Hozan C-356 Inner Wire Pliers
After weighing my options for cable tensioning tools I settled on the Hozan C-356 Inner Wire Pliers. These were recommended to me by a few folks, including Daniel Stewart over at Custer Cyclery, and I’m very happy with them. This is a seemingly simple tool that grabs a cable (or cable tie) and pulls it snug. This is a fairly simple action, but it makes snugging down cables and ties considerably easier than I’d expected.
For cables I’d previously used a set of locking pliers to hold the cable, pulling on that while tightening down the bolt. This works, but is a bit quirky and damages the cable more than I care for.
The only difficulty I’ve run into this far is when trying to use the C-356 to snug down the cable on a 2012-ish SRAM X9 rear derailleur, as the cable’s termination point isn’t really accessible with the tool. Otherwise, it’s been very handy ever since I picked it up. Most of my uses with it have involved cable ties, but it’s made tightening them down (especially in tight spaces, like inside of fork legs while a wheel is fitted) a breeze.
[ Cross-posted from nuxx.net. Click here for the original post. ]