Cable & Housing Upgrades...

[2ndgen]

My Dura-Ace 7800 cables are tired.

Besides replacing them with Dura-Ace 7800 cables/housing, are there any better options available?
(better performing, smoother shifting & lighter of course, etc...)

Are Gore Ride On or Yokozuna cables really as good as some
say they are or as troublesome as others say they are?

What should I look for as far as features? Stainless? Teflon? Sealed/Unsealed? Etc...

Outside of regular adjustments, I'd like a high quality maintenance-free system.

[octav]

I had the same dilemma and after big comparisons I went and bought Jagwire Racer set. It costed me 25 euro and it's really nice. The finish, cables, everything is much better than the stock cables.
The weight for the entire set is 190grams.
The shifting in spot on

[Zen Cyclery]

You should take a look at the Nokon housing. I have been running it on my mountain bike drivetrain and it really made the shifting feel more crisp. It is a bit spendy, but it is by far the best for clean responsive shifting and braking.

[Dustin]

Gore Pro (not completely sealed) for shifters and Nokon for the brakes.

Light action, reliable, long lasting.

[SL58]

Gore Ultra and Nokon on the brakes.

[bikerboy337]

+1 for jagwire... pick up 25 feet of the L3 brake and cable housing and a few sets of cables... you can swap them out every year on the cheap... shift as well as my stock campy set.... in my opinion, spending money on the more expensive sets isn't worth it... unless your going sealed on a cross bike or somethign like that...

[PoorCyclist]

Dura ace 7900 cable kits are good. Installed a set of Gore fully sealed and was disappointed. They do not feel any lower friction than standard at all. And the grub seal squish around at the derailleur and tear itself.

I am tired of buying "kits" and wasting pieces everytime I do a bike.
So I went to REI (US store) and bought a big spool of house brand brake and shift cable housings, they are made by Jagwire. I did a looong full length housing on a SRAM system and it worked fine, so it can't be all that bad. Also used their teflon slick cable in black, made by jagwire. Needless to say they feel smooth, and look great on a black bike where exposed.

[weaverdcivw]

+2 Jagwire Racer kit. Decent weight, inexpensive, lots of colors (if that's important to you), comes with tons of fittings and connectors and works very well. If you're at the tail end of scraping grams off of a bike, then I could see spending 4x more for a slightly lighter cable/housing setup, but otherwise I'd favor price and function for an item that get's replaced as often as cables do.

[lukey muffler]

+3 on the jagwires. No fuss, work well, plenty of colour choices, cheap, no fiddly set up.

When the nokon’s are installed well they look great and work fine, but for me they are too much hassle and rather pricey.

[2ndgen]

Thanks for the responses.

Here's what I've heard. Nokons sqeak after a while.
Gore gunks up and has a reverse effect and make shifting harder.
Dura-Ace 7900 cables are compatible with 7800, but also have some
coating on them (which makes me wonder if this will end up making
shifting harder later on).

I really like the idea of the Nokon/Gore combo.
I'm not throwin' this up to criticize, but am posting it to hear
from those who've suggested that combo if these issues are real.

[2ndgen]

Also used their teflon slick cable in black, made by jagwire.
Needless to say they feel smooth,
and look great on a black bike where exposed.

Now "that" is interesting.

[jazclrint]

Thanks for the responses.

Here's what I've heard. Nokons sqeak after a while.

I have Nokons on my MTB. I haven't had them squeak yet, but the shifting started acting up and the housing was moving stiffly. I am pretty certain you are suppose to lube the housing from time to time. I used my MTB lube, Pedro's Ice Wax 2.0, on the housing and problem solved. As with the chain I am sure I will have to apply the lube more often, but it will keep the links clean, just like on my chain.

[Lig]

Nokons all the way! I would say more for gears than brakes, but best to do both!! I have them on two of my road bikes and have just bought another set for my third! Take a bit of time to fit but fitted correctly and they work superbly! Add a bit of Rock and Roll 'cable magic' and smooth as a smooth thing!!

Lig.

[5 8 5]

2ndgen, have you considered I-Links for the brakes instead of Nokons. They are similar but much lighter.