1969 750 GT

Isnt there some type of cable that dosent like being lubricated. Was it lubed.Clutching sorry at straws.Rain obviously shouldnt do anything
 
I have a high bar heavy duty cable from (eventually) from Venhill via Slaters, I"ve had no issue,but James story almost ruined his trip .

I"ve heard these people are good ,( sending them for fittings I expect)

https://speedycables.com/
 
I have used Venhill cables for years without issues.
I always take spare cables when I do long trips.
 
Vince said:
Isnt there some type of cable that dosent like being lubricated. Was it lubed.Clutching sorry at straws.Rain obviously shouldnt do anything

They are nylon or teflon lined and should not be lubed with petroleum products. The lining swells. I use silicone spray.

Lined cables don't like water much either and they will become very stiff after a long ride in heavy rain.

Paul
 
Yep I had heard about the lube issue but not the rain one.On ocasion I would get a snatchy throtal on a bike with nilon linned throtal cable.It did a loy of deep creek crosings and muddy tracks.Snd then lots og washing.And fine on other rides.Maybe why
 
If you keep those bars on your GT, an SF cable should do.

Not convinced by Venhill either. Ordered a clutch cable for my wife's 500, it's about 8 cm too long.
Bars are not standard, but not by that much.

Paul
 
I had several Venhill clutch cables fail at the clutch lever end, due to the nipple pulling off the cable. The outer sleeve, also, was insufficiently robust for the wear and tear inflicted in use. I tried the 'Heavy Duty' cable and found it horrible. Way too inflexible and draggy to be any good.

Rather than whine about it, in the manner of the restaurant customer served cold uncooked food who responds to the waiter's "Is everything alright?" query with "Yes, delicious. I'm just a little too full.", I decided to go have a word with them. They dont own/ride every bike they make cables for, so if they don't get Feedback, how are they to know?

They couldn't have been more helpful.

Cable technology, like tyres and chains, has moved on a lot since the mid twentieth century.
Nylon lined cables seemed like a good idea, at the time, but so did 630 chains!
The clutch cables they had been supplying had an insufficiently small soldered trumpet nipple which was the failure point. I took an OEM cable which had a more massive crimped trumpet nipple, so we had something to emulate. They made me up a Test Cable to try out. The modern cable is slimmer, while maintaining the required strength, and I test rode that cable over 4,000 miles, with only one slight issue: the greater flexiblity resulted in a slghtly compromised cable path between the lever and the steering stem.
This has been addressed with Test Mule Mark II (overall length increased by 60mm and bottom adjuster reduced by 17mm).

I am now running this one and it seems ideal in every way.

We Laverda Riders have our handlebars in different positions and, indeed, different handlebars, so the next stage is to check the current spec. on someone else's Laverda (I have something of a reputation for seeing Laverda from a 180? Ceriani CDI point of view) before definitively giving the Seal of Approval to this design.

If we want to keep riding our bikes, we need Companies supplying quality products and it seems sensible (to me) to work with them to that end.
 
That is a top banana approach for sure.

I take it one step further and don't actually quote the bike at all, but just give the dimensions - emailing pics and drawings via email. It stops them going straight to the catalogue/storebin and picking what they think 'should' be right. It also enables you to get just the right cable for your layout.

Have to say though I am not overly keen on the inner cables that Venhil are using of late - small diameter as Hamish says, but also a very open weave (which I feel as rough action). I can't help but feel the small diameter gives more of a cutting action to any liner, especially on our heavy clutches.

Hag
 
I tried very hard to work with Venhill as well but failed,
I was already negative about them because of the complete seizure (yes I mean complete seizure as in jammed solid) on Longshanks Eagle clutch cable, after I collected him in said Black Forest and loaned him TOG, not a good start, when I ordered a new speedo cable from Slater's I was not pleased when it arrived and it was marked along the conduit length with "Venhill", but hey ho, lets fit it, result, speedo not working, after long attempts to find out why, I mean its a new speedo cable for fornicatings sake, everything worked prior to me stupidly wrenching the cable whilst refitting the front wheel, so I thought I had found the error on the cable and went to Venhill and had a custom one made and it cost me plenty, back at home, still no speedo working, so the next day I went to Venhill again, and this time took a speedo drive gearbox and an instrument cluster and said "you take the dims and make me a new cable" which they did and I paid yet again, that's three cables now, one stock item ex Slaters and two custom made ones, all of them Venhill, still no speedo working, in despair and thinking of ending it all, an ex dealer of very long standing offered me a very slightly soiled new old stock factory supplied cable, for free (thanks ten million, mate you know who you are) instantly fitted and working, and a year on all is still good. These failures were doubly important to me because I was travelling to Spain for the Colombres rallies and a speedo clocking distance travelled is vital, and I went without that facility, which meant I was almost entirely reliant on companions doing the navigating, very tedious, to spend three weeks looking at an English reg number.

I did phone them and ask if they would like me to remove this factory old stock cable and bring it to them for analysis and measurement, and they could not give a natural insemination. I also wish to note here that the old biddies in the reception/office, are very hostile and should not be customer facing. Bring back Lurch (those that understand will know what I mean by that)

So the dims they have are wrong, make what you will of that. I must state here that this applies only to triples fitted with ND "box of clocks" as Honda and not the ND separate clocks. The "box of clocks" has the speedo on the left, so the cable is longer, it may well be that Venhill speedo cables for separate ND clocks are fine, I wouldn't know.

CLEM
 
Haggis said:
Have to say though I am not overly keen on the inner cables that Venhil are using of late - small diameter as Hamish says, but also a very open weave (which I feel as rough action). I can't help but feel the small diameter gives more of a cutting action to any liner, especially on our heavy clutches.

All I can say is that it feels smooth on mine, but I see your point about the "cutting action" possibility. That's why I added the extra length to allow a smooth, sinuous cable run.
 

Attachments

  • Clutch Cable Mark II Lever Headlamp (small).jpg
    Clutch Cable Mark II Lever Headlamp (small).jpg
    86.9 KB · Views: 107
  • Clutch Cable Mark II Yoke Tank (small).jpg
    Clutch Cable Mark II Yoke Tank (small).jpg
    110.8 KB · Views: 106
  • Clutch Cable Mark II Carb Airbox (small).jpg
    Clutch Cable Mark II Carb Airbox (small).jpg
    98.5 KB · Views: 103
  • Clutch Cable Mark II Gearbox end (small).jpg
    Clutch Cable Mark II Gearbox end (small).jpg
    102.9 KB · Views: 107
+1 that's how i route my cables and i also service my cables every year the process is simple take cable off clean with paraffin including the lever end which i grease, run light oil down the cable and leave draining for 5 minutes. Result nice action when pulling the lever. Don't agree with the idea of not oiling because some sales gimmick tells us there maintenance free hog wash.
The above is done in conjuction with the routine maintenance, we should do every year.
The moral of the storey is read the book 📙 and stick to the intervals.
Safe riding Andy 😁
 
Nylon-lined clutch cables can swell if lubricated.
Had it happen to me.
 
I don't put oil in my cables, not because of a sales gimmick but because the lining swells rendering the cable junk. I suspect that water in sufficient quantities has the same effect.
I only use silicone spray nowadays, on all my cables.

I don't do things by the book because the book was written half a century ago at the least and things have moved on since.

Paul
 
Back
Top