Made my own cables, what a breeze!

ProSimex

ProSimex

XS650 Addict
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So I called around to nearly every bike shop in Ottawa looking for someone who could supply me with a cable/cables for my VM34s and stock throttle. Some had to get back to me, others pretty much told me it doesn't exist. The ones who did get back to me told me it was too "radical" for them to fabricate....wtf? So I calls Bytown cycles cus he's the only bike shop in the city thats into the old bikes. He says of course that no such cable exists but if I wait two weeks and bring my bike in he could probably make me one... Well at that rate I might as well order one from the states and deal with the 2 week delay. I ask if he could see me the bits and he says yes.

I pick up

2 lengths of cable
2 lengths of cable exterior
proper ferrules for throttle and carb ends.
some silver solder and flux
soldering iron.


Long story short I removed the cable adjusters from my stock cables, measured, measured, and measured again. Cut, soldered, re-soldered, put em on, adjusted.

Bam, Ive got 2-2 cables that fit my bikes set-up exactly, with no shipping time. I honestly can say that after doing this once, I'll never buy cables again. I was kinda intimidated at first but I took the leap and it was worth it. :thumbsup:
 
This is something I've always wanted to learn how to do. Could you present a bit more info and maybe some pics of the process? Cost of parts and the type of solder, flux, and soldering iron required?
 
Ya know guys, the whole time I was doing this I was thinking "I really should be taking pictures", but I was in such a hurry to get my baby back on the road I couldn't take the time to stop working and get the camera out.

Cost of materials from the shop was $29, this included the outer part of the cable, the cable itself, ferrules for the throttle ends and the carb ends, some cable ends. I picked up some silver solder and flux from crappy tire for $8, and used a generic hobbyist iron.

The first thing I did was cut the cable sheathing (I don't know exactly what to call it) into two pieces, one piece slightly longer then the other. This done I threaded the cable itself through both pieces. At this point I got my iron plugged in so it would get nice and hot. I stuck a cable end on one side, the the ferrule. I opened up the strands a bit on the end of the cable then dipped it in flux. After sliding the ferrule back down to the end over the fluexd cable i pushed the tip of my iron into the while affair and held it for a while till the flux had done its thing. Then I set about soldering it, trying to get as much inside the ferrule and soaked into the cable as possible.

This done I started worrying about how I would be adjusting my cables so I went back to my oem cables and using my MIGHTY STRENGTH ripped the throttle end adjusters off.

Now this is the slightly tricky part.

I installed my cables into the carbs since they were a proper fixed point that I could work from.(note I had already cut the cable itself in two) I then routed the cables through the bike to where I wanted them and carefully holding the adjusters up to them I figured out how long the would have to be at the throttle side. I took my knife and made a mark on each then slid the cable exterior off the cable itself. I cut the cable sheathing to size, re-threaded the cable, and put the adjusters on the end.

Opening up the throttle housing on the bars I pulled the cable through and using a sharpie marked where the ferrules would have to be on the cable. Then it was snip, solder, install, curse, re-install, adjust, vroom.

I would say that the real trick to this is to measure, measure, measure. Every time I finished soldering on a ferrule at the cable end I would grip it with some pliers and try to tug it off. I erallly tried to rip em off cus the last thing I need is one of these ends coming off in my carbs and killing my engine.

Hope this was of help. Sorry for the poor grammar and run on/incomplete sentences, I just woke up and haven't eaten, and my son if fussing with the keyboard.
 
Back in the 70's when I was working at a custom shop we did cables all the time. We had ferrules, cable's,covers,ends and a solder melting pot. Kind of a lost art now-days. The trick like ProSimex says is to open up the strands of the cable a bit. We normally just slipped the ferrule on and opened the cable strands into the ferrule recess and dipped the end into he solder pot. No way that was coming off.
 
@ProSimex we appreciate your writeup and revival of this topic as cable making is a lost art. I was just replying to OakBehringer's inquiry of an old tech thread floating around; happened to have the page saved. Post pictures if you get a chance
 
hey man that's cool, I didn't feel like I was been told or anything, just taking the piss. Really not sure why people aren't making their own cables, compared to some of the more popular mods being done to these bikes, making cables is easy. I mean, if you can re-jet a carb, time your ignition, or re-lace a wheel, by all rights this should be child's play.
 
Well I had a bit of fail the other night. While I was making my way home form a tear around town one of the cables let go at the throttle end. I limped home on one carb. I fixed it all up yesterday and this morning, and the cables look good. Now shes not running, but I suspect thats cus the battery is low, ive got it on the charger now.
 

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