Had a chat with a old bike courier in Portland that flipped my thinking on brake cables

He told me he runs full housing on his track bike and never had issues, said the whole 'less friction' thing is overblown for city riding. Has anyone here actually tested compressionless housing against standard on a commuter rig?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenix_carter17d ago

Dude, same here! Full housing on my commuter for years now, zero complaints.

thomas.tyler17d ago

Yes dude, "zero complaints" is exactly right. I've been running full housing on my city bike for like 3 years now and it's totally fine. My commuter sees rain, road grit, salt, everything and I've never had a cable issue. Honestly swapping to compressionless on a bike that lives outside in the elements feels like overkill. The bike courier guy sounds like he knows what's up. I'd rather just replace a $10 cable once a year than deal with water getting into a fancy housing setup.