spare clutch cable

philw

philw

Junior member
Location
lincs
Hi All, i will be buying a spare clutch cable for my soon to be arriving Jota, in anticipation of being left stranded with a snapped cable like happened a couple of times in previous ownership :D....looking on the Venhill site i see two types are listed for low bars ,standard and heavy duty, can anyone tell me the difference between the two or is it just a case of the heavy duty one being thicker and more robust?...also please forgive my ignorance ,ive been a long time out of the Laverda community but their cables also look to be quite a bit cheaper than others advertised on the net, will i be cost cutting for the sake of quality?

All advice greatfully received.
Phil.
 
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The following is a personal opinion, other viewpoints are available.
I had a rash of Venhill Cables failing at the handlebar lever. They were soldered and, in my opinion, the trumpet nipple was too small to allow proper birdcaging of the cable.
I tried the 'Heavy Duty' one and found it hideous: too large an inner cable and too inflexible an outer. It made delicate clutch work almost impossible, Just imagine what throttle control with a clutch cable strength cable would be like.
Following consultation with Martin Bradfield, at Venhill, he made up a crimped nipple cable for me to 'test fly'. I ran it for about 8,000 miles, longer than the previous soldered 'Standard' cables had lasted. It was a much improved action but I felt some increase to the length of the outer, and reduction of the inner, would improve it further.
Martin should have the specs. for the Mark 2 and I would recommend it to you. If we can try it on diferent Laverdas, then Venhill can switch all future stock to the improved cable helping both them and us.
 
I had one of those HD cables for my 78 jota was and awful fit as the sock says, inner way to long but adjuster also to long. To give Venhill their do I sent it back and the tweaked it but inner was still way to long. Better of ordering a special to the size you need.
 
Also at the risk of making me unpopular:

A brake or clutch cable only breaks at the beginning of the cable direct beside the niple sleve, if the niple sleve in the brake lever has not been lubricated.

The high forces create a relatively high static friction between the niple sleve and the lever. This prevents the niple sleve from rotating when the lever gets pulled. As a result, the cable kinks right at the beginning. As a result, even the best spring steel tires over time and ultimately breaks.

Always lubricate the nipple sleeve from above and below with oil or grease. Some levers closed at the top, have a hole through which the niple sleve can be lubricated.

I'll bet my last hair or 50 liters of Franconian beer that you will never break a cable at this point, if you pay attention to the oiling.
Every time I helped a Laverdisti with such a broken cable, the niple sleve in the lever was dry like the Dessert Valley.

Thomas aus LAU
 
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Thomas aus LAU said:
Also at the risk of making me unpopular:

A brake or clutch cable only breaks at the beginning of the cable direct beside the niple sleve, if the niple sleve in the brake lever has not been lubricated.

The high forces create a relatively high static friction between the niple sleve and the lever. This prevents the niple sleve from rotating when the lever gets pulled. As a result, the cable kinks right at the beginning. As a result, even the best spring steel tires over time and ultimately breaks.

Always lubricate the nipple sleeve from above and below with oil or grease. Some levers closed at the top, have a hole through which the niple sleve can be lubricated.

I'll bet my last hair or 50 liters of Franconian beer that you will never break a cable at this point, if you pay attention to the oiling.
Every time I helped a Laverdisti with such a broken cable, the niple sleve in the lever was dry like the Dessert Valley.

Thomas aus LAU
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Thomas,

They can also fail when the manufacturer uses a nylon liner with inadequate clearance for the actuating cable. Nylon is hydrophilic and swells, seizing the cable! I guess it's fine if you do not ride in the rain....
Towards the end of day 2 of torrential rain my Venhill cable seized. It had been a serious struggle all day. Fortunately Clem was near by in the Schwartzwald, with a trailer and also en route for Breganze. His bike, TOG, came off the trailer and my American Eagle went on. I then rode TOG and showed Clem the way to Andy Wagner's place in Konstanz. I left my Eagle with Andy and grabbed a hire car to continue my journey. I returned to Andy's a week later. He knew my problem as soon as he saw the Venhill print on the cable outer. He made me 2 cables and fitted one for me. His bill was less than half of what Venhill had charged me for 2 cables.

