Mystery grommets

[POHB]

Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go. I tried using
them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths against the bits on the
frame that they slot into but they just squished up and stopped the
cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right now they are just hanging on
the cable.

 

[Pete Biggs]

POHB wrote:
> Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
> oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable
> back on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies
> threaded on it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs
> naked along the crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to
> go. I tried using them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths
> against the bits on the frame that they slot into but they just
> squished up and stopped the cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right
> now they are just hanging on the cable.

I fit a few of these grommets evenly spaced along the naked bit to stop
the cable tapping against the frame. I don't know if they were invented
for any more serious function that this.

~PB

 

[Tony Raven]

POHB wrote:
> Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
> oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
> on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
> it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
> crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go. I tried using
> them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths against the bits on the
> frame that they slot into but they just squished up and stopped the
> cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right now they are just hanging on
> the cable.
>

Just string them along the exposed inner. They are designed to stop the
exposed run of inner from scraping against the frame and damaging the
paint. Nothing more.


--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

 

[Alan Braggins]

In article <[email protected]>, POHB wrote:
>Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
>oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
>on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
>it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
>crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go. I tried using
>them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths against the bits on the
>frame that they slot into but they just squished up and stopped the
>cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right now they are just hanging on
>the cable.

They are supposed to stop the cable rubbing on the paint of the crossbar.
Leave them just hanging there (assuming I've interpreted you correctly).

 

[Rich]

"POHB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]
> Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
> oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
> on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
> it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
> crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go. I tried using
> them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths against the bits on the
> frame that they slot into but they just squished up and stopped the
> cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right now they are just hanging on
> the cable.

Wallace is sure to know.
>

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:24:05 GMT, "Rich"
<[email protected]> said in
<[email protected]>:

>Wallace is sure to know.

Are they made of cheese?

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

 

[Jim Price]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:24:05 GMT, "Rich"
> <[email protected]> said in
> <[email protected]>:
>
>
>>Wallace is sure to know.
>
>
> Are they made of cheese?
>
Are they cracking?

JimP

 

[POHB]

No, that was my old tyres.
BTW I picked a couple of huge chunks of glass out of the Schwalbe
Marathons, but NO puncture. Ha!

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Just zis Guy,
you know? ('[email protected]') wrote:

> On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:24:05 GMT, "Rich"
> <[email protected]> said in
> <[email protected]>:
>
>>Wallace is sure to know.
>
> Are they made of cheese?

Wensleydale.

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

;; Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they
;; do it from  religious conviction."          -- Pascal

 

[POHB]

OK thanks folks, I'll just space them out a bit then. None of the
other cables have them but I guess they aren't running horizontally so
all the little grommets would end up in a heap at one end.

 

[David Martin]

Simon Brooke wrote:
> in message <[email protected]>, POHB
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
> > Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
> > oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
> > on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
> > it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
> > crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go.
>
> They're meant to go exactly where they are. The theory is they space out
> along the cable and stop the cable rubbing on and scratching your paint,
> which, given the cable is under tension, it isn't very likely to do
> anyway. But they weigh virtually nothing and at worst do no harm.

Like halyards under tension won't slap against the mast? Work out the
tension required to limit the catenary to the few mm and you'll realise
it is not under anything like enough tension, hence the grommets. They
are harmless, and possibly useful.

...d

 

[Tony W]

Put them along the bare brake cable. You can then use them to record how
many times you have fallen off by moving one along, abacus stylee each time
you do.

T



"POHB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]
> Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
> oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable back
> on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies threaded on
> it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs naked along the
> crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go. I tried using
> them to kind of cushion the ends of the sheaths against the bits on the
> frame that they slot into but they just squished up and stopped the
> cable moving freely. Any ideas? Right now they are just hanging on
> the cable.
>

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, David
Martin ('[email protected]') wrote:

>
> Simon Brooke wrote:
>> in message <[email protected]>,
>> POHB ('[email protected]') wrote:
>>
>> > Just been giving the bike a long-overdue clean and lube, including
>> > oiling the brake cables. When I went to hook the rear brake cable
>> > back on the frame I noticed it had 3 little soft rubber thingies
>> > threaded on it between the front sheath and back sheath ( it runs
>> > naked along the
>> > crossbar). I wasn't sure where they were meant to go.
>>
>> They're meant to go exactly where they are. The theory is they space
>> out along the cable and stop the cable rubbing on and scratching your
>> paint, which, given the cable is under tension, it isn't very likely
>> to do anyway. But they weigh virtually nothing and at worst do no
>> harm.
>
> Like halyards under tension won't slap against the mast?

No, I haven't. Halyards slap against the mast at moorings precisely
because they're not under sufficient tension; IME halyards /in/ /use/
don't slap (and for one reason or another most of my boats have had
external halyards, so if they did I'd know about it). What, IME, slaps
at sea on my present boat is the VHF aerial and nav-light cables which
run /inside/ the mast, and which I've had to go to great lengths with
sections of preformed pipe-lagging to silence.

> Work out the
> tension required to limit the catenary to the few mm and you'll realise
> it is not under anything like enough tension, hence the grommets. They
> are harmless, and possibly useful.

As I said.

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

;; ... exposing the violence incoherent in the system...

 

[POHB]

Hey, they really work. I hadn't spaced them out before I rode this morning
and several times over bumps the cable was pinging against the frame,
sounding just like a halyard against a mast.
What a great bit of low-tech they are.