Yokozuna reaction cables review: how to save your marriage by using Yokozuna Reaction Cables

Have you ever been riding down a fast hill and needed to brake hard and fast?

But the brakes weren't there.

Your beloved receives a call from the local constabulary as they sit drinking their Saturday morning orange juice, waiting for you to get back from your Saturday ride.

“Mrs Finnigan, you'll need to get to XXXX hospital where John has a broken leg.”

“What happened?”

“He had insufficient braking power on his bike, went through a corner, hit a pregnant Jersey cow, who in shock and outrage, kicked John who then fell down an embankment and broke his leg.”

Everyone wants to avoid this situation for both marital harmony, minimising time off the bike, and, you really wanted to just watch the cricket* in peace that afternoon.

(* Or Baseball, Soccer, Football, Ice Hockey, Horse Show Jumping, Curling [actually, curling is great!] or whatever.)

Maybe you've always been less than confident and derring-do on descents, as a result of not quite trusting your brakes like you can trust an Audi R8 shod with Brembos or not having general descending skill and confidence. (Skill and confidence on descents is a whole other topic, but confidence in your equipment is a key part of it.)

Now, braking power is dependent on the combination of your brakes and cables, and how well routed and lubed your cables are.

I reckon brake calipers are much of a muchness at the higher spec levels, but I think there's a marked difference between cables (with routing a function of mechanical aptitude).

“Wait, what, Tim? Aren't cables, just cables?”

Nope.

Just like oils ain't oils, cables ain't cables.

Having ridden the Cols of France and ridden at hair raising speeds (Kate might read this, so I have to redact the speed, but, if you want to know, reply to this email) that would frighten most people, and with my local hills seeing horrific speeds, I need a killer brake set up (weight is not a concern).

Now, there are a lot of cables on the market, but I've found a cable that gives me ULTIMATE STOPPING POWER.

When combined with decent brakes, these cables offer tremendous stopping power.

In fact, when coupled with good callipers, this setup is so powerful, you could think about re-entering earth's orbit, hitting the anchors, washing off hypersonic speeds and settling to the surface like a feather.

(Well, almost).

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Yokozuna Reaction Cable System review.

Good

Construction

What's awesome about these cables is the construction.

The shifters are pretty standard (but, still very good), but the brake cables are what sets these bad boys apart.

Constructed with an inner plastic sleeve, outer coaxial strands (like shifter cables), but with an extra metallic ribbon wrapped around the inner strands, to prevent them splitting under repeated stress.

The cable is then wrapped with a see through plastic sheath. Note, the outer sheath is not shrink wrapped around the cable, but rather bonded. What does this mean? More stopping power.

The construction actually presents some installation and practical issues, discussed below in “Bad”.

Compressionless braking

When you brake, you are pulling the brake cable through the casing which provides opposing static force to the iner cable, to create the braking force.

Think of what Isaac Newton said: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Due to the force against the outer cable, the cable can become subject to compression. This feels like spongey brakes. No matter how hard you brake, you don't get ASP (Awesome Stopping Power).

With bikes, you'll often hear people go on about tiny differences in ride or whatever, but the reality is, unless there is a significant difference in quality or spec, most top line stuff is the same. (For example, I personally think this is true of things like frames.)

However, my personal experience with Yokozunas, Gore, Durace, Ultegra and Jagwire cables is that there is a noticeable and marked difference between Yokozunas and the rest.

Bad

About the only downside to the Yokies are the thickness of them. This presents a few issues: installation and travel.

Installation of Yokozuna Reaction Cables

Inevitably you will need to cut the cables to the right length. I used a cheap angle grinder. The problem here is that the cable has internal plastic lining as well as a thin plastic casing to keep the metal ribbon in place.

An angle grinder can melt this plastic such that the inner and outer plastic recedes down the cable, leaving the outer ribbon exposed and no plastic lining on the inside, meaning the inner cable will be rubbing directly on the metal coax sheath.

You can't—at least I couldn't—use standard cable cutters (even good ones). The cables are just too thick.

An alternative is cutting them with a very fine toothed hacksaw.

Sheldon Brown recommends using special compressionless cables cable cutters.

Additionally, due to their thickness they can be very hard to manage on bikes requiring tight bending circles (or low bending radius).

I managed to install them on my Tarmac with relative ease but my LBS really struggled to get them installed in my old XS Look 586 with internal routing.

So if you have a really small bike (that Look XS was SMALL) or a bike that has crazy bend radii, these require more investigation.

Anyone with some level of mechanical aptitude can manage the installation of these.

Travel

The brake cables are very stiff and the shifters just stiff.

If you are travelling and using a bike bag like the BikND or EVOC (more VN bike bag reviews) you'll need to remove your handlebars. With a bag like the Scicon AeroComfort Plus, you'll be fine.

These cables can make the range of positions you can put your handlebars in very limited.

I had real trouble fitting my Look into an EVOC with these cables fitted. I mean, I got it in, but the finishing tape at the end of the bar tape tape (the tape that holds your bar tape down) was torn.

“Are these for me?”

I absolutely recommend these without hesitation.

If you want brakes that impart maximum leverage onto your wheels, and increase your stopping power in any situation, but particularly on big mountain downhills, or in races, these are for you.

Definitely worth a look even if you're happy with your current cables. Try these and be blown away.

Price

These cables are not cheap: at AUD$70 for a full set, they're a lot more expensive than Jagwire compressionless brakes (AUD$45 or so).

Weight

These feel heavier and bulkier but are virtually the same as other cables. In any case, if you're worried about mere 10's of grams, forego a few donuts a month.

Where to Buy

You can get Yokozuna Reaction Cables at Wiggle. Most of the other big online stores intermittently stock them. Buy Yokozunas from Wiggle, or check:

• ProBikeKit
• Chain Reaction Cycles
• Evans Cycles