So Im fresh into college and just got an old bike of my family's to use around town. Just for context, I dont know bikes, so I most certainly wont be using the correct terms. We took it to the local bike shop for some maintnance and just today I got it out and started using it. I was a bit confused on how the gear shift was working, and didnt know how to go back up gears. There were two shifts, one on the left with 3 options, and one on the right with 8. What happened is that my right side one was on the lowest gear, 1 of 8, and I tried shifting up to 3rd on the left side one. It did end up going to third, but when I did that, suddenly part of the gear shift cable for the left one burst open, with pieces of plastic launching into the grass beside me. So I clearly broke the protective shell of the cable by applying too much force to it with the gearshift, but I did eventually figure out how to shift the other direction, and it seems to work fine. Changing the left side gear still seems to change gears and stuff. So, my question is, how bad of an issue is this? Here are also a few photos of the breakage. Any and all help appreciated!
by littleninja06
4 Comments
You need a new cable and housing. No big deal. Looks like some kind of wrong cable housing was used. The others should be checked.
full cable and housing replacement. not super costly. the old cables are just old.
If you took it to a local bike shop for a “tune-up” this is something they should have checked. Regardless, you need to adjust/replace the cabling attached to this lever.
Happens due to old cables, as the material they’re made out of dries up and loses its integrity.
Aliexpress sells colored full kits with the cable, housing, and the small parts you need for replacing everything, and it costs about 5 dollar. Just be sure to choose the right cable(brake/shift cable, brake cables have variants for road/drop and mtb levers)
If you order the wrong one, you might find yourself waiting another week before repairing it.
It’s not hard to do, I’d rate it 3-4/10 depending on the type of bicycle.
The most important thing is using stainless cables(I believe the AliE sets have stainless, but I’m not sure so check the specification)