By Darrell McCulloch (Llewellyn Bikes)
Why does the world need another cable stopper?
Cable stoppers are just a little part that do an important and vital job.
Any mechanico who has been around bikes for a while knows of people who perspire battery acid resulting in the brake cable casing frozen in the stopper, and the paint work being destroyed as the rust starts at these moisture collection points. Thus I strongly believe cable stoppers are best made from stainless steel, thus banishing these problems.
a. I wanted a fair amount of surface area and a round shore line to remove stress risers from the .40mm mid section of tubes (I have seen a couple of marques of frames with .35 and .40mm top tubes fail next to cable stoppers)
b. I wanted ease of brazing, so a preload filler slot to be included.
c. Direct fitting of the brake outer casing with out silly ferrules to freeze in with corrosion and reduced kinking of the casing.
d. The gear outer casing ferrule to fit nicely into the CS stopper (compressionless gear casing must use a ferrule)
e. I wanted a smooth rounded appearance so the stopper looks like it belongs being part of the tube, not like a plonked on after thought.
f. It must be stainless steel to remove corrosion issues due to perspiration or collection of road grime.
g. It needed to cause no extra hassle time to be added to the construction process
Note. I see no need for a slot in a road bike cable stopper because if the cabling is done correctly during assembly such as lubrication with “Slick Honey” or such like then one has no need to touch a cable until replacement is due. So the inevitable paint chip around the slot area is avoided.
One for a 31.7mm top tube brake cable stopper
One for a 28.6mm top tube brake cable stopper
(there is no 25.4mm as we are now well into the 21 st Century but you can modify the 28.6 to fit if required)
One for a chainstay gear cable stopper, 15.5 mm diameter and also tapered to fit the chainstay shape snugly.
The result has pleased me and I feel totally satisfied.