Bikes!

[BigV]

You guys are sooo funny.

tl;dr
So. I'm done, I used superglue to solidify the loose end, it's working I've been riding and shifting and enjoying myself.

Long story long:

I watched your video Griff, thanks. Did you see the sample shifter cable at 2:50? That's what my cable looked like, they put different cable ends (I have temporarily forgotten the name of these anchors at the ends...). The end that matched my shifter was the kind where the cable entered the cylindrical anchor along the axis of the cylinder, so I cut off the other one where the cable entered the anchor perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder. AT THIS POINT, I have an irritated, uneven, sharp tipped rope to push on. The guy in the video just completely finesses this point, maybe his cutters are super awesome and finish the end just super, super clean. Mine do not. Pushing that cable end through the labyrinth of the twist shifter, then through the hole in the ferrule, through the hole in the opening in the cable housing, through another ferrule, then through another ferrule and cable housing and ferrule was just a few bridges too far (I have one of those bikes that omit a section of cable housing in this middle, ala bikini style versus one piece).

I got the cable and a needlenose visegrip and put that cable end in the flame of my new stove, celebrated elsewhere. I didn't want to bother worrying that my little 15watt soldering iron wouldn't get the cable hot enough. The stove sure as hell did, it was cherry. And the solder just beaded up and dripped off. Bastard. So... I thought I'd try lead and got a fishing weight and rubbed a shiny groove in the weight with the hot cable. Same result. Grrr.

I then tried some superglue. It is thin enough to not add any appreciable bulk to the end of the cable, and it wicked nicely into the strands of the cable. This seemed to work, because I then re-cut the cable through the little half inch stretch I'd painted with the superglue, like you'd cut a stranded rope through the tape you put on it so you wind up with two taped ends. Anyhow, this did do the trick and I finally got it through the last two ferrules and the last cable without opening any windows.

For the record, I had been using the bike as a one speed, there is a bike shop two blocks away, you can spill a latte without hitting a bike shop, but probably not two lattes. And it did snow last week here, cold in the morning but clear and beautiful in the afternoon. One more thing, I've never repaired a light bulb filament, but I did successfully shorten and reconnect the heating element of my electric drying twice before I ran out of patience and filament.