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review
Fibrax Powerglide Sport stainless steel brake cable£6.99
VERDICT:
Great value everyday cables, but for best results allow to stretch overnight before snipping
Weight:
100g
Contact:
www.fibrax.com
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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Fibrax Powerglide sport stainless steel sport brake cables are a nice surprise. Cheap as chips, they'll do old faithful proud without impairing the performance of your sportier Sunday ride. However, be sure to leave cable stretch to do its thing overnight, adjusting and snipping come the morning.
In common with their Powershift siblings they feature Teflon coated, nylon outers - available in the same black, blue, white, silver or red. Those of you with an eye for colour coordination and going in for simultaneous derailleur and brake cable set replacement should keep them separate to avoid potentially serious confusion. The inners are bog-standard affairs measuring a generous 180cm and with snip-to-suit barrel/pear nipples. This makes them perfect workshop staples for multi bike households or longer tours/social outings where some folks prefer drop and others, flat bars.
The supple casings are easily cut using snips but give the cut end a quick buff on the grinding wheel. In the interests of thorough testing, I installed ours dry and was suitably impressed by their deliciously smooth action, although I'd be inclined to flush the outers with a Teflon spray before installing them on older bikes without slotted guides and/or tricky runs. Ten pumps of the levers summoned cable stretch so following my quit while ahead philosophy, I left them overnight, making remedial adjustment and trimming their ends the next morning. Soldering/gluing is preferable to crimping since this encourages frayed ends – if you can be bothered.
They've been extremely dependable whether scrubbing off a little speed hurtling along the open road, or performing do or die emergency stops through congested town centres without any obvious loss of modulation or feel compared with a premium set.
Verdict
Great value everyday cables, but for best results allow to stretch overnight before snipping.
road.cc test report
Make and model: Fibrax Powerglide Sport stainless steel brake cable
Size tested: Red
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
In my opinion they're an affordable everyday cable that perform surprisingly well- installed carefully in the first instance.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Powerglide Sport Cable (Red Cable with Black Plastic Ferrules) – Universal Stainless Steel Brake Cable for Rear (with 4 extra ferrules & a wire end). Wire length = 1800mm, wire diameter = 1.5mm, outer casing length = 1400mm. Supplied in a card sleeve.
Rate the product for quality of construction:
7/10
Rate the product for performance:
7/10
Rate the product for durability:
7/10
Glue or solder the freshly cut ends to prevent fraying.
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
7/10
Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
7/10
Rate the product for value:
8/10
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
These are a great workshop staple that perform admirably in most conditions given a periodic shot of water displacer. However,inner wires are good, rather than great quality so leave to stretch overnight before performing subsequent readjustment/cutting.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Great value, pleasing performance and easy fitment.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Nothing given the price, save for initial stretch.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.
Would you consider buying the product? Yes.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.
About the tester
Age: 38 Height: 1m 81 Weight: 70 kilos
I usually ride: Rough Stuff Tourer Based around 4130 Univega mtb Frameset My best bike is: 1955 Holdsworth Road Path and several others including cross & traditional road
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Most days I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo cross, commuting, touring, fixed/singlespeed, mtb,
Shaun Audane is a freelance writer/product tester with over twenty-eight years riding experience, the last twelve (120,000 miles) spent putting bikes and kit through their paces for a variety of publications. Previous generations of his family worked at manufacturing's sharp end, thus Shaun can weld, has a sound understanding of frame building practice and a preference for steel or titanium framesets.
Citing Richard Ballantine and an Au pair as his earliest cycling influences, he is presently writing a cycling book with particular focus upon women, families and disabled audiences (Having been a registered care manager and coached children at Herne Hill Velodrome in earlier careers)
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