Bicycle Cables and What You Should Know as a Cyclist

Are you a bicycle owner? This question is especially important if you are a new and proud owner of a bicycle. It does not matter whether your bike is a mountain bike or road bike. They are the same. For this reason, you need to learn about lubricating your cable and replacing brake pads.

How do you know it is time to lubricate your cable? You have to understand that these cables work for providing gear shifts and braking power transfer. You will find that it is hard to shift gears and brake. These are the two most common indicators and they are all you need.

How to lubricate your bike cable First off, free up your shifter cables by starting on the rear cable. You should be ready to clean it afterwards.

Shift your bike gear so that your chain moves up to the smallest gear cog (at the back). Then use your hands are carry the chain up to the largest cog. Then you should press the derailleur inwards to make alignment with the large cog.

At this point, you should be able to pull the cable free. In exposing the wires, you should pull the housing sections back. Then clean the exposed wire with a bicycle cleaning solvent.

Lubricating the front cable Now you should shift the gear to the smallest chain ring at the front. Note that there are only two chain rings for a road bike or three chain rings for the mountain bike.

Pull the front derailleur outwards this time. Then repeat the step of exposing the housing and cleaning the cable with the cable cleaning solvent.

You should do the same with the brake cables as the steps are the same.

Replacing the brake pads You will need to replace the brakes when you have to press the brake further and harder in order to actually brake. This is because the brake pad has already worn off.

Look at your brake lever. You will find that there is an adjuster where the cables start to come out from, leading to the brakes. How to adjust the brakes?

You have to know that turning this adjuster counterclockwise, you will be tightening the brake. This increases the tension in your cable, making it shorter. Likewise, turning it in the clockwise direction will loosen it.

A word on brake cable adjusters You will notice that other than the adjusters, there is an extra component that blocks the adjuster. This is called the outer ring. Outer rings will be responsible to dampen the vibration of the adjusters when cycling.

Therefore, you should loosen the outer ring before even adjusting the adjusters. Once you are done with adjusting the brake cables, then tighten the adjuster by turning the outer ring.