Brake cable housing for road disc.

Back by popular demand, the general all-things Road forum!

Moderator: robbosmans

Post Reply
User avatar
Ritterview
Posts: 557
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:28 am
Location: Northern California

by Ritterview

Many here talk about road disc, but tandems actually use road disc, and have been for years.

Tandems generally use mechanical disc, and this has long been the Avid BB7. TRP, however, just released the dual-piston Spyre, and the weight weenie 146 gram Spyre SLC. Lots of info about the Spyre here.

Spyre SLC on our Calfee tandem:

Image

Image

Spyres get more braking engagement with less braking pull than the Avid BB7, which is important, as Campagnolo levers don't have the pull of Shimano, and a tandem has a looong cable.

The engagement I get now with the Campy levers is allright, but I wouldn't mind it to be tighter. I want to eliminate all compression and direct every millimeter of lever travel into brake power (I imagine this will be true as well for single road bikes with mechanical discs, so this topic is not just specific to tandems!).

The question is, what brake cable housing has the least compression? My LBS recommended Odyssey BMX cable, but my impression is that the ferrule weight weenie cable housing (e.g Nokon, i-Link, etc) also have very little compression (less than Jagwire?). If so, which of the ww housings have the least compression?

pushstart
Posts: 461
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 3:12 am

by pushstart

I have long used jagwire ripcord on my mtbs (and now road/cx commuter). I don't know that it is the best, but it is certainly very good (and not crazy expensive).

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



HillRPete
Posts: 2284
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:08 am
Location: Pedal Square

by HillRPete

Nokon works for me with Avid BB7. Unfortunately I don't have any other point of reference, though. One minor downside is that Nokons sometimes creak slightly, when turning the handlebars.

User avatar
ms6073
Posts: 4290
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

by ms6073

I have previously used Gore Ride On pro and sealed low friction on my cross bike which is currently equipped - that is until I can obtain a set of TRP Spyre SLC - with Shimano CX75 mechanical disc brakes which I found worked well initially but after 15-20 hours of cross racing, the teflon linerthat coats the cable started to flake off resulting in sticky/degraded action at the lever. Next I tried Yokozuna Reaction brake cables which are very good with slightly thicker brake cables than others and think those would do nicely but not sure if the housing or rear cable length would work for a tandem. Currently I use Jagwire Hyper Brake Kit with Braided housing on the cross bike and brake response/action with those cables is the best I have experienced but I think you might find the Yokozuna more suitable for braking on the tandem.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

User avatar
madcow
Shop Owner
Posts: 3742
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: Tucson, Az.
Contact:

by madcow

We've recently built a brake test jig and have tested a bunch of caliper brakes, once we write and publish the results we'll be using the same jig to do some testing on brake levers, cables and perhaps of more interest to you cable housing compression. My gut feeling is that Nokon will top the chart in compression.

bombertodd
Posts: 443
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:23 am
Contact:

by bombertodd

Ritterview wrote:

The engagement I get now with the Campy levers is allright, but I wouldn't mind it to be tighter. I want to eliminate all compression and direct every millimeter of lever travel into brake power (I imagine this will be true as well for single road bikes with mechanical discs, so this topic is not just specific to tandems!).

The question is, what brake cable housing has the least compression? My LBS recommended Odyssey BMX cable, but my impression is that the ferrule weight weenie cable housing (e.g Nokon, i-Link, etc) also have very little compression (less than Jagwire?). If so, which of the ww housings have the least compression?



Have you thought about trying shifter housing? If you cannot find larger shifter housing, I know bontrager/Trek makes smaller brake cable that will fit inside standard shifter housing. If there isn't enough compression you might be able to mix the two to fine tune the feel you are looking for.

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



Post Reply