Non compressible cable outer

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Oct 19, 2012
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In my naivety I expected all outer cable to be non compressible to a large extent but on cabling up the Drypod2 it was clear that the lever was moving and the calliper wasn't once a certain pressure was achieved. This was using non branded cable outer from a 25m roll. I'd used a fair bit of this outer before without any real issue but here and now it was terrible. Whether old age had got it or I'd hit a badly made patch I do not know. A search online finds such an invention as non compressible outer as a separate and better thing to regular outer so I bought a couple of metres of Jagwire's version of it and what a difference. Doubtless some here know this already but it's new to me. No discernable compression at all and almost all my effort going into squeezing the pads rather than the outer. It was about £6 per metre off ebay. It's something I highly recommend over the regular stuff.
 
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Did you mix gear outer and brake outer ?

Gear is compressible , brake is not.

Paul
 
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Oct 19, 2012
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No mix up. 5mm spiral brake cable outer was most definitely compressible. I even cut a few lengths of it and tried routing it different ways. To the best of my experience gear cable is less compressible than brake up to a certain point only but doesn't have the ultimate strength needed for brake use and will often fail dramatically beyond that certain point. The non compressible outer has a mix of the straight reinforcement of gear and the spiral of brake and is massively better for it.
 
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May 31, 2013
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Yup, definitely the two types in existence. They usually ensure shifter cable is non-compressible as anything else means your gear setup keeps changing and can be inconsistent.
I try and use only the non-compressible type. I had always understood that where bikes have the inner wire exposed and bare on the longer runs between immovable cable stops it is to minimise the opportunity for outer sheath compression and thereby to improve braking and shifting.
 
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Oct 19, 2012
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Standard cable. Brake top and gear bottom. Brake is strongest but compresses slightly. Gear is compressionless but simply not ultimately strong enough for brake use as it will rupture on heavy loading which it is not designed to take. Only the plastic housing is preventing that rupture.



Compressionless uses the same reinforcement design as standard gear but also adds a kevlar weave sheath around it to prevent rupture at brake loadings.



Compressionless doesn't have the same flexibility as standard brake outer so won't form as tight a bend and as such you may need a slightly longer run of it. After the experience in cabling the Drypod2 I won't be using standard stuff again. Compreessionless is massively better and not a massive extra expense.
 
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