Power Cordz Lightweight Shifter and Brake Cables

[Villadsen]

Beware: I actually ordered a pair of Powercordez gearcables in mid January for delivery in February and payed via Paypal. Since then complete silence!!!! Several mails were unanswered by IoDupont, although I did receive confirmations that the email were actually read.

IoDupont wrote me back last night and confirmed that the cables had been sent. Today they showed up with the mail and I could see that the delay was because of those public workers in the German customsoffice can't get their fingers out of their a... and get the things expedited.

The cables looks good and they are really really light. Feels almost too light to be safe. I am gonna use one for rear brake and a set on the gears. At first I am gonna keep the steel wire on the front brake - just to be on the safe side.......

Anybody who tried them with Nokons for gears? I think it should be a good combination, but I have not had time to test it so far. It says in the instructions that they are not compatible with Nokons for brakes. I guess they are too thick.

[madcow]

They are not compatible with nokons when they are stock. But they will work. You have to toss the nokon liner and go with a larger diameter liner like shimano. Then to get your nokons or IRD's to fit over the slightly larger liner you have to drill out every single piece to .113. Took about an hour to drill them all.

Once done, they work perfect, supersmooth and so far no stretching.

[Paco Bonnin]

Then to get your nokons or IRD's to fit over the slightly larger liner you have to drill out every single piece to .113. Took about an hour to drill them all.

That right there is ww-ism at its finest

[newbieweenie]

So what are the best cables to use without having to modify the housings?

[BeeBee30]

Hey Madcow,was it just the Nokon brake outers you had to drill,the Power cordz website lists the gear cables as compatible,but not the brake cables?

[madcow]

I drilled them all. I felt that it was just easier and more consistent to have everything the same. I did try both before I drilled them, the shifters did feel like they would work, but the brakes werent even close.

[mike]

hello, anyone has any feedback after using these powercordz?

thanks.

[madcow]

Used these on a couple of bikes now, no problems. Only drawback is that you may clamp them only once. So if youre not really good at setting up your brakes and shifters, let someone that has experience using these cables do it. That way if they screw it up, you can get them to replace them.

[Craigagogo]

This is a review that a friend of mine sent me...(set up on ZG brakes too)

Craig

I tried to take the pictures you requested on cordz and flying snakes but my poor little toy camera is not up to the task-at least in my hands. The pictures are just too fuzzy to see any detail.

So all I can do is give you a few comments and answer any questions you have.

Cordz are VERY light but seem to brake and shift as well as any thing I have used. Quite a challenge first time you work with cordz. Quite delicate-cut with sharp knife-sure don’t need cable cutters-if fact mine did poor job when I tried them. Because of the soft coating over the fiber interior cable you really need to do it right the first time as trying to move the cable and therefore pinching it at a new spot really flattens out and messes up the cable. Also you absolutely must take a full turn around the cable retaining bolts whether it be on brakes or front or rear derailleur otherwise they simply do not hold. The cable ends on the brakes are typical in that they need to be carefully filed to seat properly in campy levers-gear cables are fine as is.

The flying snakes are very nice-quite a slim stainless cable in Teflon sheath in cool looking housing. Pretty difficult to weight the stuff because you remove all the old and then cut the new as you install it so I really can’t give you any hard numbers. But it is very cool looking and definitely lighter-considerably so with cordz.

With the cordz you do away with flying snakes stainless cable and Teflon sheath and just use the housing saving a bit more weight but making this even more a “race” setup not an everyday “grind it out in grit and rain setup”.

I did have to remove the under bottom bracket cable tube and replace it with a larger one to accommodate the cordz-bit of a challenge since it was glued internally in the bb shell but I got it out and inserted a flexible tube for the cable replacing the aluminum tube they had glued in there-saved few more grams!!

I did a criss cross cable routing and this keeps cables clear of rubbing on head tube and crossed them under the down tube. I also used the carbon fiber abrasions dots I got from MDT to protect any possible cable touch points on the frame-dots are only visible under close inspection-very nice protection!!

I raced on it in the 84 miler and had NO problems with brakes or gears and no stretching or readjusting was necessary afterwards.


Hope this helps!

[smallfish101]

That's a great initial review, craigagogo.
I assume that you were using the flying snakes just as the outer cable sheath with the cordz as inners. Would the Teflon liner not fit ? Have you tried Campy or Shimano or perhaps Jagwire outers ? I ask as I have a set of cordz waiting to install and was wondering which outer cable was best. I have had bad experiences with Nokons and will not use them again.

[Craigagogo]

Smallfish, this review was emailed to me by Old Man of the Weight Weenies forum. He was the first person to take the plunge and go for the Cordz that I know of. He previously used Nokons on his ride, not sure why he switched to the Snakes. Maybe if Old Man reads this posting, he will reply and try to answer your questions.