How to change a derailure cable in 47 easy steps

"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
07/07/2020 at 23:27 • Filed to: Bicyclopnik

Here is a step by step pictorial of how to change a derailure cable and housing in many easy steps. The number of steps I cannot count. This particular bike is a model year 2019 Specialized epic hard tail. Most new bikes these days have internal cable routing with varying levels of detail and ease to service.

1. Buy a new cable and 4 feet of housing. Realize you still have several feet of housing from the last three times you did this. About $10.

2. Remove the old stuff.

3. Watch a YouTube video on how to get the cable out of the shifter.

4. Feed new cable through shifter, approximately 29 feet.

5. Realize you only needed 18” of cable housing to start with so that 4-feet bought is really looking like a waste of money right now.

6. Pull old housing out of bike and watch small part fall in floor.

7. Wonder if this is all going to come back together.

8. Remove stem from steer tube and drop fork. Watch everything get twisted up.

8.5 realize this is a good time to clean and grease the headset cups

9. Cut new housing to length and install housing ferrels.

10. Run cable through housing, then into head tube while using pliers to hold small piece that dropped on the floor earlier.

What kind of fuckery is this?

11. Pray to all the gods in India that the cable is in the internal routing tube.

12. Presto it comes out by the bottom bracket.

13. Cut last short piece of housing. Look at that 4 feet of unused housing on the bench, wonder what bike to use it on.

14. Perform contortions to get cable routes through derailure properly. Openly wonder who thought of this crazy gizmo, and no Gentullio Campagnolo ’s creation was much simpler than this SRAM crap.

25. Anchor cable and check shifting, apparently it’s okay and doesn’t require any adjustments!!!

26. That was a good macaroon.

DISCUSSION (30)

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:07

I thought this was going to be a short satirical post about chucking a SRAM GX shifter into the bin. Colour me purple to find a pleasant surprise...though still slightly disappointed you kept the shifter.

Internal cable routing is....a poor solution. I do like the move by some manufacturers to external cable grooves with retainer clamps. But that is still not enough to make me want to buy a new bike...

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:08

That sounds unpleasant. Think I’ll stick with my hydrauli c Zee’s.

...though my cx bike has needed new cables for a while now. Not looking forward to doing them. Especially not looking forward to paying for replacement Campagnolo cables, but I eventually will I’m sure. Maybe I’ll make a tech do it for me though.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
07/08/2020 at 00:10

This bike is sram XO, it works the same mechanically as GX but with much better materials and precision in manufacture. The XO has noticeably better level feel and shifting than GX, and GX is worlds better than NX. NX is absolute shit. I have GX on my stump jumper and it works fine, not going to spend $500 to replace it with XO .

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
07/08/2020 at 00:15

I’m not afraid of campy, in the end it all works using the same principals. See if you can get a campy cabling kit. It should have all the housing, cables, ferrels, and ends you need, plus those rubber doughnuts. The Jagwire kits are nice if they have campy cable ends, you can get them in colors .

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:17

I ain’t skeerd, just kind of cheap. Also kind of lazy.

Chariotoflove > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:23

Remember the good old days when making your shifter cables aerodynamic meant routing them under the handle bar tape? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

promoted by the color red > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:25

Internal routing? Damn, I thought that died with the ‘90s Kleins.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
07/08/2020 at 00:26

I love working on bikes, much cleaner than working on cars. They also don’t weigh much so I don’t have to put it on jack stands to work on it.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Chariotoflove
07/08/2020 at 00:27

I still know how to set up cantilever brakes, one day I’m going to get a call to fix hundreds of old bikes with canti’s because kids these days only know disc brakes.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > promoted by the color red
07/08/2020 at 00:29

It’s been a thing starting around 2010 or so depending on the brand. My 2012 trek had external cables and my 2016 specialized fuse had internal cables. All my bikes currently have internal cab ling.

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:32

Then you get finger stabbed with a frayed cable...

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
07/08/2020 at 00:33

Or tetanus from working on a rusty Mazda .

