Bikeradar - The world is for riding

The more expensive of two new versions of Gore’s low-friction gear cables makes shifting noticeably smoother. In fact, it’s the smoothest system we’ve tried, especially around tight angles, which makes them a good choice for a time trial bike.

This is the Sealed Low Friction version, which uses a liner to protect  the inner cable and Gore’s GRUB seals. The cheaper Low Friction version does away with the liner but is just as smooth and is the cable of choice on SRAM’s top-end Red system. Gore recommends the sealed system for off-road riding and the standard low friction system for the road.

The original version of these cables was discontinued in 2003, but Gore says clamoring fans forced it to take another look at bike cables. The original  system featured a cable wrapped in a sheath of Gore-Tex Teflon membrane with an additional Gore-tex sheath to keep out the elements. The slipperiness of the Gore liner made it an ideal cable coating and those original cables were good but tricky to set up. If they did get contaminated they could be a pain as the Gore-Tex sheath had a tendency to unfurl.

The new cables are so much better. The Gore liner is fused, we think (Gore won’t tell us), to the inner cable so there’s no problem cutting it or with it becoming detached from the inner.

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