Brake Cable Outer Fatigue

[Bobley]

On my lads XXS road bike the rear brake cable routing drops off the bars an almost directly into the RH side of the head tube. He runs a 60mm stem and 360mm bars so its all very compact. Only problem is that the housing of the cable has sheared through at the point it pushes into the furrule at the cable entry. The cable was then taking all the bending load at one point.

As far as I can see I have 3 options. One is to run the full outer right through the frame which may help a little but the other is to run some sort of clever ferrule with a limited flexi section. I saw a TdF bike this week (cant find it now) where the cable ran through a flexi section about 3cm long which resembled a shower hose. This appears to limit the amount of flex in the cable.

Has anyone seen such a thing?

The closest I can find is a Nokon cable which may be my final/only/£££ 3rd solution.

[Justin S]

You can get a flexible ' v brake noodle' which might help you.

[SkinnyBoy]

Nokons are great problem solvers. I used them on my road bike as the cable runs were ridiculously tight. Pricey but you get what you pay for. I had enough left over to to do the rear shift cable on my new project.

[matt-ITR]

Brake outers are less likely to split than gear outers, make sure that gear inner/outer has not been used in its place.
Brake cable has a coiled metal under the plastic. Gear cable has straight rods under the plastic.

There are several options that are more flexible than standard outer, Nokon is one - but they can corrode and end up squealing.

[Bobley]

Thanks guys. Some useful ideas there. I see there are several suppliers selling link type cables.

Its def a coil type outer thats broken.