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[Rattlebattle]

I once ignored advice about not lubricating the clutch cable on a BMW R1100RS I owned a few years ago. On returning home from a ride one day, putting the bike away in the garage I pulled in the clutch lever and became aware that it was locked solid. It was the nylon-lined cable outer that had seized solid to the wire inner at the gearbox end. A new cable sorted it. I can’t now remember what I had used but it definitely reacted with the cable lining.

[Daiwiskers]

Just remembered
In the dim and distant past pressure cable lubricators, aerosol chain lube, had just come to my attention
I had the marvelous idea of lubing every cable on my bike (Suzuki T500) using the pressure lubricator along with chain lube

Let's just say don't use chain lube to lubricate cables, it works great for the ends but on a cold day it just seems to go solid along the length of the cable

In the end I managed to use the pressure lubricator and WD40 to flush out the chain lube but it took age's and on a cold day the cables still didn't feel right

Cheers all Dai

[Wheaters]

I use light engine oil in the pressure lubricator and some specialist "exposed cable and gear lubricant" on the ends.

[steve a]

thanks again for the info

[vince]

Hi, I found oil tends to make the nylon swell and grip the cable. Vince

[Boxerman]

Hi, I found oil tends to make the nylon swell and grip the cable. Vince

I found that too! Couldn't figure out why the clutch on my 350 had gone so stiff. The nylon liner had bunched up inside, gripping the inner - as Vince says.

Frank

[Wheaters]

On the other hand, in 50 years of working on bikes and cars, I've not found the use of light mineral oil to cause any problem. Synthetic oils are ester based and might not be compatible with some plastics but both my '91 Honda 750 and the RE don't use that anyway. As I said, the original cables on the Honda are now 29 years old and in my ownership for 23 of those years. They remain in excellent condition and they have been oiled regularly, normally done at oil change time with what's left over.

However, I'm certainly not saying I wouldn't use other "dedicated" cable lubricants (I have two spray cans on the shelf); but I always seem to have spare oil kicking around in my garage, and the foot pump powered pressure lubricator that I bought in the 1970s (for my BSA C15 and my A7SS) still gets put to good use.

The main point to remember is that Nylon will definitely absorb water causing it to swell and that will certainly made a nylon lined cable stiffen up. My logic is that if the cable has oil inside, then the chance of water getting in is greatly reduced.