Adam, during my somewhat lengthy build I experienced exactly the same condition. Thinking that I was smarter than the average bear, I cleaned the cables, coated them with teflon powder and installed. The cables moved back and forth with close to zero resistance. I then went on to other parts of the build. About six months later I had occasion to move the pedals and was baffled by how stiff the movement had become. Turned out that the residual oil in the cable left over from the manufacturing process had combined with the teflon to form a sludge in the nylaflow tubing. The solution was a bit like cleaning a 15' rifle barrel. Squirt some solvent into the tubing at the forward end and with a clean cable, push small bits of paper towel through to the other end. Multiple passes were required before they came out clean.

Angier Ames
N4ZQ