Have anyone used the Yokozuna reaction cable housing?

[jrz1]

I have Yokozuna cables on my Guru Crono (their TT bike). I didn't install them, my lbs did. They commented that it was a difficult install but both brakes and shifting works flawlessly so far (~ 1000 miles).

[sneeeky]

can someone with the cables please give me an actual measurement for the derailleur cable housing? yokozunas website sucks there is no info. there seems to be mixed info some people say 4m others say 5m. can someone please clear this up for me, i want to use them on campy 11s
thank you

[worstshotever]

@sneeeky - I bought the Campy set. According to the packaging, the brake housing is 5mm, and the shifter housing is 4mm (the plastic end caps for the shifter housing are listed as 4mm, too). I checked the housings with my digital calipers, and the brake housing came in at about 5.07mm, while my shifter housing measurement was 4.25mm. Hope that helps.

@743 -- I really like those white cables!

[sneeeky]

worstshotever - thank you!
it seems like that might be a bit of a tight fit on campy 11sp, unless anyone has tried it successfully. if so id love to hear about it

[redhed18]

What's the recommendation on cable routing for stiffer cables like Yokozuna's?
Or does it depend...

"straight"
- run the rear shift cable on the right, the front shift cable on the left.

or

"criss-cross"
- run the rear on the left, the front on the right and then cross the cables on the downtube.

(obligatory Sheldon reference: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cables.html#crisscross)

[iamtak]

Have you guys been using a lube between the cable and housing?

Normally, I would hit the cables with some triflow before running them through the housing, but I worry this might interfere with the "Jet-lubed" housing.

Redhead: Good question re: the cross cabling. Im always interested to hear about little tweaks you can do for better performance. Now if I could just sort out my legs...

[Arky]

No lube needed! This can actually increase stick friction, which is not desirable. Don't mess up a good thing.

[1415chris]

What is the weight of this housing?
Will it be lighter than YM SP81 (23g/m)?

Now I'm using mini i-link but it sucks, so I need replace it for something more reliable.

[Gearjunkie]

Chris.

You too? I couldn't get the mini links to work reliably on the rear derailleur cable.

Would start each ride with perfect shifting, but rubbish by the end despite adjusting along the way.

Seemed like the cable was forever stretching, but what I think was happening is that the links would compress slightly more every time I changed to a harder gear and then not separate back to the same point when changing the other way, thus resulting in a ever shortening outer - same effect as if the inner were stretching (but it wasn't).

But found the i-Links (ie: not minis) to work ok on brake cables and minis to work ok on the front der, where exact cable tension is not so critical.

i-Links are MUCH lighter than Yoko.

So current set up is i-Links on brakes, minis on front der, and Yoko on rear. Works perfectly and is light.

[iamtak]

I've just installed these cables on my bike. I have this problem on my rear brake (front is fine). When I depress the brake lever there is about 20 degrees of "dead travel" where the brake lever moves before the brake calipers start moving.

If I manually apply tension to the exposed cable on the top tube I can eliminate the slack in the system. I feel like the brake caliper spring cannot provide the required tension to pull the cable through all of the housing and some excess cable ends up in the lever after use and has to be eaten up by the 'dead travel' of the lever before the system has tension on both ends.

Any thoughts? This is Rival equipment.

[steveymcdubs]

I just installed Yokozuna on a CAAD9 with Rival shifters and I don't have this problem. My guess is the housing isn't taped down well enough.

[iamtak]

thanks for the suggestion. I just checked, taped or untaped it makes no difference. There are no funny sharp bends or kinks in the cable run (as if that would be possible with this housing). Any other thoughts?

[lancejohnson]

my guess would be that you have a jagged edge on one section of housing that is gumming up the works. how did you cut the cables? did you grind down the ends and make sure that the liner is well out of the way and not impeding cable action?

[iamtak]

I used a dremel cutting wheel to cut the housing and a grinding wheel to ensure they had a very neat end and then used an awl to open up the inner lining hole while the plastic was still warm.

When I get the chance, I'll pull the housing sections and inspect them again.

[boneman]

I've been running Campy cables, gears and brakes, since 1992. I finally decided to try something else and got the Yokozuna's for Campag. Running gear is all Chorus 10. Whoa!!! The brake housing is extremely stiff so setting up the front brake and rear brake loops required a bit more fit and trimming than normal. I found the rear loop between the back stop and the rear caliper to work best with an almost but not quite straight in run, without any extra bend. I ran the brake housing without ferrules into the levers. For the rear brake cable where I have a two stop split housing setup, I used the Yokozuna ferrules for the stops. For the caliper barrel adjusters, I ran the housing straight in without issue. Housing was cut with a Park CN-4 which worked fine, touched up with a bit of flat file work. Needle nose pliers were used to round back the housing at the cut area.

Derailleur cable housing is pretty supple, more so IMHO than the Campag. I used the Yokozuna ferrules into the leves and the same into the DT barrel adjusters. This housing was also cut with the Park CN-4 and a bit of flat file work. Needle nose pliers were used to round back the housing at the cut area.

All cables were cut with an 30+ year old VAR tool which does a way better job than the Park.

Shifting performance out of the box is for me, better than running stock Campag cables as the shifting action now requires less effort. Brake action seems better in that it feels more direct although I'm not sure if it's lighter/less pressure needed, or not.

All that being said, we'll see if this performance is maintained over time but at least initially, it seems like the extra cost was money well spent.