the biggest stumbling block when it
comes to clean crisp shifting or old
worn-out and dirty cables friction in
the system somewhere between the
shifters up here and the front or rear
mech will cause slow or miss time shifts
or at worst actually render your gears
completely useless sometimes old cables
can becomes frayed and worn as you can
see here on our filthy old fell but
luckily it's not a difficult job to
replace them yourself as I'm about to
prove to you now you don't need too many
tools to the job in fact in general all
you'll need is an allen key generally a
five millimeter one but it is important
that you have a good quality set of
cable cutters simply using some pliers
which you've found around the house
simply won't cut it so to speak and if
you want to do a very professional job
you're also going to need a file like
this and a little pic like this I'll
explain why just a little bit later on
now before we get on with it we need to
decide whether we need to replace just
the in a cable or all the outers as well
in general it'd be best to replace both
and the only reason that you just did
the inner cable is it's become afraid
over here at the rear mech and front
mech or up here towards the shifters but
it's still shifting fine otherwise no
scenarios we'll replace the outer ones
as well and that's exactly what we're
going to show you how to do now we'll
start by removing the old cable
shift into the smallest ring either at
the front or back and take all of the
tension out of the system
we're going to show you first the rear
derailleur there is a bolt which clamps
the cable in loosen it to free the end
of the cable and then cut the end cap
off here to allow the cable to go back
through the outers to access the outer
cables you may need to undo the bar tape
some older or even current Shimano
models though may have the cables coming
out to the inside of the shifter so
don't start taking your bar tape off if
that's the case for those that do have
to take the tape off we'll also need to
roll back the rubber on the brake hood
to expose where the cable enters the
levers make a note of how and where the
cables are taped on to the bars then
remove that tape too
now you can pull the inner cable out and
away from the rear mech then remove that
part of the outer cable completely and
put it safely to one side we'll use it
later to measure our new cable also as
you're going along
make a note as to whether or not there
are feral to either end of your outer
cables next pull the front part of outer
cable away from the cable stop or bar
adjuster on the frame and then pull that
outer cable away completely putting it
to one side with the other bit next push
the inner cable through the gear lever
making notice to exactly where it's
coming out this is where it's important
you've shifted to your smallest cog
otherwise the end of the cable won't be
exposed in the shifter now is a good
time to cut your new outer cables down
to the right size this is the point
where those extra tools will come in
handy use the file to get rid of any
sharp edges and use your pick to make
sure the inner cave will thread nicely
through now put any of the Pharos on
that and needed for your bike as they
were on your previous cables take your
new inner cable and thread it through
the shifter putting it snugly into place
thread the first longer piece of outer
cable on and lodge it into the correct
place at the shifter then thread the
inner cable through the barrel adjuster
on the frame if there is one or simply
put the outer cable into the cable stop
now you'll need to thread the inner
cable through the cable guide underneath
your bottom bracket and then to the last
piece of the new outer cable launch the
forward end of the cable into the frame
stop then put the inner cable back
through the barrel adjuster of the mech
make sure that the barrel adjuster is
screwed most but not quite all of the
way in then pull your cable tight
through the crimping area right here's a
little tip which I use manually post the
mech up whilst turning the pedals so it
changed a couple of cogs up on the
cassette the mech won't be able to
spring all the way back down whilst you
pull the cable tight and do up the bolt
then when you've done that and turn the
pedals again that last piece of mech
movement will take up any slack in the
system right now click the shifter up
one gear and then unscrew the rear mech
barrel adjuster until the chain pops up
on to the next cog if you have to
unscrew it too much though you might
need to undo the cable and pull it
through slightly more at this point the
gear should be pretty much indexed but
for a full video on how to adjust your
gears see the link in the description
below this video
now you can take the outer cables to the
bar and either replace or rewrap your
current bar tape finally once you've
double-checked that everything is
working smoothly you can cut the excess
in a cave of your cable cutters then
crimp the cable end cap on the process
is almost exactly the same for front met
cables for more maintenance videos make
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