Alligator i-Link Derailleur Cable Kit

The Alligator i-Link cable set has little to do with weight saving and more to do with precision and longevity. On the face of it, you'd need more money than sense to fork out 40 quid on derailleur cables...Then again, the outers aren't susceptible to corrosion in the same fashion as conventional types so should last many years, thus repaying the investment several times over.

Prise open the packaging and you're presented with a beautifully finished anodised outer, Teflon-coated liner and PTFE-coated inners. The outer comes supplied as a complete piece reminiscent of those necklaces of sweets you got when you were a kid. These slot together to provide stability for the entire system.

Allow yourself a good hour or so to fit these: half of which you'll spend familiarising yourself with the system and how individual components relate to each other. Those familiar with the Nokon system will feel very much at home here but the objective is to produce a taut, seamless effect. You trim the Teflon liner(s) as usual and refit them, wiring your inner cables to the derailleurs as normal. Clearly of high quality, there's nothing particularly obscure about the inners so a bog standard stainless replacement shouldn't cause any fuss should one fail in the back of beyond.

Taking testing to the extreme I became inventive in my testing and set the Alligators a stern test, feeding one to the Ultegra front derailleur on my traditional ' cross bike and the other to my MTB-based commuter/winter/cross bike that runs an 8-spd 105 rear mech linked to an STX MTB shifter. To my surprise and their credit, both have been impeccably behaved, clicking effortlessly along the block and between ring - even under load.

The latter is particularly commendable since some of my local climbs are ripe for catching the unwary. There's a notable lack of hesitation, a certain crispness that doesn't border on revolutionary but certainly separates these cables from comparable quality Kevlar types. Some folk talk of 'chatter' when riding over variable surfaces but I can only conclude they've erred on the side of caution, leaving the housing just a fraction too long or omitting the paint-friendly rubber cuffs because I didn't hear any.

Verdict

Durable precision gear cableset for higher end systems