Another joke cable from Venhill

[simonnorthroad]

Just unwrapped a brand new Venhill featherlight clutch cable and as expected it doesnt fit.

Comparing it to the (slightly frayed) Venhill cable Im taking off the bike, the new one's inner is 10mm too short. There is no adjustment whatever with it fitted

Venhill have been useless like this since 1985 when I began buying Morini cables from them. They cant even get the inner-outer ratio the same on a pair of throttle cables they sell

[harrymuffin]

Why cannot you reduce the outer length? I have only bought cables from them once as I prefer to make my own, especailly brake cables, it is a habit from one's racing days.

[snatchpiece]

Strangely enough, I’ve recently had a Venhill clutch from Mdina and the inner was too long!!!
I had to make an extra ferrule to compensate.

[George 350]

Having never heard anything good on here about Venhill, why does everyone keep using them?
JJ Cables near Warwick (no website, old fashioned phone and write to company) do a fantastic job at a sensible price, make one offs to drawings and sell components for the make your own brigade too.
The only way Venhill will understand is not to buy from them.
George.

PS: Norton owners also report the same poor quality issues with Venhill.

[simonnorthroad]

Why cannot you reduce the outer length? I have only bought cables from them once as I prefer to make my own, especailly brake cables, it is a habit from one's racing days.

Because it has ferrules crimped at each end to stop the wound outer compressing.

I could, with a Dremel, but itd be a horrible bodge, involving cutting round the outer then try and cut along the loose piece's length, without nicking the inner and ending up with a cable as frayed as the one Im replacing . Besides I want Venhill to correct their mistake that Ive already paid for

[simonnorthroad]

Having never heard anything good on here about Venhill, why does everyone keep using them?
JJ Cables near Warwick (no website, old fashioned phone and write to company) do a fantastic job at a sensible price, make one offs to drawings and sell components for the make your own brigade too.
The only way Venhill will understand is not to buy from them.
George.

PS: Norton owners also report the same poor quality issues with Venhill.

That's interesting George. Venhill -as ever- seemed surprised at an aberrant cable and full of great excuses: "with these older bikes its often difficult to get original cables to copy" er, youve been making them 40 years. "Many bikes arent original" er, mine is. Plus the cable that's on there taht needs replacing is Venhill and is 10mm longer....

[Daddy Dom]

That's interesting George. Venhill -as ever- seemed surprised at an aberrant cable and full of great excuses: "with these older bikes its often difficult to get original cables to copy" er, youve been making them 40 years. "Many bikes arent original" er, mine is. Plus the cable that's on there taht needs replacing is Venhill and is 10mm longer....

Hahaaa! Well to be fair to them, I am on an after-market clutch lever/holder (made by some obscure outfit ... Tomaselli/Domino?) so perhaps the ratios are non-standard in my case.
Don't start Paul Compton about Venhill, he's been warning us all off them for years.

I found a local guy in the end to copy my busted one and suggest there's no real substitute for that. I'm going to have a few made before he retires.
DD

[buzby]

Strangely enough, I’ve recently had a Venhill clutch from Mdina and the inner was too long!!!
I had to make an extra ferrule to compensate.

Same here ! I compared it to a cable I bought from them about 5 years ago and the inner is about 10mm longer.

[Mepstein]

Around here, there are places that will make custom cables for about the same price as off the rack. Takes about a week and they are perfect, or at least exactly to the specs you send them.

[EVguru]

Venhill did actually pop up on this forum back in 2017

This is Chris from Venhill's USA office. I have a Google alert set to find posts about Venhill and received an alert about this thread. I wanted to respond, I hope you don't mind.

Sorry it took me so long to respond.

The UK office is responsible for cable specifications and would like to speak with someone in regards to the different grip control inserts such that we might accommodate them. If someone in this thread or a member of this forum is interested, would you please contact me privately such that I might connect you and the UK? Does this forum have a private message facility? If not, you can reach me using the Contact Us page on venhillusa.com.

I made quite a detailed response in a PM, but was not even graced with an acknowledgement, let alone an actual response.

[buzby]

I spent a frustrating few hours trying to shorten a throttle cable, I assume the inner must be stainless steel as the flux and solder does not seem to work on this.

[simonnorthroad]

To be fair to Venhill, I did receive emails from their Production manager, a nice chap, saying he was aware of manufacturing issues.

He even said he'd be pleased to get some original Morini cables to copy as a datum.

I gave him what measurements I could from my standard 500

Not sure if that's a good idea, copying OE Italian control cables if the were anything like as random as Guzzi's cables...

[3potjohn]

I made a couple up earlier in the year. I have a homemade birdsnest tool for the cable ends, just some slots cut in a couple of bits of steel sheets clamped in the vice,with a countersink.Then use a drift with a shallow indentation. Seems to work. I got all the parts from Venhill of course which is somewhat ironic. I could do with improving my solder pot, an empty Humbrol (10 mL or thereabouts ) model paint tin.
John