Why does nobody talk about how shifting cables stretch over time

I see everyone recommending new cables right away when shifting gets sloppy, but I swear my old Shimano 105 setup from 2018 shifted fine for two years before I noticed a real difference. The stretch happened gradually, maybe 1/8 inch over that whole timeframe, and adjusting the barrel adjuster fixed it completely. I'm talking about a bike I rode 50 miles a week in Austin traffic, not some garage queen. Has anyone else had cables last way longer than the typical advice suggests?

2 comments

2 Comments

harperschmidt21h ago

Yeah I had a similar thing with my old mountain bike. I replaced the shift cables after a year because everyone said to, but honestly the old ones were fine. I ended up using them as a makeshift tent guy line on a camping trip and they held up a tarp in a thunderstorm. Still shifted fine when I put them back on the bike.

finley_wells667h ago

Hear me out, but I think you got lucky there. Cables can stretch and fray in ways you can't always see, so swapping them yearly is cheap insurance against a snapped cable on a downhill. The fact that yours held up doesn't mean most people should push it that far.