90sCro-MoFan
Dirt Disciple
You must have noticed that noodles have an annoying habit of going rusty.....well they do if you ride in all weathers anyway. The ferrule that the cable housing fits into and the part at the other end that slots into the hanger on the V-Brake arm are made from aluminium and are not affected by this problem, but the tube section is made from steel. Probably because steel is stronger and can be more easily made into smaller, thinner-walled tubes. Anyway, at about £3 a pop, I can't justify buying new noodles every few months, just to keep my bike looking decent. So here's an idea.........get yourself some 5mm heat-shrink tubing (used to insulate electric cables). It's pretty cheap. Remove the noodle and (carefully) take it apart by pulling on the aluminium ferrule at the top end. It should pull the nylon lining out with it. Cut a length of heat-shrink, about 4mm shorter than the tube part of the noodle and slip it on (I'd clean off as much of the rust as you can first, just to keep it at bay a bit). Make sure you push the heat-shrink all the way down until it butts up against the aluminium part at the other end. Then ask the missus (or not ) for a lend of her hair dryer, whack the temperature control to max and heat the tubing until it shrinks down tightly around the noodle.....Oh yeah, hold the noodle with a pair of pliers, as it will get too hot to hold with your fingers! Bob's yer avuncular!