still low as on a standard bike so it doesn't seem to matter as much, any high quality should do. I may still try the alloy link as suggested above to see if I can detect any difference.

On my Co-Mo Speedster, there are housing stops near the head tube and near the rear brake and rear derailleur, so most of the cabling is free of housing. As a result, there is very little power loss due to housing. With bolt-on housing stops, you might be able to replicate this and avoid housing in much of the run to the back. In the alternative, compressionless brake housing would be a big improvement over cheap or conventional (spiral) brake housing. There would be a lot less power loss at the rear brake. As noted elsewhere, shift housing already is compressionless. Here are links to information on compressionless brake housing.

https://jagwire.com/products/housing...-brake-housing

I also like our Jagwire cables and housing, though for sharp bends, I use Alligator I-Link housing and liner, which comes in colors.

The links to 2 youtube videos seem to have been stripped. In youtube, search the Park Tool videos for compressionless housing and you'll find some good resources.