Shortening clutch and throttle cables

meowy84

Member
How many of you have shortened your clutch and throttle cables? The frame on my bike is smaller and so these two cables seem a little long compared to my brake cables. It's not a matter of functionality but rather I want the cables to be neat in appearance with no huge loop over the handlebars.

So, that being said I removed the crimped tip from the clutch cable and cut the cable housing a little and cut the cable as well. That's fine BUT the problem is the throttle cable since it has the 'ball-ends' on both ends of the cable so not so easily shortened. Any suggestions or maybe I should just leave it alone.

Comments, pics, tips and suggestions welcomed. :)
 
I just cut my throttle cable near the handle end and threaded it through the thumb shifter that came with the choke. With how hot it is over here I never use the choke so it was just another cable getting in the way...now I've got a properly lengthened throttle AND cruise control.
 
I changed from flat mountain bike bars to upright BMX style bars this year so I had to completely re-cable my bike, it worked out really great for me...
First of all, you need to make a nice clean cut on the cable housing without pinching or crimping it, otherwise it will wear the inner cable. This can be kinda hard to do with regular side cutters, I purchased a Park cable cutting tool that does a nice job, it has rounded jaws that are designed to cut cable housings cleanly. I use the same tool to cut the inner cable, it does it well without fraying.
As for the ball end on the carb cables, I just made a new ball end in the position for the shorter cable and then cut off the original ball end. Making a new ball end (for the carb side) is easy, just take some thin solid wire (like telephone wire) and wrap the (bare) wire around the cable a few times where you want the ball end to be located, then take a soldering iron and solder the wire in place on the cable leaving a ball of solder about the size of the original ball end. You can size the ball end either with heat or you can use hand tools to cut/file it into proper shape.
 
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