I’m building up a frame I bought at a bike swap (2001 Orbea Dauphine). However, the derailleur shifter cable stops that are usually at the upper end of the down tube are actually brazed on either side of the head tube. The problem is that the front brake is only about an inch in front of the derailleur shifter cable stop and doesn’t leave enough room to prevent the brake from hitting and crossing the derailleur cable when you turn the handlebars to the side. I’m using Ultegra brakes, if that makes any difference.
Anybody dealt with this, or know what I’m doing wrong? Do I need to route the derailleur cable some special way?
Don’t know about that frame, since I’ve never owned one…but my 2 cents is…how far do you really turn the front wheel while your riding. If you watch, you never actually turn it very far at all, unless you wish to fall over. My Zipp 2001 cables are VERY short and don’t allow the wheel to turn much at all, but I never need all that radius anyway. I wish i could solve your problem, but its only a problem if you wish to turn your bars past the necessary limits anyway.
The clearance between the brake lever arm (where the cable attaches) and the front of the head tube braze on is about 1". If I route the cable to the right of the brake lever arm, I can’t turn the bars to the right, same thing if I route the cable to the left.
Just run the derailleur housing on the inside of the brake arm/housing… this will enable the (derailleur)housing bend-in, when needed. If the housing is on the outside of the brake-arm, it will kink the housing(and possibly shatter the housing).
I’m trying to picture this, and I know the typical cable routing method is to place the front brake cable in front of the shifter cable, but have you tried routing it inside the derailler cable - you know, the big shimano loop from shifter to cable stop (maybe making that loop or arc, I guess, bigger/longer)? Placing the cable stop on the head tube is becoming pretty popular, so I have to imagine there’s a work-around. You see, if you were using campy this wouldn’t be a problem!
If you run the der. cable directly out from the cable stop it hits the back of the brake adjuster. So the same problem exists whether you route it to the right or the left side of the brake adjuster/cable.
I’m wondering if the bike was originally spec’d with Campy brakes - maybe their shape is different enough (brake lever arm is lower or more to the right) to allow enough clearance?
I’ve dealt with a few bikes where the mounts are on both sides of the headtube. True, it does work great with campy, but STI is where it kinks the housing.
Just make sure that the handlebars never turn far in either direction. Or especially, if you put it in a car trunk or a back-seat(with the handlebars turned completely over). Also, I have found that using plastic ferrules are stronger than steel; in this situation. With the steel ferrules, they bend and flare out from turning side to side… this will make the shifting very sloppy after awhile.
It’s just the difference in the derailler cable routing coming off the handle bars. Campy’s come out from under the bar tape, Shimano’s from the shifter/lever. I really tried to shift (no pun intended) to Shimano a few years ago, but I couldn’t get used to that cable darting out of the shifter right where I like to place my thumb(s). Not that I want to open up a shimano/campy can of worms.
