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Jagwire Elite Cables Ditch Coatings for Ultra Slick, Polished Steel

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Jagwire elite cable super polished no coating shift (3)

As drivetrains get more and more speeds, and shifting tolerances become more exact, the quality of shift cable is more important than ever. Many cables rely on a polymer or PTFE coating to offer silky smooth shifting, but coatings usually suffer the same fate – they wear long before the steel cable inside.

For Jagwire’s new Elite cables the answer is simple. Just eliminate the coating completely. Instead of coating the cable Jagwire has revisited the construction itself which achieves an impressively smooth finish thanks to stainless steel strands that are tightly wound and then highly polished. The polishing process removes any of the burrs on a microscopic level that make the cable less slick and creates a cable that supposedly functions just as well as coated cables but is more durable.

Jagwire elite cable super polished no coating shift (1)

Directly beneath the Elite uncoated cables are the Jagwire Pro cables, which will still use a Teflon coating simply because it is less expensive to manufacture than the new polishing procedure. While shift cables will benefit most from the lack of friction, brake cables will also be available for SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo. To differentiate the cables from the standard slick stainless, the new Elite cables will have a black cable head instead of the silver for the standard cable, above left.

To be available this May, the shift cables will be sold individually starting at $25 a piece or in file boxes for shops with brake cables sold individually.

jagwire.com

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MissedThePoint
MissedThePoint
9 years ago

Polished surfaces suffer from adhesion (sticking and rubbing) more, but are ultra slick when there’s lubrication in between it and another surface. This will do well in lubed housings like Shimano SP41, but worse than standard cables without lube. Lubes don’t stick to polished surfaces as well as rough surfaces.

Chengie
Chengie
9 years ago

Shimano polymer cables 4lyfe.

Tom
Tom
9 years ago

Good idea. Polishing to remove the micro-burrs should make these almost as slick as coated cables initially, and better as time, dust, and wear occur.

ryan
ryan
9 years ago

$25 for 2 inner cables only? That’s how much Wiggle is selling a complete Shimano PTFE cable kit (with housing and cable hardware)!

I guess time will tell as to the reliability, but I’ve found the #1 death to all coated cables isn’t from the coating wearing off, it is from foreign debris/water entering the cable housing. A polished cable won’t be impervious to this, and the polish can easily roughen.

ramble
ramble
9 years ago

I’m really curious about this. I agree that the price difference seems minimal between these and coated cables, and part of me thinks that having a really polished cable will actually increase the surface area of the cable where it contacts the housing, which it seems would increase drag. Maybe it’s true that lube will help them more.

anonymous
anonymous
9 years ago

That’s $25 retail. The same way the Shimano PTFE kits are $37 retail.

mechanic
mechanic
9 years ago

i guess people simply don’t lube their cables. I’ve had the same cables for over 6000 miles now with no problems what so ever.

Dave Schiman
Dave Schiman
9 years ago

Headline “JAGWIRE ELITE CABLES DITCH COATINGS FOR ULTRA SLICK, POLISHED STEEL” and the article says, “For Jagwire’s new Elite cables the answer is simple. Just eliminate the coating completely.” But then the article concludes “Positioned as their Elite level cables, the Jagwire Pro cables will still use a Teflon coating simply because it is less expensive to manufacture than the new polishing procedure.” WTF? What is this article even saying? Does anyone proofread?

Kristi Benedict
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  Dave Schiman

Dave, sorry for the confusion, we rewrote the last bit. The Elite and Pro are two separate items.

Bill
Bill
9 years ago

all for it. I’ve about had it with scraping and peeling “teflon” coating from some name-brand cables that accumulates at the ferrules.

David Stanley
7 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Yes, it does. It causes dragging after some time. I’m switching back to Jagwire.

BickDag
BickDag
9 years ago

Although I don’t have microscopes for eyes, the $3 Pitstop uncoated steel cables look identical. What a gimmick.

Jason
Jason
9 years ago

Another advantage of uncoated cables is that you can solder the cut ends so they will never fray.

Jason D West
Jason D West
1 year ago
Reply to  Jason

Excellent idea !!

SurlyWill
SurlyWill
9 years ago

@Ryan,

Agreed … check out Jagwire’s Elite cable kit with the continuous sheath. It’s 100% from shifter to derailleur/brake … even with cables stops.

Loki
Loki
9 years ago

Bike Rumor causes massive job losses in bike industry.

The new trend of no longer testing new products through prototyping and engineering regimes but rather posting an idea and letting the forum users explain why the idea sucks has seen a massive cut in costs and jobs in the manufacturing end of the industry. Said one industry insider, who wished to remain anonymous, ‘Since we started ignoring advice from anyone who can design tests around such words as ‘friction coefficients’ and ‘thresholds of motion’ we have seen a decrease in product recalls and an increase in revenues. I can now afford to send my children to school!’

Irony aside I’m all in favour of slick cables with no coatings to jam up in the ferrules.

King County
King County
9 years ago

I’ve had great success with Jagwire’s Slick Stainless Steel cables. With your fingertips, you can feel how much more smoother they are than a standard cable. These Elites are supposed to be even smoother. I’d definitely give them a try!

nphueber
nphueber
9 years ago

I got my hands on a pair of these at frost bike and I can attest to their claims, they feel just as smooth as ptfe cables, if not smoother. Can’t wait to throw them on my cross bike and try em out. I gave the stock ptfe shimano stuff a try but ripped it all out after less than a month because the coating was coming off and bunching up causing terrible shifting.

Darryl
Darryl
9 years ago

Seems that so many people cannot distinguish between older Shimano PTFE and their newer polymer cables.
Even the polymer cables have more than one level with the Dura-ace and more generic ones that come with Ultegra and lower.

Jason, have you actually tried soldering stainless cables?
If you have great success, please share the solder that you use to do so.
Cable caps are still required anyways to stop them sticking you.
The Polymer and even the PTFE cables don’t fray either, but still need to be capped.

If you are scraping polymer off at cable ferrules, you are not using the supplied ferrules or have failed to trim the housing correctly.

Tony
Tony
9 years ago

I’m a die-hard Shimano advocate but when it comes to cables and housing, I can’t deny that the combo of Jag’s current Slick Stainless or Teflon coated cables with their sealed alloy ferrules and lined/lubed L3 housing is a combo that’s tough to beat. I’m curious as to the difference of the Elite cables over the Slick Stainless but plan to give them a try for both derailleurs and brakes. My only concern is whether or not customers will spring for $25 per cable. Can get to be quite an expensive upgrade once new housing, good quality ferrules and labor are factored.

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