Why does nobody talk about cable housing stretching over time?

I finally rebuilt my old touring bike last weekend and noticed the shifting was way off no matter how much I tweaked the barrel adjusters. After chasing my tail for an hour I decided to just replace all the housing and cables. That fixed it completely. The old housing had compressed and stretched just enough from 4 years of use that it threw everything out of whack. I guess I never thought of housing as a wear item that degrades that slowly. Has anyone else run into this where new cables alone weren't enough?

1 comments

1 Comment

troy9777d ago

Oh man, that brings back memories. I had a beater mountain bike that would never shift right no matter what I did. I rebuilt it three times before I realized the housing was just totally shot from years of mud and grit. New cables alone didn't fix it either. I swear some stuff just wears out so slow you don't notice until it's way too late.