# Alligator iLink shift housing- worth it?



## Hardtailforever (Feb 11, 2004)

I'm considering the iLink housing. I know folks have used it and I was wondering about comparative experience with iLinks compared to standard shimano and Nokon, both of which I have used extensively. I'm also wondering specifically how it works with PowerCordz cables. I've been using PowerCordz on my road ride with mediocre results and was wondering if they work better with iLinks or if I should just stick to standard stuff.

Thoughts?


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## Hardtailforever (Feb 11, 2004)

Secondary question: Is the red ano version of the iLink housing a good strong red, or is it kind of pink like cheap anodized red often turns out? I want to put it on my Trek Elite9.9SSL and may just do black but thought the red would be good, but only if it's a good red.


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## michaelharsh (Jan 6, 2009)

I just built up a bike with the red iLinks. I was pretty disappointed in the color of the ano. It's a purplish-pink color.

Pics are in this thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=5731951


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

Well... Black iLinks are on the way, and the 1,2mm powercordz are here already... I hope they will work...


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## Cheers! (Jun 26, 2006)

The ilinks are good housings. People say they last forever because they are anodized aluminum beads. I disagree. I had my blue ones on for a full season on my full suspension kona... the beads eventually wear (the ball and socket interface). Then the plastic liner goes bad. Nino sells the plastic liners. But when you go and take apart your housing/beads they jsut fall apart and look beat up from use. In the end of the day I picked up a brand new set off of ebay for 40 USD. 

To be honest, I installed a set of XTR SP41 housings with the rubber end seals... the XTR housings shift 10X better than the i-links. 

The weight difference isn't that far apart. Unless you are looking for the extra color (non black). I would just get Shimano XTR housings. I went back to the i-links on my kona because I wanted the blue anodized look on the bike. 

I'm still awaiting the white Sp81 Shimano Yumeya housings. I hope they are not vaporware, because the promised release date was April 2009. It is almost June and still nothing.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Cheers! said:


> 1.But when you go and take apart your housing/beads they jsut fall apart and look beat up from use.
> 
> 2. the XTR housings shift 10X better
> 
> ...


1. It seems you had them mounted with too sharp radius then. I know what you are talking about but this happens in the radius where those joints might get stressed if it's too sharp of a bend.

2.Not true.You must have had a kink in your liner or used the wrong inner wires.I-links are super-slick action. a brandnew set of DA or XTR is on the same level but the performance drops with use while i-links remain slick much,much longer.

3. well - 25g/m against 32g/m...to some not worth the investment for sure but it is not only lighter but performs better too.

4. oh - Shimano has you waiting too?


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## rensho (Mar 8, 2004)

nino said:


> 1. It seems you had them mounted with too sharp radius then. I know what you are talking about but this happens in the radius where those joints might get stressed if it's too sharp of a bend.
> 
> 2.Not true.You must have had a kink in your liner or used the wrong inner wires.I-links are super-slick action. a brandnew set of DA or XTR is on the same level but the performance drops with use while i-links remain slick much,much longer.
> 
> ...


Nino, you ever consider that the OP wants to hear feedback from users, rather than the person selling the snake oil? Stop bashing people or telling them they don't know how to use stuff if they just happen to don't like your products, or that it isn't the best thing in the world. Just a thought...


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

Mine just arrived. A can see that the new 1,2mm powercordz fit very loose in the ilink liners... I hope that's not a problem regarding shifting performance...


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## Cheers! (Jun 26, 2006)

loose is good. Shimano shift cables are 1.2mm in diameter. That is why IO Dupot developed the 1.2mm powercordz so that it would be better compatible with the shifting systems out there. Prior you had to drill out cable stops and barrel adjusters to make the powercordz fit.

Personally I think they are one of the biggest waste of money there is for bicycles. But that is my opinion and experience. Just make sure you set up you entire cable systems (shift and brake) with normal steel cables and ride around for a couple of rides or a month before you install the powercordz. You only have 1 shot at getting it right. Repeated clamping of the powercordz (anything more than once) with the pinch bolts on the derailleurs will result in fraying of the powercordz as the plastic jacketing gets damaged. If the plastic jacketing gets damage the cordz will fail. Perhaps the new clasp method that powercordz have released recently solves this problem. But my experience with the powercordz was that they were not worth the hassle. 

You mileage may vary


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

The white plastic breaks when you tighten but as long it doesn't enter the housings I don't see a problem. But you're probably right... Not worth the hassle...

Just one of those things I had to try though...


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## Limon (Jan 26, 2004)

just finished changing my housing from shimano to alligator and here are the big savings


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## BruceBrown (Jan 16, 2004)

Limon said:


> just finished changing my housing from shimano to alligator and here are the big savings


Hot dang - 4.8g!!! Shave your legs and head to add to that savings.