James
 
Thomas aus LAU said:
I'll bet my last hair or 50 liters of Franconian beer that you will never break a cable at this point, if you pay attention to the oiling.
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I keep the barrel nipple at the lever lubricated, as well as oiling the cable. Never had a broken clutch cable except for the one that was on the bike when I first bought it. The previous owner hadn't oiled it and it was only hanging on by a few strands.
 
Ok...Interesting reading and thanks for all the very useful advice, can anyone recommend a reliable source other than Venhill, and where do you guys go for your cables?
 
OneThinBloke said:
Thomas,
They can also fail ....
James
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Hello James and Dellortoman,

I only talked about breaking the cable at that point.

Of course, the nipple itself must also be correctly pressed/soldered. You also have to oil the cable and lay it without a sharp kink.
But these are the basics of motorcycle screwing.
If you take all this into account, even long rides in the rain are no problem with a Laverda.

For everyone who makes their own clutch-cables:
If the inner cable is one size smaller than the outer cable, the forces are significantly lower. Teflon-coated cables further reduce the effort required.

Thomas aus LAU
 
I know it's not a Laverda, but in all fairness to Venhill, for my Ducati Pantah, (which can have bloody heavy clutches and cause severe hand pain). I had them make up a 100mm longer than standard clutch cable using the featherlight cable, so that I could route it with less sharp bends. Ordered one of their dogleg clutch levers, they fitted the end to suit and it transformed the clutch action of the bike.
Can actually plan to do rides longer than 10 miles on it now.
 
JJ cables will not be able to supply the gearbox end adjuster. Not a problem if you have an old one of course.
I have found the standard Venhill clutch cable works well. Bought back in 2009 and still fine. The work that Hamish has done with them should ensure current supply is equally good.
I've used JJ to good effect too
 
I had a stock ready made speedo cable from Venhill, via Saters and my speedo did not work, I then visited Venhill and had a special made up, it still didnt work, the third day I visited Venhill again, with a front wheel gearbox and an instrument cluster in my hands (1200TS uses a longer cable as the speedo is on the left) and they made me another, all three times I paid good money, the second two a lot of money, none of them worked, its very difficult to se why, because the relationship changes bewteen the inner and outer cable when you bend it during instalation, unlike other cables, speedo ones do not have a threaded adjuster, so I wasted loads of money (more than £120) and got nowhere, an old aquaintance and exdealer, sent me a new old stock factory, slightly tarnished cable, fitted and working in eight minutes, so James get my support re Venhill as well, just my take, old wounds heal slowly, no doubt I will need them in the future, but why do we have to pay when does does not work first time (cable ex Slaters was used a template for first special from Venhill) and when a special is made up after recieved advice and that doesnt work, and as for the "hears the top and bottom units of what it connects to, you make the fXXXing cable, while I stand and watch", still you pay for junk.
CLEM
 
sfcpiet said:
I make my own, no problems over the last 30-odd years.:)
piet
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(y)
I always make brake cables myself.
We had a case in Bavaria in which the nipple of a newly purchased brake cable slipped out - a manufacturing failure.
No chance to remark this before.

It was just stupid that it happened in the first sharp bend at the first trip after an absolutely perfect restoration of a 750 from 1970.
A fall into the ditch was unavoidable. The damage (wheel, fork, tank, painting,...) was very great.

Thomas aus LAU
 
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Agree with Thomas that clutch breakages ,with me anyway,will always occur at the handlebar end next to the nipple.This happened quite regularly with Venhill but the root cause lay with the pattern levers supplied as spares,after the originals pivot hole went oval.The nipple would never fit/rotate freely in the levers hole creating a kink at that point.
I always carried a spare really thin inner and outer cable as a spare all the time (god knows who made it) and would never trust it long term but being so lightweight and flexible was easy to carry and fit and got me home on at least three different occasions.
The worse thing even when fitting this lightweight cable "on the road" was you usually attracted an audience ,just when you were trying to guide the crankcase end nipple into the actuating lever through the circular window.Had this happen just entering a village between Tetbury and Cirencester and a bloke working on renovation of a cottage across the road spotted me and started chatting about the bike,he knew about Slaters and so on but what should have taken about twenty minutes to do ended up taking about an hour and a quarter by the time he finished chatting.
One of those easy pull extended levers would have made that part of it a lot easier.
 
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