Gear cable being fitted

In article <[email hidden]>

soup said:

You may remember I asked in here if EBC was rated then I posted a
piccy of my sons bike well after three weeks he has managed to break it
he bent the derrailleur and the gear hangar (just hope he hasn't bent
the frame) bought a new derrailleur and a new hanger, fitted them no
problem but trying to thread the gear cable back through managed to fray
the cable and just my luck the frayed "wires" are inside the outer. As
the spring tries to pull the gears back into line it hasn't got enough
power to fight the "sticktion" so the gears stick in "low" and the cable
goes slack, then further on the cable "slips" allowing the gears to
change "up" uncommanded and possibly at the wrong time.
Bike has to get its free six week service (they tighten bolts take
out cable stretch etc) so decided to have the cable supplied fitted and
have the indexing adjusted at the same time this is going to cost me £5..
Could probably fit and adjust the cable myself but a job that might
take me an hour would take a bike mechanic ten mins to do and if he
frays the cable he (they?) will have to use another one.
They are also going to check out everything as son's story changes
from "I was just going along and it happened" to "I smashed into a tree
whilst trying to do something I had seen someone else do" via everything
in between so can not rely on his version of events so have no idea if
the frame got knocked too.
Haven't got a car with a bike rack so I will have to cycle it there
eight miles (not a great distance) but with a bike that is basically
stuck in one gear and being in Edinburgh (built on seven hills)it's far
enough.
Thoughts :- Maybe I could get someone who is used to a fixie to ride it

Take the cable out, unwind the frayed bits so they're not inside any
housing and snip them off, then reassemble. Next time you fit a cable
tin the end with solder and trim it neatly with pliers - this makes it
reusable, while the crimp-on tidies normally fitted will guarantee to
make life more difficult unless you have decent cable cutters and
there's sufficient cable to trim a bit off the end.
As for riding a bike with a jammed rear mech, you've still got three
gears on the front to play with - just set the rear mech on the middle
sprocket and leave it alone.

Rob Morley said:

Next time you fit a cable
tin the end with solder

Staying on an electronics theme, I use heat-shrink tubing to keep the ends
tidy. Works well.

Jim Higson wrote on 22/12/2006 13:58 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Rob Morley said:

Next time you fit a cable
tin the end with solder

Staying on an electronics theme, I use heat-shrink tubing to keep the ends
tidy. Works well.

That must be after you've threaded it through the outer though.
Personally I just let a small amount of superglue wick into the end of
the cable and then wipe the excess off.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Rob Morley said:

As for riding a bike with a jammed rear mech, you've still got three
gears on the front to play with - just set the rear mech on the middle
sprocket and leave it alone.

Hope that is enough (it used to be when I was MUCH younger) 🙂 . Ah
well will leave early enough to walk all the way there if needs be,
having said that it is mostly downhill from here (we are at Balerno) so
getting there shouldn't be too difficult getting back might be more
problematical but I will (should) have working gears by then so it
shouldn't be too much of a drama.

--
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>
soup <[email hidden]> wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

tin the end with solder and trim it neatly with pliers - this makes it
reusable

If you can get the solder to stick. It works on cheap cables, but try it
on a Teflon-coated one.

Tony Raven said:

That must be after you've threaded it through the outer though.
Personally I just let a small amount of superglue wick into the end of
the cable and then wipe the excess off.

If only I had thought of that before, was at the threading through
the outer part (well it was the adjuster on the derailleur not the
actual outer) that everything went to a big ball of chalk. Did think of
the disassemble it all and just have the cable thinner but the wife
vetoed that "its our son, the bike should be as strong as it can" must
admit I feel those cables are made down to a price so they can barely
afford to be thinner and I would want to replace it as soon as possible
anyway, as I said taking the bike in anyway for its six week check so
might as well get the cable replaced.
Have a funny feeling that in a years time or so may have cause to
make some sort of insurance claim regarding this bike and not having the
six week service done will nullify EBCs compulsion, (insurance companies
will look for ANY reason not to pay out).

--
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>

Tony Raven said:

Jim Higson wrote on 22/12/2006 13:58 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Rob Morley said:

Next time you fit a cable
tin the end with solder

Staying on an electronics theme, I use heat-shrink tubing to keep the ends
tidy. Works well.

That must be after you've threaded it through the outer though.

At least it doesn't crush the cable like a crimp does. Probably easy to
cut or pull off too.

Quoted message said:

Personally I just let a small amount of superglue wick into the end of
the cable and then wipe the excess off.

Does that work OK with coated/oily cables? I find that some of them can
be difficult to solder without lots of heat and flux.

Rob Morley wrote on 22/12/2006 14:29 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Personally I just let a small amount of superglue wick into the end of
the cable and then wipe the excess off.

Does that work OK with coated/oily cables? I find that some of them can
be difficult to solder without lots of heat and flux.

Seems to. It doesn't need mega strength to work but if the end was
covered in grease I would be inclined to wipe it clean first.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In article <[email hidden]>

Ben C said:

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>
soup <[email hidden]> wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

tin the end with solder and trim it neatly with pliers - this makes it
reusable

If you can get the solder to stick. It works on cheap cables, but try it
on a Teflon-coated one.

