Noodle Worm; what's the point?

[Pogo]

I've been stood in my garage looking at my bike, as you do...
when all of a sudden I notice the corrugated bit of rubber at the end of my noodle.

What the hell is it for?

Can of cider in hand and for the life of me I'm lost as to it's reason for existence. Someone please enlighten me, cos it looks like a totally superfluous bit of tat!

 

[one-eyed_jim]

all of a sudden I notice the corrugated bit of rubber at the end of my noodle.

What the hell is it for?

Assuming you're talking about a V-brake noodle, the little rubber boot keeps the cable clean. The brake cable between the V-brake arms is directly in the path of spray from the tyres. Dirt on the bare cable would be carried up into the noodle every time you apply the brakes, and the noodle would soon gum up. The rubber boot stops that happening.

 

[Pogo]

all of a sudden I notice the corrugated bit of rubber at the end of my noodle.

What the hell is it for?

Assuming you're talking about a V-brake noodle, the little rubber boot keeps the cable clean. The brake cable between the V-brake arms is directly in the path of spray from the tyres. Dirt on the bare cable would be carried up into the noodle every time you apply the brakes, and the noodle would soon gum up. The rubber boot stops that happening.

That's what I assumed the makers had in mind, totally pointless bit of tat though. I just can't see it being of any practical value, my noodle points up and there is no way water or crud is going up there!

There's gotta be a proper reason they exist!?

 

[Pogo]

Cards on the table time.

In the mid-90's I built up my frame and by the time it came to brakes I was short on dough; so I fitted M600 (LX) V-brakes and levers.

About 9 years ago the rubber boots deteriorated and I cut them off, so they've run without since that time. And last month my mate karma'd me his XTR V-brakes with good boots.

Well for the life of me I can't tell the difference in braking quality, no doubt the XTR are lighter and a hell of a lot easier to set up but the lever action isn't improved by the addition of cables that have had the protection of 'Das Boot!'.

I'm cutting the worms off! :?

 

[Rampage]

And they're grey...

 

[one-eyed_jim]

There's gotta be a proper reason they exist!?

You're right: I wasn't telling the truth.

Shimano's engineers designed a cable noodle boot, not to keep muck out of the cable noodle, but specifically to piss you off.

If you want to leave them off, leave them off. I don't suppose the world will end.

Can I go now?

:roll:

 

[Rusty Scrubber]

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Why aren't they long enough to reach across to the other side then?

They don't need to be. They only need to be as long as the total cable stroke, plus a little margin. That's enough to ensure that muck on the cable at the mouth of the boot doesn't reach the noodle when the brakes are applied.

In any case, there's no standard distance from one side to the other, and I can't see bike shops stocking boots of different lengths when a single length works fine.

 

[ishaw]

Depending on how you have your brakes set up and width of rim, you can make the rubber gator fit the length of the cable, simply switch the brake block spacers around.

I must admit, I've struggled to understand the point of them myself, as more often than not they are extremely loose fitting at both noodle and cable ends, so in my view not that effective at keeping out the elements. That said, I always use them, as surely some protection is better than no protection.

They also do make the cable run look a little less ugly, which is why I try to cover the entire cable length between the brakes.

 

[MADJEZ]

I believe they are ribbed for extra pleasure while braking....