soldering bicycle brake cable ends

You need a flux designed for steel. Something like Baker's soldering fluid. Fluxite - or similar paste type fluxes - are really meant for things like copper or brass.

But I'd make sure the wire rope is clean first - it's possible it might have some form of wax applied to prevent corrosion. Cellulose thinners remove most of this sort of thing.

I've found an aggressive flux - like Everflux - also works well on steel. I recently made up a throttle cable for the old car with no problems.

Is this to stop the end fraying? What about crimping on a bootlace ferrule, or any crimp which is about the right size?

You will need to use Braze or Silver Solder, which you will need to use a propane torch.

Never done it so can't help any further!

In message , Andrew Gabriel writes

They do make little crimp on ferrules specifically for the end of bike cables, or little it of heat shrink tubing over the end.

I've soldered them as well with solder tape, a few wraps and a match and it's done.

Go to the bike shop and scrounge some crimp ends. They'll crimp with narrow pliers (a narrow crimped band is stronger than an overall flattened tube).

If you're a sparkie, then electrician's bootlace ferrules work fine too.

Bike cable should soft-solder pretty easily. Degrease it, then use a powerful active flux. Fluxite paste is enough, multicore isn't. If the cable's new and clean you shouldn't need to use Baker's Fluid. A big (>=50W iron is useful)

If you're obsessive about your bike (about 90% of cyclists) you can form a back splice instead. No one will ever notice, but it's 0.001g lighter than adding that ferrule 8-)

For bigger cables than bikes, silver soldering is good. This will also work happily on stainless or phosphor bronze wire cable. You'll need a fluoride based flux, especially on stainless, but the joint is usually very easy to make, so long as the cable's reasonably fresh and clean. If it's old cable that has been out in the weather, either pickle it clean first, or splice it. Don't braze wire cable - it reduces the strength considerably.

Wire rope can't be soldered unless you remove any fibre centre core first. Degrease carefully too.

Use acid flux (plumbers) and a blowlamp.

Anyone know where I can get lengths of cable and some ends? I need to make up a long inner cable for a rear barke on a Peugeot tandem. No-one seems to stock one that's long enough.

Peter Scott

Peter Scott wrote :-

Try doing a search for Bowden Cable, plenty of results

Regards Jeff

An ironmonger may have some or a bicycle shop may have some on the reel.. hard to say. Anyway, you may find that nipples are hard to get these days, most seem to be cast on, and if you warm them up, the metal just splashes off. Have you soldered nipples onto cable before? There's a technique....

Yes I'm OK on that. Used to work in a bike shop.

Peter Scott

Good thinking. I had forgotten that's what it was called.

Peter Scott

Any bike shop. If you go in the workshop rather than looking on the retail racks, the stuff is on a reel.

BTW - brake and gear cable is different and you really shouldn't swap them.

If you haven't already, read Sheldon Brown's website

Don't use Bowden (or Teleflex) cable for brakes.

Some years ago I went into a bike shop-cum-hairdressers-cum-barber and asked the young lady whether she'd got brass nipples... she was embarassed.

Now what. Why?

Longer than 3 meters?

Bowden (in the strictest sense) cables are designed to accurately transmit a position down a flexible cable. They're appropriate for gearcables.

Brake cables are designed to transmit a tensile force. Position is less important, so a certain amount of ghost movement caused by cable flex is acceptable. It would be a problem on a gear cable if you shifted gear every time you moved the bars.

As a result of these requirements, the cable outers are constructed differently. Position-sensitive cables are multiple longitudinal wires in a jacket. If you flex this cable, the outer doesn't change length. Tension cable outers use a single wire spiral. This is more flexible, and it also changes in length (slightly) if you bend it, causing the apparent fake movement of the inner cable. Using brake cable for gears gives poor shifting that's prone to false shifts and moving gates.

The serious implication for bikes is if you use "gear" cable for brakes. Wear on the outer jacket can weaken the integrity of the outer cable such that hard emergency braking can burst it (the wires separate). The inner cable pulls through the gap and you lose your brakes. This is also most likely to happen when you _apply_ the brakes, not in an obvious manner beforehand.

Well, I don't think I've seen so much utter claptrap for absolutely ages. Sorry, but *really*.

I re-open this to say that I have never seen a cable used on a bicycle with an outer made of "multiple longitudinal wires in a jacket" used on a bicycle. What the hell are these?