I thought erroneously that I was about to escape the hell of internal cable routing by going Di2 wireless, but I forgot that obviously the brakes are still cable actuated. And internally routed. And with modern bikes, the rear brake may be near the BB and partially covered.
Do you folks who have purchased such modern TT bikes with internally routed brake cables, replace your own internally routed brake cables? I have experience routing shifter cables internally through a difficult old Cervelo frame so I’m sure I can do it, but I’m not looking forward to it.
And yes, I know about and have used the liner-over wire FIRST before pulling the wire so you can use it as a sheath for the new wire. That can also be tricky, or impossible in the case of my old Cervelo when the Jagwire 3mm liner was literally too large for the entry and exit hole. Or, there may be some tricky twists that are just hard to push the liner around.
Or have you not even thought about doing this? (I’ll be the first to admit that if I were starting tri now and bought such a bike, this wouldn’t even remotely be on my mind for years…which may or may not be fine!)
Yeah, I do it. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it involves lots of little magnets and tiny wire hooks along with brutal profanity and things thrown around the garage. Though it always gets done.
Dimond Marquise, change my own. Thought I was going to have to pull the bottom bracket at one point, but eventually fished it through. For the first go, probably wasn’t worth the hassle. But now that I know how it goes, I’ll keep changing it myself in the future.
The little Shimano kit with the magnets and wire pulls is worth it if you expect to build a few bikes or replace brake cables more than once or twice in your lifetime. They can turn an hour of cursing into a 5-minute job in my experience, building up a few frames of my own…
The little Shimano kit with the magnets and wire pulls is worth it if you expect to build a few bikes or replace brake cables more than once or twice in your lifetime. They can turn an hour of cursing into a 5-minute job in my experience, building up a few frames of my own…
+1.
Santa brought me the Park Tool set of draw wires - 4 or 5 wires with different end fittings and magnets - covers nearly all bases (one has an opposing polarity magnet too so you can thread one from one end and the other from the other end and get them to grab onto each other in the middle. That’s a help
I’ve used the separate magnet quite a few times for other things (like fishing a quick link after dropping it down a crack in the floor 😖).
Yeah, I do it. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it involves lots of little magnets and tiny wire hooks along with brutal profanity and things thrown around the garage. Though it always gets done.
Honestly I’m amazed that so few people have responded to this thread. There have gotta be more than like 10 internal-brake routed bike owners out there on this forum, and I’ll be quite a few of them haven’t given even a thought as to changing a brake cable on their bike down the road.
I change my brake cables on my felt DA. It’s annoying but after doing it a few times I know what I’m doing. Pull cable out, run new cable into old housing (not through bars yet), run new housing through new cable, pull new cable, then finally run it through bars. Then the more annoying part is adjusting the brake to make it work well:
On my Speed Concept the hard part is fishing stuff through the handlebars and 1X eTap makes the gear setup a 10 minute job (it takes that long because I have to watch a video on YouTube.
In my experience, bike brands have gotten better with internal cabling on TT bikes. On the other hand, my 3T Exploror pretty much requires the patience of Job and pulling the bottom bracket to do the job.
To route Di2 and brake housing internally use this easy to make DIY hack. The brake housing ferrule on the end of a gear cable is such a simple, yet effective way for routing e-tube wires, rim brake housing, and hydraulic housing (all 5mm external diameter tubing) through the frame. I also use paper clips as hooks and magnets to grab the gear cable at the exit points.
…and you’ve been going on about your Cervelo FD hole for years now. Drill it out (i.e. expand the holes) already!
I’ve owned 4 bikes with internal cables. (2 cervelos, a Klein, and a Serotta.). I wouldn’t call any of them modern, but the Serotta is dead simple to route (there’s a full sleeve brazed into the frame, just feed it through). The first cervelo (the original Alu P2) was a bit challenging, no guides at all in the frame and housing had to be routed internally, with bends that were too tight for gear cable…
Cervelo #2 is pretty easy (p2sl which was replaced by a p2k, but they’re basically the same frame so only counting it once)
The Klein was a pita. It had housing stops but no guides, and I didn’t have the liners. Magnets worked for the gear cables, but to do the brake cable requires removing the fork and feeding dental floss to the head tube, tying them together then using that to pull the inner cable through the frame.
I do all my own work, besides reaming / facing bottom brackets and head tubes. I know how, but the tools are very expensive for something that I’ll use twice.
Honestly, I think I’m just going to let the LBS do the internal cable routing from now on. It really only needs to be done once every 1-2 years if even that at the rate that I bike, and the <$100 they charge is easily worth it in terms of my time.
Just did my rim brake S2, swapping mechanical groupsets out (Shimano Ultegra 10 Speed for Sensah 11 Speed). The rear brake cable is the easiest one to do. The mechanical shift cables are a bit of a pain but manageable with a section of coat hanger.