BB


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## Limon (Jan 26, 2004)

BruceBrown said:


> Hot dang - 4.8g!!! Shave your legs and head to add to that savings.
> 
> BB


don't be jealous of my mad savings


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## Hardtailforever (Feb 11, 2004)

On a somewhat related note, I installed some Powercordz on my road bike and I am not impressed with the shifting performance. Noticeably sluggish both up and down, lots of friction, and they seem to stretch slightly sometimes under hard shifting so that no matter what, the shifting is never crisp. I'm using with Dura Ace 7800, shimano housing, and had it set up and settled in with steel cables for a week before switching. Not impressed at all. It's too bad, because they're ridiculously light and the white cables look nice on my black and white C'dale SuperSix.


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

Maybe they need lube... Don't know...

I was playing with my iLink today... Not impressed so far... Small savings, big hassle...


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## OilcanRacer (Jan 4, 2008)

i am running these on most of my bikes now. no noticable problems other than they do not like to make tight turns and tend to either fold or eat into each other.

i am pretty rough on my parts and they have held up. i like being able to make changes by just pushing/pulling them apart. kind of modular.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

OilcanRacer said:


> .... no noticable problems other than they do not like to make tight turns and tend to either fold or eat into each other.


That's exactly what i was trying to explain above. It's in the sharper bends that this can happen and where the segments can "eat into each other" which can make happen what Cheers! above described. By avoiding too sharp bends you shouldn't have these kinds of problems though.


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## saga (Feb 12, 2005)

I bought two sets of i-links and I'm sorry to say I'm not very impressed. Just not worth the extra hassle on set-up imo.


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## cmh (Jan 30, 2004)

saga said:


> I bought two sets of i-links and I'm sorry to say I'm not very impressed. Just not worth the extra hassle on set-up imo.


I'm coming to the same conclusions on my set. When they work, they work very well, but every now and then the shifting gets wonky for a little while, then clears right up. Very annoying to have inconsistent performance like that. While trying to hunt down the cause, I found something very interesting. If I move the loop of housing behind the rear derailleur side to side, the derailleur parallelogram itself moves, not enough to shift, but enough to be noticed, and I'm starting to think that something like that is the cause of the occasionally bad shifting. Could I have made a bend that was too tight? It's possible, but it's a pretty big loop, bigger than I'd need for standard housing, and FAR larger than I'd need for Nokons.

Especially seeing as it doesn't save that much weight over some standard shift housings, such as the Jagwire, I think I'll be pulling it off and sticking with the tried-and-true.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Cheers! said:


> I'm still awaiting the white Sp81 Shimano Yumeya housings. I hope they are not vaporware, because the promised release date was April 2009. It is almost June and still nothing.


We've got several rolls of housing that looks to be the SP81 stuff, or at least as thin in diameter (3.5mm) as the SP81 at the store. I'm not entirely sure where it came from because Campy and the rest of the shimano housing we run use requires 4mm OD housing. I weighed a short section of the stuff opposite the SP41 and it was 23% lighter (10 vs 13). If I can find the correct size end caps for the stuff, I'll re-cable one of my bikes with it and see how it shifts.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

cmh said:


> I'm coming to the same conclusions on my set. When they work, they work very well, but every now and then the shifting gets wonky for a little while, then clears right up. Very annoying to have inconsistent performance like that. While trying to hunt down the cause, I found something very interesting. If I move the loop of housing behind the rear derailleur side to side, the derailleur parallelogram itself moves, not enough to shift, but enough to be noticed, and I'm starting to think that something like that is the cause of the occasionally bad shifting. Could I have made a bend that was too tight? It's possible, but it's a pretty big loop, bigger than I'd need for standard housing, and FAR larger than I'd need for Nokons.
> 
> Especially seeing as it doesn't save that much weight over some standard shift housings, such as the Jagwire, I think I'll be pulling it off and sticking with the tried-and-true.


sounds more like a combination of a too thight radius or too short section of outer segments. When you set a bike up with the i links you have to make sure there is enough lenght in each section of outer housing needed. When "loose"/unmounted the alloy segments have some play in those joints. Maybe 0.2mm per segment. As soon as you have the inner wire engaged this play is gone, the segments push against each other which makes that section a fraction shorter in overall lenght. Now if you had it "cut" just to proper lenght like you would do an regular housing this means it's like running a too short housing which can lead to ghost shifting. I always suggest people to have each section 2-3 segments longer than you would like to fight this "shrinking", to compensate for the play that will be gone once the wires are attached. Nothing too special, just a part of the system. I think you should realize it when you have them in hand.


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

I've noticed exactly THAT you described. I mounted the rear shift with the same length I had with jagwire (read, almost 1,5m for the scale frame). By the end, when I turned the handlebar from one extreme side to the other, the rear der. would move ONE full gear. Unacceptable. You guys say: Well, you must use larger diameter bends... But that would raise the total weight, lowering the difference from 7g to what, 5g regarding say jagwire housings...?

Nope, not impressed at all. Will give another try when I find some time.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Batas said:


> I've noticed exactly THAT you described. I mounted the rear shift with the same length I had with jagwire (read, almost 1,5m for the scale frame). By the end, when I turned the handlebar from one extreme side to the other, the rear der. would move ONE full gear. Unacceptable. You guys say: Well, you must use larger diameter bends... But that would raise the total weight, lowering the difference from 7g to what, 5g regarding say jagwire housings...?
> 
> Nope, not impressed at all. Will give another try when I find some time.


