Never thought there was so much to a thing as simple as brake housing. Investigation of the Bike Tools Etc website reveals more detail on the Delta housing. Seems this has a wound metal liner AND parallel strands, so I asume it is the hybrid housing you speak of. Doesn't seem to come in celeste, though.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
<Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; "Roy H. Drinkwater" <roydrink@ptd.net> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 12:42 PM Subject: Re: [CR]Celeste brake cable
> At 9:47 AM -0600 3/28/04, jerrymoos wrote:
> >It's a bit hard for me to believe that this is a common occurance. Were
you
> >using aero cable routing? With traditional routing where the housings
arch
> >over the handlebars, it seems to me these loops of housing would provide
> >more than adequate stress relief by deforming the curve of the arches
long
> >before a housing would rupture. Aero routing constrains the housing much
> >more closely so I guess it could happen there. I must confess, this is
the
> >first time I've never heard of a brake cable housing failing it this way.
>
> It is very uncommon to use indexed shift housing for brakes for two
reasons:
>
> 1. It's well known to be very dangerous.
>
> B. Indexed shift housing is generally twice as expensive as brake housing.
>
> >Something else that doesn't make sense here is that the mail order
places,
> >including Nashbar and Bike Tools Etc. sell exactly the same housings for
use
> >with brakes and derailleurs.
>
> That's brake housing, which also works for derailers, though with
> very slight degradation of shifting. Low end bikes, Huffys and the
> like commonly use brake type housing for the shifters as well as the
> brakes.
>
> >One presumes they must be compressionless to
> >work with indexed shifters, and in some cases they are explicit stated as
> >such.
>
> Could you provide a URL for this?
>
> >In a society crawling with product liability lawyers it seems
> >impossible a company as large as Nashbar would risk selling these as
brake
> >cables if there was any evidence that they are prone to failure.
>
> There is a type of hybrid housing intended to serve both functions,
> see: http://harriscyclery.net/
>
> Since this stuff is half again as expensive as regular index cable,
> it has never made a lot of sense to me so I don't stock it.
>
> Sheldon "Danger!" Brown
> Newtonville, Massachusetts
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