KCNC titanium brake and derailleur cables - bad experience!

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tantra
Posts: 92
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 12:19 am

by tantra

I invested $180 for a set of titanium brake and derailleur cables from Fairwheel. The cables have a beautiful gold coating and feel very slippery. I first installed the brake cables on my Seven bike with D/A 7900 shifters, Nokon housings, and ee-brakes. Even after adjusting the brakes so the pads were almost touching the rims, I could pull the brake levers until they touched the bars. WAY more stretchy than steel cables. Cable friction was not a problem at all. The braking performance was noticably worse than with steel cables. Next I tried the derailleur cables. The FD shifted OK, however, I could not adjust the RD to shift reliably. At best, the shifting was slow and hesitant. Much worse than the snappy shifting I was used to with steel cables. Again, the problem was cable stretch. So, I switched back to steel cables. Complete waste of money and time! Just a heads-up for you weight weenies.

nealrab
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:47 am

by nealrab

Kind of a bummer there...

by Weenie


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jmartpr
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Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
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by jmartpr

Did you use them just 1 ride? I have the brake ones on my EPS equipped bike and they work perfectly without any cable stretch after the initial use and setup. Give Jason at FWB a call about this, he probably could give you some feedback.

audiophilitis
Posts: 479
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:49 am

by audiophilitis

I also have these KCNC ti brake cables on a Time frame, in conjunction with Aican Bungarus housing. No issues either.

RyanH
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
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by RyanH

Something isn't right if the pads are almost touching the rims and you can squeeze the levers to the bars. Unless you got bungie cords, there has to be something else going on. Are you sure there's no areas of compression in the Nokons? I had that issue with iLinks the first time I set them up.

mnmasotto
Posts: 581
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:16 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

by mnmasotto

I am using them for both shifting and braking applications. I have Dura Ace 9000, Aican housings and EE brakes. No issues at all. They work no different than steel cables. Recheck your setup.

Oswald
Posts: 794
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2004 10:11 pm

by Oswald

Holy sh!t... 180 $ for cables?!? WTF??

drainyoo
Posts: 789
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:56 pm

by drainyoo

Overpriced, but they are half the weight of steel cables. If you're going for the lightest build, these are the cables. Getting them for my build. You only live once, baby!

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CharlesM
Posts: 5759
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:37 am
Location: Phoenix Arizona

by CharlesM

This ain't cable stretch... Something else is happening in the system.

mike
Resident Pro
Posts: 2983
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2003 9:42 pm

by mike

Make sure you pull the slack on the cable after the first time. Could be slack cable up where the shifters/brake are.
mike r

lannes
Posts: 418
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:51 pm

by lannes

drainyoo wrote:Overpriced, but they are half the weight of steel cables. If you're going for the lightest build, these are the cables. Getting them for my build. You only live once, baby!


I think powercordz are lighter and cheaper
Last edited by lannes on Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

drainyoo
Posts: 789
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:56 pm

by drainyoo

Yes but they don't work with all brakes.

vlastrada
Posts: 225
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:12 am
Location: uphill

by vlastrada

shifting is good so far with mini-i-links and Campy SR....

they have stretched, but not much more than new steel cables.

not using for brakes though

sungod
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:37 pm

by sungod

i've not tried the ti cables, but certainly with powercordz the nokon system takes time to bed in

so there's repeated tweaking until all the beads and ferrules have snugged up, so on initial install i make sure all adjusters are at minimum tension, then there's plenty of adjustment range

by Weenie


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Foxtrot
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:44 pm

by Foxtrot

What is the weight of the Titanium cables ?

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