Shimano MTB Optislick Derailleur Cable and Housing Set, Black

People sometimes assume that if a product hasn't been updated or changed in the last two years, that it is therefore outdated or not as competitive. Shimano on the other hand believes in tradition, and sticks to what they believe works best; They've never released an answer to SRAM's AXS or Transmission wireless mountain bike derailleurs bc they believe that mechanical shifters shift faster, they don't use carbon fiber for cranks, and they actually see no need to update their brake and cable shifting sets. Why? Because Shimano has spent some serious bank in the past to research obscure topics such as how much drag does a shift cable really incur over four to six feet of cabling. The answer? ... Not as much as you would be led to believe by Jagwire and other "superior" cabling setups. The same is true of for how much compression actually takes place across four to six feet of housing if for example, one is using, say, Paul Klamper mechanical disc brakes on their bikepacking ride. Shimano makes their shift and brake cable kits at three levels: Select (least expensive), Advanced, and Ultimate (the Ultimate kits are usually labeled under "XTR" and "Dura-Ace" labels here at Amazon). The Select kits use bare wires riding inside regular housing. The Advanced kits use an Optislick coated cable (which is just a teflon derivative) while the Ultimate kits use a slightly higher-end polymer coated cable (think teflon again). The Ultimate kits also get a polymer coated lining to the outer housing as well. All three work fine with the Advanced kit probably being the sweet spot. My guess is that if these cables and wires were actually subjected to friction tests in a high-end lab, the Advanced and Ultimate would be almost identical and both would display only 5 to 13% less friction than the Select kits. The kit being sold above is the Advanced level kit. It provides 99% of the benefits of the Ultimate kit but at a much more reasonable price. How does it compare to super-duper Jagwire Kevlar kits that retail for $70 apiece? Again, take them both to a quality lab and my suspicion is that neither would beat the other by more or less than 2 or 3%. Shimano over many years has actually spent some time and money to make solid shifting and braking for a reasonable price and it shows in their reliability. I've had Shimano Optislick (the Advanced level) cables on my bike for years with zero problems and performance at least equal to (and often better) than companies like Avid or Jagwire. (I do recommend changing the inner cable wire every two to three years depending upon usage. On my well worn commuter bike, I change my inner brake cables every single year because I can't afford (literally, the U.S. has no national health care system like the other 35 out of 36 First World nations do) to have them fail.) Also, because of the quality of their dies, Shimano's cables may actually be superior to competitors like Jagwire. Many bike enthusiasts don't know this, but when you buy the two lower levels of Jagwire cables, you actually getting for about $35 to $55 what Shimano already sells for $22. So, yes, ... I recommend these highly (along with Shimano's BH90 high-end hydraulic brake cables as well). Five stars for me across almost two decades now.

Give brand new life to my vintage shifters. Thought it was my arthritis making it hard to shift after installing these feels almost brand new again

Replaced the stock cables on an XL 2006 Cannondale F2000SL with these. This kit had enough housing that allowed me to fully enclose the rear derailleur cable with a one piece housing, which was not done originally. If the frame mounts had been set up for full enclosure on the front, there was more than enough housing to fully enclose that as well. Also included were cable housing clips, housing ends and two cable crimps. Install was relatively easy. The only issue I had was cutting the cable housing and that was because of me. I didn't want to spend money for a special cutting tool that I'd probably never use again. I thought I could easily saw through the housing with a hacksaw. Unfortunately, that didn't work well when I tried. However, I was able to cut the housing with a sharp pair of wire cutters by gently squeezing and rotating them, like a tubing cutter. While the housing and liner did crush a little, I was able to use a pick to open them back up so that the cable passed through easily and moved smoothly. Do yourself a favor. If you are going to experiment with ways to cut the housing, measure where you will cut, then experiment on the left over piece that you will eventually cut off. So far, the XTR dual control shifters are working smoothly with the new cables and housings. The black coating on the old cables lasted 15 years and they were working well with a little chipping on the exposed areas. If the green coating on these cables does the same or better, I'd say it's a great deal. Do yourself another favor if you swap your cables. De-grease, clean and lubricate your derailleur pivot points. I thought I kept my derailleurs clean and that they were running smoothly, but after a cleaning and oiling I learned they could be better and had to reset my L/H and index settings. Ride Safe.

Excellent quality. Make you know the cable length that you are replacing

Good set of cables. There’s higher priced cables on the market but unless you’re racing there’s no need for them. This cable shifts perfectly

Save the money and aggravation and buy the OG version… JagWire and a few others might be just as good as this set from Shimano but the price was actually a little less than the others when I purchased it. And it works, perfectly! The only issue I had was that it appears Shimano doesn’t feel it necessary to post easily locatable instructions on the finer points of cable rigging on their website, which would be a great help. Thankfully hundreds of experts have made careers of posting extensive videos on YouTube on the subject that are an average of about 20 minutes… so, hint: Park Tool does a video on cables in half that time , so look them up first. I installed the little rubber mystery boot/tongue/seal thing where the cable feeds into the derailleur. It apparently wasn’t designed for that purpose or this particular unit and it migrated into the works. Subsequently, it didn’t survive.

Perfect length for my gravel bike. Makes shifting much easier, very slick.

I just needed the inner cables to replace my old ones on my Trek dual sport bike but this full set was cheaper than buying the two inner cables individually. I know it's generally recommended to replace the cable housings when installing new optislick inners but my bike already had the SP41 original housing and it's mostly a leisure bike, never in the rain, mud or water so the housings were pretty clean (plus it's a pain to replace housings). These optislick inner cables are noticeably smoother than my old standard cables so my thumbs and shifters are much happier now.

Fits the bicycle perfectly and the performance is great. Happy with it so far.

Très bonne qualité, je ne pensais pas qu'ils pouvait y avoir tant de différence de qualité pour un câble de vélo...

Good price

It now resides on my bike in an SLX/XT drive train. Works as designed aka great.