Over the past several months I’ve gradually dropped the front end on my P3 and gone with a shorter stem. I’m comfortable with the resulting position now, and I’d like to clean up the excessive cabling on the front end. Other than using a good quality cable housing cutter like the Park Tool one, what other tips/tricks do I need to be aware of when doing this? I’m assuming I need to completely remove all cables and housings, cut the housings to their correct length, and then re-string the cables. Is there a trick to running the cables internally through the downtube, or is it pretty straightforward to fish them through there? Is there an article somewhere that someone can point me to that shows how to determine correct housing lengths, or do I basically just go with the shortest distance that still allows full rotation of the front end? Thanks in advance. Also, the bike is only about 4 months old, so I was planning to re-use the existing cables/housings (Shimano). Is this a bad idea?
Funny you should post this. I am just coming back to the computer after hanging everything onto and running the cables through the frame of my new Cervelo Soloist Team (yeah, baby!) The cable routing is the same for both our bikes.
The derailleur cables both run through the down tube and out under the bottom bracket through Cervelo’s excellent black cable guides. You should be able to get them to run through very easily, but one tip would be to feed them through one at a time so you know which is which and don’t cross them over each other.
The only difficult cable to get through the frame is the rear brake cable. It goes into the front and back out at the rear of the top tube, through the removeable cable guide. One tip might be to remove the cable stop/guide and thread the cable through it before pressing it back into the frame because it’s hard to get the cable at the proper angle to feed it out the hole. I grabbed it with needle nose pliers and then put it through the cable guide.
You can trim the housings you already have. A few months will cause no wear on them.
Hope this helps.
This is an excellent question. First off, these are just my opinions and recommendations.
Having said that, I would start with a new set of Shmano Dura-Ace brake and derailleur cables and housings. Read the instructions in the box for installation.
One of the interesting things you’ll discover is the grease inside the cable housings is located at the end with the writing emblazoned on the housing. Insert the wire cable into that end of the housing after do a good job of cutting, throating and finishing the housing ends. You do this by first making as a clean a cut as possible. We don’t use Park cable cutters here but rather a Klein brand lineman’s tool which makes a much cleaner cut. Once the cut is completed then use a sharpened spoke to re-open the crimped housing. Then very lightly touch the end to a fine grinding wheel to square off and finish the ends of the housing. This is a trick we got at the Barnett Bicycle Academy. When the ends of the housing is square then it seats in the cable stops on the frame more securely preserving your adjustments better. This extra step only takes a second and is well worth it.
Be sure the cable housings are the precise length also by test fitting them in place and actuating the controls.
If you do all that and a careful assembly job you won’t believe how well everything works and how well it holds its adjustment.
Thanks for the tips Tom. Which Klein cutters do you use?
http://www.mytoolstore.com/klein/kln03.html
Also, do you square all cable housings after cutting them or only the brake cable housings? I’m assuming I can use a Dremel to square the cable ends if I don’t have a grinding wheel?
also when shortening the length of front brake cable & housing, remember that when you apply the brake the cable contracts. take this into account or you will cut it too short.