Author Topic: Gear cable breakage  (Read 178 times)

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Offline avrin

Gear cable breakage
« on: June 10, 2025, 10:06:11 am »
My 2020 Trek 520 suffers from repeated gear cable breakage. The cables break mostly on the right brifter (rear derailleur cable), but I've had the left side (front derailleur cable) break as well. The breakage is at the typical spot, in the brifter, the cable head breaks off. It is not unusual for me to bust a cable after 1500 miles. Reliability is key for me as I'm looking forward to some longer and more rugged tours.  The bike has Shimano Sora 3/9 brifters. If I switched to Ultegra Flight Deck ST-6510's, will that alleviate the problem? I think that's what I had on my old bike, a Cannondale T1, and I did not have an issue.   Any other suggestions? Thanks. 

Offline John Nettles

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Re: Gear cable breakage
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2025, 01:01:08 pm »
Not sure but you might get an more educated answer over at the BikeForums.net > Bicycle Mechanics forum since the equipment is very specific. 
Hope you find a solution. 
Tailwinds, John

Offline DonKahn1

Re: Gear cable breakage
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2025, 05:30:24 pm »
I am not a big fan of these type of shifters on touring bikes.  I have broken my right side shifter cable two times on my gravel bike.  Luckily I have bar end shifters on my touring bike, and have never had any problems, with over 15,000 miles on the original shfter cables.  On my old gravel bike I converted my stock shifters to bar ends.  I think the companies are making a big mistake going away from bar end shifters on touring specific bikes.  Another plus of the bar end shifters is that you can change to friction mode if your rear deraileur gets out of adjustment mid tour