Flak Jacket for the Kula

The weekend in Afan was very very hard on the poor Kona. Apart from going through a complete set (front and rear) of new pads in a day, I'd also suffered from gear cables that stiffened on day one and all but jammed on the second day. So something had to be done. My plan was to try cleaning the cables out to see if that would help, and then, if that didn't work, splashing out on some Gore professional sealed cables.

So, while poking through my parts box (as you do) I remembered that I had some leftovers from some SRAM Flak Jacket cables. I'd used that kit for full cable runs so I had the sealed ferrules and sealing tube left over. The ferrules were a bit of a loose fit on the Kona OE cables, which may have been a route in for muck, but a but of tape suitably sealed those off.

The task of fitting was really easy, and in the process I manged to ease out the sharp bends from the cable routes to further help smooth cable operation. I'd never tried fitting the Flak Jacket before for a broken cable run - I must admit that I was quite impressed with how easy it was. And it all fits well, so I trust it will be able to keep out most of the trail muck while also providing some resistance to the inevitable attack with a pressure cleaner.


I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out - but I was also quite amazed with how much muck came out of the existing cable outers! The only bit that I wasn't happy with was the end of the rear derailleur cable - I'd already used the rubber boot to seal off the open end of the cable so that will be vulnerable to pulling in muck; Thankfully I had a nice Shimano boot for for the end of the front cable.