Hi,
Just wanted to ask if anybody else has experienced similar problem. I've done about 15000km with my super record and yesterday (unfortunately during a VIP race) it was a secod time! my rear derailleur cable unraveled (right word?) inside of the lever. When I figured out what was going on, I managed to change gears with messing around with the cable under the downtube. Then I felt the part of the wire, single fibre, sticking out from the rubber hood! Firts time it was Gore cable, now Campy one. Bad luck or poorly designed mechanism?

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Cervelo R3 Team

Think about what the cable does when its shifting up - its bending & being wrapped up into the shifting mechanism.

Its a fairly tight radius at that point, so the cable will eventually deteriorate & stretch.

The problem will be exacerbated by shifting without pedalling at the same time - which prevents the mech moving & thus stretching the cable / loading up the cable more than necessary.

Cables are a part of the bike that are subject to wear & tear - so they should be replaced once in a while - and/or inspected to see how they are & replaced if necessary.

I generally replace cables every 4-5,000 km which I think is in line with the campag tech docs.

FWIW I've had the same thing happen to me & it generally occurred about 8-10,000km into use.

Simply a case of neglect. That's far too many miles without new cables and housing. It's surprising that the bike shifted well at all.

Neglect? Too many miles?

I must be special. I have tens of thousands of miles on some of my cables and have not replaced them. Basically I don't replace cables. I think some of the old bikes still have their original cables from the build. Many many thousands of miles ago. Cables don't seem to wear out for me. I guess they stretch a tiny amount initially. But after that they just keep working about forever.

I've done already 16kkm with this one and only set of housing except for the rear der. cable changed twice. No problems with poor shifting. I must admit that I run gore housing which is fully sealed. I've done more than 25kkm with my 2008 Centaur w/out any cable change so problems which occured are new to me.

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Cervelo R3 Team

Way too long between cable changes and totally expected as others have said. I had this happen to me after about 5000 miles on my year 2000 Chorus. Have Campy on other bikes and interval to fraying varies with shifting frequency, shifter position on bar, etc. Frequency to change cables depends in your riding conditions ( wet, dry ) , terrain which dictates shifting frequency, whether you shift under load often, etc. in anynevent, you were past the reasonable expectation of cable life.

Campy posts a document on Maintenance Periods on their site.
Ergopower shifters - cable and sheath replacement - 20,000 km or 2 years, 15,000 km or 1 year if racing.

Looks like yours is just a bit early. It's something to keep an eye on.
You probably noticed the shifting was a bit wrong (slow lever return/ sticky upshift) for a while before the failure.
As soon as you notice something like that have a close look at the cable in the lever.

My last 2 have only lasted about 8,000 km each

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r o y g b i v

I don't shift all that much so Mine last a little longer, where I have issues is the brake cables sine I have to adjust them in and out as pads wear/ get replaced. cables are cheap, when I have to replace my brake cables, I generally swap my shifters too...

My cables must be special. Some are on there for over a decade and thousands of miles and work perfect.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Hi,



Surely you mean you adjust the calipers' pad to rim distance over the course of the pads' life, not the cables?

What wears out are the cable outers, the cables proper just elongate a little. Sure, they can get dirty but that's easily fixed, you don't even need to remove them to clean them.

Ciao,

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Being a snob is an expensive hobby.

Today I took my bike to my lbs to replace the cables and true my rear 303 and even they were really surprised that within not even 1 year I destroyed 2 cables. They inspected the lever if there was sth causing the problem, but found nothing. Now I know that approx. every 5-6kkm I have to change inner cables if I want to avoid such problems.

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Cervelo R3 Team

I would find this to be unacceptable.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

@apLe... as others have suggested its probably a maintenance issue. However, I'm wondering what vintage SR shifters you are using. The very early 11 speed shifters had some issues with the "pulley" that the cable slides through in the shifter. That was rectified but it was one of those running changes that sometimes go pretty much unnoticed. Anyway, if your shifter is one of the early 11 speed versions, you can check to see which pulley you have simply by pulling back the hood a bit an looking at the piece that your derailleur cable gets inserted through (from the bottom where you first thread it through). If the pulley that the cable head stops against is white, you have an early version. The updated version is black and easily replaceable.

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My Colnago C59
My Special Colnago EPQ

This is not just a Campag issue. My DA shifter chewed through a rear cable in 1 year's use (for me 10,000km max) right upon entry into the gear lever mech and the bulb end of the cable got stuck inside riiiiight around and could not be retrieved. 1 mech later and less than a year later I just saved the same thing happening again. Interestingly my 105 does not do it and have had the first cable set it came with all operational till I changed them out of boredom. They went 4 years without a prob.

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It's not how much you spend on a bike it's how hard you can ride it.

My SR is from 2011, I mean it's the version with white/red logos. I have the black pulley you're writing about. I think I just have to live with this. Don't want to change my Campy :]

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Cervelo R3 Team