NO, you might have a different problem again:
by setting up full lengh housings you have to clamp the housings firm in a couple of places. This too needs to be done with some care as you will have the segments "shrink" when engaged. I know what i am talking of as me too i was setting up my Scale with full-lenght i-links. I fixed them with some zip-ties and those 3 clamps under the top-tube only to realize i made them too thight. I had to give a little extra "play", an extra segment in sections section between those zip-ties/clamps to fight the ghost shifting described above. So the overall lenght isn't that much longer, it's the minimal play you have to give between these zip-ties only...i'd say 3-4 segments total=2cm only which you have to add over regular housing cut to it's shortest. No rocket science, just understandig how these cables work.

Pictured below my Winter-Scale in 2 different states.One with XTR rear, the other is the actual state with DA. i have the front loops as short as possible so the handlebar can do a full rotation until the Brakelevers hit the top-tube. As mentioned - these outers might be 2cm longer than some regular housings.


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## Batas (Jan 16, 2004)

I know what you mean, I realized that, so I fine tunned the shifting before I clamped the housings. The clamps were completely loosen up. Will try one more time though.


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## cmh (Jan 30, 2004)

nino said:


> sounds more like a combination of a too thight radius or too short section of outer segments. When you set a bike up with the i links you have to make sure there is enough lenght in each section of outer housing needed. When "loose"/unmounted the alloy segments have some play in those joints. Maybe 0.2mm per segment. As soon as you have the inner wire engaged this play is gone, the segments push against each other which makes that section a fraction shorter in overall lenght. Now if you had it "cut" just to proper lenght like you would do an regular housing this means it's like running a too short housing which can lead to ghost shifting. I always suggest people to have each section 2-3 segments longer than you would like to fight this "shrinking", to compensate for the play that will be gone once the wires are attached. Nothing too special, just a part of the system. I think you should realize it when you have them in hand.


"too tight radius" is funny because the rear derailleur loop looks like it came off a K-Mart bike, it's far larger than it needed to be with the jagwire. Also have the full length housing, but I set the derailleur and adjusted the gears before I located the clamps and tied it down to the bottom of the top tube. (another Scott Scale)

I'm not saying the stuff can't be set up right and work well. I'm just saying it's got too many rules and gotchas when compared with the Jagwire, especially considering the paltry weight savings. I'll take easy to set up, cheap, and foolproof over explaining to Grace why her bike wouldn't shift right in the race in the name of 10 grams.

For my own use, I'd probably tolerate it, but my bike's not a WW project so again, I stick with tried and true. (Actually, I've got Nokon beads on my bike.)

Still, to be fair, when the iLinks works, it works great - and the effort at the shift lever is the lowest of any of the setups.


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## saga (Feb 12, 2005)

Nino or anyone that knows, how many sliver bits of housing should you get in a pack? Or length, I have a pack and it seems not to be enough.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

saga said:


> Nino or anyone that knows, how many sliver bits of housing should you get in a pack? Or length, I have a pack and it seems not to be enough.


Depends.Usually around 180cm total lenght. But i have also seen sets with as little as 150cm...mine are all 180.

@cmh:
well - it seems people just aren't capable or willing to give it 2 thoughts. These same guys maybe won't use tubeless conversions either because of the finicky setup? or take their time to set up their suspensions?.... The i-links aren't any astronomical things...just set them up straightforward and it should offer the slickest and longest lasting performance.


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## Megaclocker (Sep 28, 2005)

nino said:


> Depends.Usually around 180cm total lenght. But i have also seen sets with as little as 150cm...mine are all 180.
> 
> @cmh:
> well - it seems people just aren't capable or willing to give it 2 thoughts. These same guys maybe won't use tubeless conversions either because of the finicky setup? or take their time to set up their suspensions?.... The i-links aren't any astronomical things...just set them up straightforward and it should offer the slickest and longest lasting performance.


Any housing with no bends in them will shift fine.

I have worked on lots of ilinks kind of setup at our shop and shimano sp41 always shift better.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Megaclocker said:


> and shimano sp41 always shift better.


No,definitely not.
And the Shimano gets sticky after not too many weeks while the i-links remain slick.


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## Trail_rat (Oct 25, 2006)

And the Shimano gets sticky after not too many weeks while the i-links remain slick.

you keep repeating this but i have not experianced this (on my bike nor on some of the several hundred/thousand customers bikes ive set up with shimano) I was going to try Ilinks after seeing them on a mates bike in gold but having seen his experiance (and i just thought it was him having issues because he is him....) i think ill stick to my shimano XTR cables - which are as light and as smooth as the day i fitted them in march with XTR shifters and Mechs

Sure if you leave your bike out in the rain to rust up or you dont give your cables a little love now and again they might go sticky but ive ridden in awful weather with them and all i do is unhook the cables from the stops , run some grease over the cables and run the outer over the greased sections , wipe off the excess and i get sweet shifting. - this said on my new bike i have not had to do this yet - and i live in the uk , land of the eternal rainy day !


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