thinking of a conversion

I have a Gary Fischer Marlin with a back rack that I ride to do errands and run the dog. I already changed the tires. It fits ok but I want a more upright position. I am thinking of changing the handlebars to a 3" rise (currently flat bar). I also want to add fenders and a kickstand. I think that's the majority of what I need. I did see a brooks saddle on craigslist that needs rescuing!

I know my cables are too short. I've never changed cables. Am I better off having my LBS do the change or should I full steam ahead? What else should I think about?

Depends on how you feel about your mechanical skills. It's definitely a job. At least you won't have to re-wrap drop handlebars. :p

Cable housings need to be long enough that they won't restrict your bars from turning, or inadvertently apply the brakes or shift at steering lock. But they need to be short enough that the cables won't hang up inside them.

Measure twice, cut once. The best way I know to cut the housings, is to score all the way through the outer plastic with a razor blade, then bend the housing so you can cut through the inner wound wire part without crushing it. Then use a file to take any burrs off the cut edge. Any barrel adjusters, ferrules, etc., you'll usually need to re-use unless you specifically need and buy new ones.

The cables themselves I don't usually cut until after I've installed them.

Make sure you get cable ends from the LBS, I can't tell you how many times I've bought cables and had both myself and the LBS forget end caps. :rolleyes: You'll want a real crimping tool for those, too, pliers are just too wide and it won't grab the cable if you use pliers; but if you have a cheap electrical kit in your toolbox, there's almost surely a crimping tool in it that is good enough for cable ends.

Or you could spring for a real bicycle or motorcycle specific housing cutter with a crimper... $$$

Deb, what am I missing?

I would rather wrap handlebars than change cables anytime! LOL. After much thought, I believe that I will entrust Skittles to my LBS for her make over. I just bid on a brand new brooks for just $75...wish me luck! It's green but I figure my butt will cover it much of the time so who cares!

I'll do a lot of things myself but I won't touch my own cables. I learned early on that is best left to the bike shop. Maybe some day I will learn--on someone else's bike! :D

Those all sound like great changes. You'll be looking for excuses to run errands by bike. I love having a more upright position. Bike geometry, a taller stem, and a trekking bar have all gotten me sitting a lot more upright.

Skittles, a green brooks sounds adorable!

You can do your own cables if you know how to tune your bike - front & rear derailleurs, and set the brakes. It's relatively easy if you can do that.

I generally keep spare cables around and will often just replace them when I'm replacing a component or swapping some stuff on the bike. the cable crimps for the end - sometimes the cables just get duct tape or something until I get around to buying crimps.

Yep, duct tape on mine too. :rolleyes: - actually it's kind of convenient for the front brake, because I need to take the cable out of the caliper to pack my bike for shipping, and if it has an end cap, then I have to disassemble it a bit and have a couple of small loose parts that I'm terrified of losing. I guess I could initially cut the cable long enough to accommodate three end caps, figuring by the time I've shipped my bike three times, it's time for a new cable anyhow...

Replacing cables is pretty easy - a workstand helps a lot when it comes to adjusting derailleur cables - but replacing housings is a bit more of a pain, particularly if you're needing to change the length and figure out how long the new ones need to be, rather than just copying the length of your old ones.

Two of my handlebars are carbon and the brake cables & housings feed through the handlebars - so unwrapping everything and then fishing the housing through the carbon is a pain in the neck. I haven't really had problems deciding on the length - but I do tend to err on the side of too long vs. too short. I knew I was planning on switching handlebars on my surly to a much more upright & sweptback version than the flat bars that I started off with - so the housings were cut ridiculously long, which worked fine once I actually switched the handlebars.


If you have any empty ball point pens, you can cut the tubing where the ink is on the inside and sort of melt those over the ends of the cable to crimp off the cable ends. (Okay, between the duct tape and the ball point pen pieces, sometimes my bikes look a little bit less polished than they could)

For cables and housing, make sure you have a good cable cutter and a small file. For cable ends, don't bother with those metal caps, they will cause the cable ends to spread and fray. I stop by the friendly electronics store for some wire shrink tubing. You can buy several feet for a few bucks and you can guess it will last years. Just cut a small amount, slip it over the cable end, and use a match to heat-shrink it on, leaving it stick-out a bit over the end where it will shrink down more and lock on. Cut it to remove it, and as it was not crimped, the cable end is nice, round and not frayed.