Tension for installing gear cables?

mikeyboyo · May 27, 2016

Hi everyone

My first resto is near completion and I have a question about gear cable installation. When installing new cables, before tightening the bolts on the mechs, what position should the levers be in? At the moment I have it like this:

If I pull the cables tight, tighten up the bolts and snip the extra length with the levers like this, will there be too much/too little tension when I move the shifters when indexing the gears?

Thanks
Mike

Midlife · May 27, 2016

Push gear levers as far forward as possible, for the rear adjust the mech so its on the smallest cog, pull though the cable hard with pliers and nip up the bolt. For the front do the same but on the small ring.

Those levers look like non indexed friction levers?

Shaun

keithglos · May 27, 2016

Re:

Back in the 50/60s when it was more important for gears to be workable rather than look right we used to set the gear lever about 30 degrees or so back for the high gear. If you were in a wet road race you could still change gear by getting the palm of the hand over the gear lever, rather than finger and thumb.

Its more about appearance now.

Keith

Spokesmann · May 28, 2016

I like Keith's comment, thats what I do. If the lever is too far forward, i.e. max, its harder to get your hand around. That said I echoes Shaun's remarks in that the cable should be taught etc...

Midlife · May 28, 2016

On a slightly different note but related. I seem to recall that Shimano did a set of levers where he left lever didn't go all the way down but stuck up rather like Keith says.

This was so you could change the front and rear mechs with the right hand only without swapping over on the bars and using the left hand.. The right hand could be used on the left lever as it was sticking up and never laid flat.

Or it could be my imagination LOL

Shaun

pigman · May 28, 2016

Midlife":3mpom867 said:
On a slightly different note but related. I seem to recall that Shimano did a set of levers where he left lever didn't go all the way down but stuck up rather like Keith says.

This was so you could change the front and rear mechs with the right hand only without swapping over on the bars and using the left hand.. The right hand could be used on the left lever as it was sticking up and never laid flat.

Or it could be my imagination LOL

Shaun

Yep, my tricolour levers are like that. There was a thread a couple of months ago where a poster asked about this.

Back to Keith's comment - the increase in the number of speeds means more travel is needed now, and adding slack into the cable would mean the lever pulled right round when on the biggest cog

mikeyboyo · May 28, 2016

Midlife":1k2qrkhh said:
Push gear levers as far forward as possible, for the rear adjust the mech so its on the smallest cog, pull though the cable hard with pliers and nip up the bolt. For the front do the same but on the small ring.

Those levers look like non indexed friction levers?

Shaun

Thank you Shaun, now I am showing up my lack of knowledge about the levers? What does that mean? I have been doing bikes for about 12 years but have only got into this involved a project last year, all my previous builds and projects have been sturmey archer geared bikes or bmx's

Thanks
Mike

mikeyboyo · May 28, 2016

Re: Re:

keithglos":1q9ufsgo said:
Back in the 50/60s when it was more important for gears to be workable rather than look right we used to set the gear lever about 30 degrees or so back for the high gear. If you were in a wet road race you could still change gear by getting the palm of the hand over the gear lever, rather than finger and thumb.

Its more about appearance now.

Keith

I have always tried to be of the function over form mindset, so I would like to do it this way if I can, thank you for bringing this to my attention Keith, do I need both levers 30 degrees back or just one of them?

Thank you for this valuable advice
Mike

mikeyboyo · May 28, 2016

Midlife":1lfj1j60 said:
On a slightly different note but related. I seem to recall that Shimano did a set of levers where he left lever didn't go all the way down but stuck up rather like Keith says.

This was so you could change the front and rear mechs with the right hand only without swapping over on the bars and using the left hand.. The right hand could be used on the left lever as it was sticking up and never laid flat.

Or it could be my imagination LOL

Shaun

Thanks Shaun, very interesting

Mike

mikeyboyo · May 28, 2016

pigman":30v1kud3 said:
Midlife":30v1kud3 said:

On a slightly different note but related. I seem to recall that Shimano did a set of levers where he left lever didn't go all the way down but stuck up rather like Keith says.

This was so you could change the front and rear mechs with the right hand only without swapping over on the bars and using the left hand.. The right hand could be used on the left lever as it was sticking up and never laid flat.

Or it could be my imagination LOL

Shaun

Click to expand...

Yep, my tricolour levers are like that. There was a thread a couple of months ago where a poster asked about this.

Back to Keith's comment - the increase in the number of speeds means more travel is needed now, and adding slack into the cable would mean the lever pulled right round when on the biggest cog

Thank you for replying, and for the information about the need for more travel

Tension for installing gear cables?

mikeyboyo

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