Use oxy-acetylene and bronze instead of solder. :-)

Rob Morley wrote on 22/12/2006 14:34 +0100:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>

Ben C said:

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>
soup <[email hidden]> wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

tin the end with solder and trim it neatly with pliers - this makes it
reusable

If you can get the solder to stick. It works on cheap cables, but try it
on a Teflon-coated one.

Use oxy-acetylene and bronze instead of solder. :-)

A spot welder will do the job without the bronze ;-)

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In article <[email hidden]>

Tony Raven said:

Rob Morley wrote on 22/12/2006 14:34 +0100:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>

Ben C said:

On 2006-12-22, Rob Morley <[email hidden]> wrote:
> In article <[email hidden]>
> soup <[email hidden]> wrote:
[snip]
> tin the end with solder and trim it neatly with pliers - this makes it
> reusable
If you can get the solder to stick. It works on cheap cables, but try it
on a Teflon-coated one.

Use oxy-acetylene and bronze instead of solder. :-)

A spot welder will do the job without the bronze ;-)

Doesn't that leave a squidged blob on the end of the cable?

Rob Morley wrote on 22/12/2006 14:39 +0100:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>

Tony Raven said:

A spot welder will do the job without the bronze ;-)

Doesn't that leave a squidged blob on the end of the cable?

Yep but a few seconds on the grinding wheel sorts that. There ain't no
way its coming undone though ;-)

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>

Tony Raven said:

Jim Higson wrote on 22/12/2006 13:58 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Rob Morley wrote:

> Next time you fit a cable
> tin the end with solder

Staying on an electronics theme, I use heat-shrink tubing to keep
the ends tidy. Works well.

That must be after you've threaded it through the outer though.

At least it doesn't crush the cable like a crimp does. Probably easy
to cut or pull off too.

Quoted message said:

Personally I just let a small amount of superglue wick into the end
of the cable and then wipe the excess off.

Does that work OK with coated/oily cables? I find that some of them
can be difficult to solder without lots of heat and flux.

I've also had trouble trying to solder stainless steel cables.

Epoxy resin sticks to any cable, though I perfer crimps now. I got some
soft ones that squash easily so the cable doesn't get too crushed.

~PB

in message <[email hidden]>, soup

(') said:

You may remember I asked in here if EBC was rated then I posted a
piccy of my sons bike well after three weeks he has managed to break it
he bent the derrailleur and the gear hangar (just hope he hasn't bent
the frame) bought a new derrailleur and a new hanger, fitted them no
problem but trying to thread the gear cable back through managed to fray
the cable and just my luck the frayed "wires" are inside the outer. As
the spring tries to pull the gears back into line it hasn't got enough
power to fight the "sticktion" so the gears stick in "low" and the cable
goes slack, then further on the cable "slips" allowing the gears to
change "up" uncommanded and possibly at the wrong time.
Bike has to get its free six week service (they tighten bolts take
out cable stretch etc) so decided to have the cable supplied fitted and
have the indexing adjusted at the same time this is going to cost me £5.
Could probably fit and adjust the cable myself but a job that might
take me an hour would take a bike mechanic ten mins to do and if he
frays the cable he (they?) will have to use another one.

The cable will cost you £3, so that's £2 for fitting. Bite their hand off,
that's a steal. And he won't fray the cable!

Quoted message said:

They are also going to check out everything as son's story changes
from "I was just going along and it happened" to "I smashed into a tree
whilst trying to do something I had seen someone else do" via everything
in between so can not rely on his version of events so have no idea if
the frame got knocked too.

You don't bend a derailleur hanger just riding along, unless the derailleur
is horribly misadjusted and goes into the spokes.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Good grief, I can remember when England won the Ashes.

Simon Brooke said:

You don't bend a derailleur hanger just riding along, unless the derailleur
is horribly misadjusted and goes into the spokes.

That's what I said, so then we got "yes it did" and tears, then after
more questioning it was "oh I lent it to someone they must have laid it
down wrong" then after we said "we have told you not to "lend" it to
anyone" eventually got the " I crashed it into a tree... ." story and in
the mean time he has told us lots of stories, so we don't know what to
believe. Suffice to say there would be more damage if he had smashed
into a tree and less if he had just "dinged" it. So we think he is
covering something.

--
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>
Simon Brooke <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

You don't bend a derailleur hanger just riding along, unless the derailleur
is horribly misadjusted and goes into the spokes.

Maybe if a big twig or a bit of wire got jammed in the chain/mech/block?

In article <[email hidden]>, Simon

Brooke said:

The cable will cost you £3, so that's £2 for fitting. Bite their
hand off, that's a steal. And he won't fray the cable!

Cables are 50p.

Sandy Morton said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Simon

Brooke said:

The cable will cost you £3, so that's £2 for fitting. Bite their
hand off, that's a steal. And he won't fray the cable!

Cables are 50p.

What planet (or island;-) are you on?

~PB

In article <[email hidden]>, Pete Biggs

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Cables are 50p.

Quoted message said:

What planet (or island;-) are you on?

My Price - plus postage - and can normally be fitted into an A4
envelope.