Jagwire Road Elite Sealed Brake Kit 228g (complete) £34.99

The Jagwire Road Elite Sealed Brake Kit is a premium, supposedly fit 'n’ forget set aimed primarily at road bikes running dual pivot calliper, or cantilever brakes. They do require premium quality cutters and take a little longer to fit, compared with regular cables. However, I’ve found them much nicer than other sealed systems and performance is absolutely top-notch.

Pros: Extremely high quality, minimal friction, seemingly weatherproof & maintenance free, particularly good upgrade for cable-operated disc brakes.

Cons: Price, more time consuming to fit than regular cables, slight weight penalty if that’s important to you.

bicycle bike ealed brake cable kit review jagwire

Specification 4/5

The kit comes in three parts. Let’s start with the outer. This employs a surprisingly gentle polymer outer, which is available in four colours- Frozen Black, Frozen Grey, White and Red. The “frozen” shades are closer to a matt shade but in my view, contrast nicely with gloss and satin frame finishes. Beneath the supple, relatively paint friendly outers lies a high carbon, low compression coil sprung steel.

Next comes a clear, factory lubricated polymer liner, which runs the cables entire length-lever to calliper, theoretically sealing nasty, performance robbing stuff out. Finally, we’ve stainless steel inner wires, which are also impregnated with a permanent lube. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the outers are 1700mm long, the inner sleeves are 775mm and 1575mm, stainless steel inner wires 1650 and 850mm (front and rear respectively). Completing the kit, we have rubbery cable cuffs and end crimps. The whole kit uncut, tipped the scales at 228g, compared with 147g for their Pro Road Elite counterparts. A possible consideration for bikes on calorie-controlled diets.

Fitting 3.75/5

Remarkably straightforward but the old mantra of measure twice and cut once is never more apt than here. Crucial things are to use high quality snips, such as these Super B TB-WC30 or the Jagwire Pro Cable Cutter/Crimper and basically, take your time. I installed ours completely stock i.e. with the liners running from the nipples right through to the calliper’s anchor bolts. This would test how effective the seup was at keeping grit and other stuff out.

Test Bike/Context

Ours arrived while Ursula was at the frame builders, so she seemed the obvious choice, serving four seasons, on and indeed, off road. Now, I’d also upgraded the rear end to an IS disc mount and was keen to see how well they’d perform with a twin-piston mechanical disc setup, such as the TRP Spyre/SLC.

Again, these are low down and in the firing line of wet, gritty, filthy stuff, so another good test of the system’s claims and credentials. Everything came together very smoothly, although I had some issues with a mount (budget auction site model, that wouldn’t angle the rear Spyre calliper correctly, thus requiring removal and several minor adjustments of the rear cable tension. Though careful, I was immediately impressed by how well the stainless inners tolerated this- no kinks, fraying, or anything else that might rob performance.

Performance 4.5/5

Smooth as silk when engaging the Tektro RL520 V brake levers. As a side note and if you’re going over to cable operated discs, the RL340 levers will engage mechanical setups reasonably well but are best suited to dual pivot, centre pull, and cantilever stoppers-modulation and power feel vastly inferior to the 520 with discs. Oh, and there’s been no call to leave the inners stretching overnight and pulling through. Get them snugged down, cut and crimp/glue the ends and your sorted.

This experience hasn’t faltered in ten weeks of very changeable, but typically, wet, mulchy and sometimes icy conditions. I’ve always run decent quality cables with Ursula’s TRP Spyre SLC front, and while a hydraulic system will trump them, the Elite Sealed have brought stopping prowess up a notch, or two, less lever travel and hand effort to bring us to a halt-especially, but not limited to laden 1 in 7 descents, spirited green lane action where deer and other large animals can canter into one’s path.

Refinement was particularly obvious at the rear, which can sometimes lack the same bite, on account of longer cable run. However, I could haul up progressively, without any hint of power sapping friction, even along boggy bridlepath, dung strewn backwaters and gritty gravel roads.

I’ve typically left it a week between thorough washes, leaving mud and other spatter caked along the forks, downtube and rear triangle to see if this made any impression. None, in a word. To date, there’s no trace of contaminant leaching into the system and no call to give the cables a shot of maintenance spray, despite my deep-seated inclinations, following sudsy bucket deep cleans.

Durability/Care 4.5/5

As I said, while discussing fitting, the cables are of an extremely high quality, so aside from ultimately gluing the ends out of habit, despite adjustment and manipulation during the installation phase there's been no fraying, or similar evidence of wear. I have literally run them as fit n' forget and through some consistently grotty conditions.

Performance is stop on a sixpence progressive-nothing has infiltrated the cable, sleeves, or outers. I've known some people get 10,000 miles from a set in similar conditions, which bodes very well. This also suggests they, (like some other premium grade kit), will quickly repay their investment and prove more cost effective than mid-range cables.

Value 3.5/5

Starting with the most obvious competitors, Transfil Flying Snakes come in a tenner cheaper and have impressed us with their weather cheating, fit and forget simplicity. However, I’ve found them trickier to install compared with the Jagwire and the rugged carbon Kevlar outers aren’t particularly kind to painted, or lacquered surfaces. Don’t forget those little rubber grommets and some helicopter tape would also be a sensible precaution.

Clarks CRS Core Lube Road Brake Cable Kit come in at £21.99 and as the name suggests, is a complete set of cables - brake and gears. Clarks claims the stainless-steel inner wires are 4x more corrosion resistant than standard stainless steel. There’s a pre lubricated core lube liner to keep braking and shifting slick, while keeping the elements out. The outers are Kevlar reinforced stainless steel. The level of protection from the elements doesn’t rival that of the Jagwire, or Transfil but they may be a wallet friendly choice for those seeking lower maintenance.

Summary

When all’s said and done, the Jagwire Road Elite Sealed Brake Kit is a premium quality brake cable set. One, arguably, best suited to higher end stoppers and/or mile munching gravel builds, or touring lorries. Save for the Transfil Flying Snakes, they’re as close to fit 'n’ forget as I’ve found. They’re also relatively straightforward to fit and could prove very cost- effective long term. That said; riders on tighter budgets and more time, might , on balance, find the Transfil a better fit.

Verdict: 4.25/5 Premium grade maintenance free brake cables that will get the best from your stoppers.

Michael Stenning

Extra UK

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2024

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