I have been repairing a mangled Schwinn bike I rescued from a yard sale, and today I replaced the deraileur. That went smoothly except the brake cable is in such bad condition I can't even thread it in. Any ways to fix what I got or do I need to replace this too?
by DelicateJohnson
5 Comments
buy a new one
So bad news, the cable is basically done, there isn’t much fixing that. The good news is that it’s a fairly cheap repair. You want a shifter cable, find a video on how to change it out on your style of shifter and then how to dial in your real derailleur. It’s not too bad of a fix, but if you feel overwhelmed a local bike shop should be able to fix it quickly.
Yeah, that’s usually a no-go situation, both because it’s difficult to get through the next eyelet and because the ends of those lil’ cable parts can puncture your skin.
A new cable is pretty cheap.
If you’re really in a pinch, you can try to trim and untangle those pieces to use the strands that remain, but it’s kind of unpleasant and not recommended
Replacement is 100% your best bet.
Technically if you have lots of extra slack in the cable housing you could cut the damaged cable off and then shorten the housing to reveal some undamaged cable, but this is a bad idea unless you are sure you shifter cable housing has a few inches to spare. Replacing the cable is definitely easier, besides the fact that you need the new cable.
Replace