Good shift cable installation and cable stops.

[horsefarmer]

Reviving a 30 year old Raleigh bike which used cable stops and exposed sections of shift cable to the derailleurs.
I'm fitting recycled Shimano index twist grip shifters from a little used girls Huffy with bent rims. The Huffy shifted perfect when it was disassembled.
Should I cut the housings and run the cables exposed or keep the cables covered the whole length?
The bike was left outside for quite a while before I got it and the original shifters and derailleurs were shot.
Seems to me keeping cables covered would be better than leaving them exposed to the elements?

 

[Dizzle Problems]

It depends on storage. I think using existing stops would probably look cleaner. Vs zip tie or such if full housing

 

[ratcycle]

Pics are helpful

 

[deorman]

With stops and exposed cable, you get more precise indexing because you eliminate some of the compression/decompression of the housing when using traditional radial core housing. Some people use the stops but put housing over the exposed areas. If you use the more expensive and harder to trim linear index housing used on ratchet shift systems, compression isn't much of an issue.

 

[horsefarmer]

You make a good point @deorman . The rear derailleur shifts good but has a "mushy" feel. maybe the housing is compressing. @Dizzle Problems, you are right the bike would look neater with the cables tucked in the factory stops. I am still learning about swapping derailleur components, and wanted to test ride the bike. Now I know the parts function time to install correctly.

 

[squirreldh]

And leaving them exposed allows you to lube the interface of the cable and housing easier. Full length housing will cause more drag on the cable and shifts wont be as precise

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

 

[Dizzle Problems]

If you're concerned about exposed cable, you could always use sheathing too. Some cable kits come with it, and a lot of internally routed bikes run it inside the frame. Your LBS might have some kicking around.

 

[horsefarmer]

By the way, here is a pic of the bike.

As you can see, cables are a bit of a mess.

 

[squirreldh]

It looks like the cable stops ar behind the headtube on the bottom of the downtube. Both front and rear housings should stop there, make sure they are long enough to allow the bars to turn, run through a guide on the bottom bracket and then to the derailleurs. The rear has a stop in front of the axle for another piece of housing to the rear derailleur, make sure it makes a smooth curve to the derailler, not too short or too long. Running it like that will help it shift better, check the adjustments of the derailleurs like the limits and cable tension for indexing and it should be rolling a lot better!

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

 

[horsefarmer]

Will take pics later, but had a little trouble getting the long housing off of the rear derailleur cable. After letting oil gravity feed thru the housing I got it off. It is rotting in the middle of the housing and maybe 3 strands are gone! Maybe that is about where the bottom of the step thru area was on the girls frame Huffy it came from and water pooled up there?
I'm reusing the old housings and should be OK for a while yet.

 

[horsefarmer]

Turns out the front derailleur cable was too short. the shifters are actually early SRAM units something like these but in pink! Tried to swap another shift cable but these seem to use smaller diameter cable. I substituted a friction shifter for the front twist grip.

 

[Duchess]

If your shift housing stops are on the underside of the downtube, you might want to consider crossing over the cables. I do this whenever I can because it allows you to take the cable housing across to the opposite side of the headtube, giving you a wider and less compound curve and, if you do it right, you can make them stay tighter than the traditional way allows. Once you run the housing to the opposite side, the cables will cross over each other under the downtube on their way to their respective routing at the bottom bracket. There is the most insignificantly slight increased friction where the cables cross each other, but the reduction in friction from the better routing of the housing at the handlebars greatly reduces overall friction in the system. Not so important with friction, but I've had some stubborn indexers that went from sloppy to crisp, fast shifts. I also think the cables look better and none of the ones I've done this way have and annoying flopping of the housings over bumps. Of course, this only works if the stops are under the tube enough so that the cables won't hit the tube when crossing over.

 

[horsefarmer]

Here are some pics. I have the 6 speed rear derailleur shifting great using the original cable housings and mounting lugs and the derailleur, SRAM shifter and (somewhat deteriorated) cable from the girls Huffy.
Original Shimano "light action" rear derailleur pivots are siezed. Not so lucky using the Huffy's Shimano FD-AX50 front derailleur and the associated SRAM twist grip. The cable is too short and there seemed to be a lot of binding rather than shifting.

Upon disassembly of shifter it looks like a hairline crack in the black plastic part that fastens to the handlebar so maybe it spread apart under load?

I'm going back to the original Shimano FD-Z204-HS and thumb friction shifter.

It looks better built that the huffy part with alloy castings and less use of plastic than the Shimano FD-AX50.