Decent gear cables/housing for a mountain bike?

esuhl

I need to replace the rear gear cable & housing on my mountain bike (which has SRAM X7 gears).

I've seen a few sealed units, where the gear cable isn't exposed, which seems like a good idea to stop grit and water getting in. I seem to perpetually have to fiddle with the gears/cables to get smooth changes, so I'd like something a lot better than the standard cheapo exposed cables I currently have... but I don't know where to start!

I've seen £5 cable sets get good reviews, and £50+ ones as well! Is there likely to be much difference? There's so many to choose from!

How much do I need to spend to get good performance? Is there anything I ought to look for, or any brands/models that are particularly good?

And... is it fairly easy to replace the gear cable? I have cable pullers and pliers, etc.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated!

Norman_Castle

I use cheap outers and cables and have very few problems. I occasionally unhook the outers from the frame without undoing the cable which allows cleaning and oiling of the cable. I remember having poor changes caused by a split outer cable just above the rear mech. Might be worth checking yours for damage.

esuhl

Norman_Castle wrote: »

I use cheap outers and cables and have very few problems. I occasionally unhook the outers from the frame without undoing the cable which allows cleaning and oiling of the cable. I remember having poor changes caused by a split outer cable just above the rear mech. Might be worth checking yours for damage.

Yeah -- I occasionally unclip the housing and clean/oil the cables too. They seem to move smoothly enough.

One of the ferrules (is that the right word?!) is badly cracked and looks like it will break imminently, and a couple of the wire threads in the cable itself have snapped. Hence me wanting to replace it ASAP!

I think the main the problem with sticking gear-changes is the amount of grit that ends up in the rear mech! So maybe basic cheapo cables would be fine and the sealed units are just an expensive con for a problem that doesn't exist...? I dunno... :-/

But I use my bike a lot, and the main thing that irritates me is when the gears don't quite change as they should. It's perfect after a clean & tweak, but after a couple of rides I have to clean, fiddle and tweak again. Anything that might cut that to a minimum would be good!