How much?!

[Shad]

My throttle cable in the Caterham snapped on me today, which was a bit of a pain - limped home on very lumpy idle revs and caused a bit of a traffic jam

But anyway, thought I'd see how much a replacement part is. Bear in mind this is a boring thin metal cable, often found on bicycles and a whole bunch of different machinery.

£33.49

Thirty three pounds! Ok so it includes the whole outer sheathing and fittings on the ends, but come on...

So I went to Halfords and spent £1.99 on a bike brake inner cable, filed down the nipple to suit the throttle body, 5 minutes later Robert's my father's brother

[Konan555]

So I went to Halfords and spent £1.99

How much?!

[TiG]

lol nice edit !

TiG

[stevie lee]

did you get a spare one or two incase it happens again? - then you can bung one on when stuck at side of road/in hedge..

and what speed where you doing when the original one snapped? - brown trouser moment perchance..

[Mblaster]

did you get a spare one or two incase it happens again? - then you can bung one on when stuck at side of road/in hedge..

and what speed where you doing when the original one snapped? - brown trouser moment perchance..

It'd be fairly underwhelming I'd have thought, now a brake cable snapping, that'd be a brown trouser moment

[BenW]

It'd be fairly underwhelming I'd have thought, now a brake cable snapping, that'd be a brown trouser moment

Except cars dont use cables for brakes lol

[Mblaster]

Except cars dont use cables for brakes lol

Haha, true, wasn't thinking Although you know what I mean.

[Shad]

did you get a spare one or two incase it happens again? - then you can bung one on when stuck at side of road/in hedge..

and what speed where you doing when the original one snapped? - brown trouser moment perchance..

A spare would be a good idea, but that's a slippery slope. I'd also need pliers, screwdriver and allen key, and then you can start to argue that a whole bunch of other things would also be of use - at the end of the day I've got break down cover for that kind of thing

I was doing about 35mph having just negotiated a roundabout. No brown trousers, just a "grr" as the pedal went and there was no more go! These things happen.

Just been a bit of a pain setting the pedals up again, it's surprising the difference a half-mm of play here or there makes.

Still, £1.99, can't complain

[Zak33]

Look deeper chap

Where did it break in the cables length? And why? Is it chafing? Sharp bulkhead?

[Shad]

Yup it was catching on the top of the pedal, which has now been sorted

[Zak33]

kk. well found

[Trash Man]

What made you look elsewhere are being Quoted the £33 for the cable in the first place? Is that to much for a throttle cable? I've never bought one before so I've no experience with them.

Will a break cable really do the job just as well?

kudos to you for saving some money though, maybe I should question things more in the future

[Shad]

The only reason I was miffed at £33 was that I knew for a fact, that the cable itself is a very cheap part. Years of messing around with bikes taught me that. The bike brake cable should do a fine job, and it turns out a lot of other guys go down the same road.

It's the same diameter, and I just needed to take some material off the nipple on the cable to get it to fit the throttle body properly. You could argue that the brake cable is designed to handle greater tension than a normal throttle cable... I certainly don't need to use as much effort on my throttle as I do on my bike brakes

As Zak mentioned... things like these only tend to break when something's not quite right. The cable is not under much stress and is fairly slick and free from friction inside the cable outer. The problem was caused by some chaffing on the top of the pedal