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:38

And then finger stabbed by the frayed M azda wires.

Nom De Plume > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
07/08/2020 at 01:35

Internal routing makes ‘sense’ on TT bikes among the high number of other disorderly ‘technological advances’ that once in a great while work as intended without catastrophe during a 45 minute + 40k ride.

Only excuse on a mtb is if the jungle you have to hack apart to ride in somehow doesn’t snag your bars preferring cables instead. Contaminated housing is not so great.

Nom De Plume > Chariotoflove
07/08/2020 at 01:41

I thought shellac was the aerodynamic component and cables acted like the sprinkler below a high dive platform.

Nom De Plume > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 01:47

Buy the wife a modern road race bike (smaller frame with long stem/seatpost) that has internal routing. 470 steps might get you around the first impossible bend. Of many.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 02:27

I've been there done that with SRAM... solidly Shimano 10 speed down here. Though am tempted to try Microshift Advent X...

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Nom De Plume
07/08/2020 at 02:30

Both my MTB run full length cables...one external and the other internal.

As for TT bikes...nothing, I repeat nothing, makes anything close to sense about those bikes. Nothing.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
07/08/2020 at 09:12

I’ve been running sram for 4 years now and have not had any serious issues so I guess I’ll keep on going in that direction. The new 12 speed shimano has my attention but I doubt I’ll run that unless it is oem on a bike.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Nom De Plume
07/08/2020 at 09:18

I want an internally routed dropper post on my road bike now...

Nom De Plume > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 09:42

I hear with the combined savings on PR/racing and gross sales net the industry has grown emboldened enough to make a big push with fully suspended road bikes next year. Big focus on GRA VEL. Everything is gravel and sensitive approbation of native cultures. If you wanted a foreign brand bike though your time is past. S & T finally got enough legislation through to assure complete stateside dominance.

If I were you, wireless dropper post would be the dream part falling off that gravel tree for use on all other bikes.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Nom De Plume
07/08/2020 at 10:34

Monster cross- full suspension- gravel girnder TT- stainless steel, plus tire e-bike?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Nom De Plume
07/08/2020 at 10:36

I legitimately want Paul Sandoff to build me a steel slack angle 29er hard tail mountain bike. Paul has been building bikes for a long time and they are very nice without having the Moots or Strong etc.. exclusivity.

http://www.rocklobstercycles.com/

Nom De Plume > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
07/08/2020 at 10:49

My favorite has been the constant reinvention of ways to make a seatpost unusable and incapable of clamping into place. Foolowed closely by making competent people figure out ways to make childish drawings be able to fit a crank in the real world.

Not pictured is the S-Works that spawned this little jollity.

Kinja'd!!!

Nom De Plume > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 11:16

Sounds better than a lot of other options.

I suspect you realize through maturity or experience a dull bike is often the best, the one you ride most. We are too complicated and prone towards singling out flaws to ever solve many at one given time . Better to live somewhere interesting and evolve internal ways to deal with challenges .

Did you catch the Cycling Tips article on what bike makes and models are the fastest based off Strava data ? Fourth fastest is a lower end nothing special aluminum off the shelf bike by a Dutch brand most in the world have never heard of, Sensa Romagna .

Chariotoflove > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 13:41

I spend way too much time adjusting my kid’s cheap cantilevers.

Chariotoflove > Nom De Plume
07/08/2020 at 13:43

I don’t know what that means, but the main reason for hiding cables is more to make the bike look clean and “cool” than any aerodynamic advantage, although that was an often quoted justification.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 16:12

Step 1: load bike onto car

2: drive to bike shop

3: pay shop to fix

4: profit in time saved!

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
07/08/2020 at 16:44

Unless the bike shop is backed up 2 weeks for repairs...

I also assume that a decent car mechanic can figure out how a bike works pretty easily. Just no ugga duggas okay?

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 22:18

That’s why I have multiple bikes!

I could. But I don't want to. Then my hobbies get dangerously close to being my job.