I had a nightmare the other day. I was stretched by both arms on a rack. Then two executioners with black robes and grim faces took turns pulling me left and right. I woke up soaking wet just before they tore me apart. It seemed somehow familiar. The ten derailleur cables in our test had a similar experience. These were also tensioned at both ends in our tractor. A pneumatic cylinder then tugged on them a total of 5600 times. In between, they were tortured with waterboarding, dragged back through the dirt and repeatedly interrogated. Until they finally gave up and revealed the secret of their switching function.
Testing the shift cables reveals which ones transmit the commands precisely
Antiquated technology, nothing more is the system with which we engage our gears. An extremely long shift cable transmits the commands we give to the shift lever to the rear derailleur. The cable is supported by an outer casing. This keeps it under tension between the frame stops. This is where the first differences become apparent. If the sleeve flexes too much during the shifting process, the rear derailleur shifts imprecisely from gear to gear. This results in a spongy feeling on the shift lever.
The BIKE test results of the shift cables and outer casings and detailed assembly instructions you will find below as PDF-Download.
We tested these ten bike derailleur cables on our test bench:
- Alligator Super Fortress
- Gore Ride On Ultra Light Sealed
- Gore Ride On Sealed Low Friction
- Jagwire Ripcord
- Nokon Universal Cable Kit
- Nokon Slimline
- Shimano MTB PTFE Shift Cable Set
- SRAM Slickwire
- XLC Derailleur Cable Kit
- Xtreme Easycable Pro
Downloads:
Stefan Frey
Editor
