Q: What causes the wire strands to come through on my derailleur housings?

A: When the linear wire strands on derailleur housings pull through or become exposed it’s typically because the housing is cut to short and/or it’s in an area on your frame where there is a fair amount of movement. The best way we can explain what is happening is this… Take two identical piece of rope and lay them next to one another. Now bend them to make a “C” shape. Notice that the piece of rope on the outside now appears shorter and the piece on the inside appears longer. Now imagine this happening to your derailleur housings every time you turn your handlebars or your suspension compresses. Over time the linear wire strands begin to move and the housing casing begins to pull back a little. The best way to fix this problem or minimize the issue is to lengthen your housings a little. The shorter the housing segment, in a high flex area, the more likely this is to occur. On your rear derailleur make sure there’s always a least an inch of “flat” housing before it bends up to your chain stay housing stop.