Ch. XII: In which our inrtrepid hero successfull installs internally routed cables

[hozn]

I think the shops use magnets. Obviously that might not work if your frame is steel

I have also heard of vacuum cleaners to pull string through. I have plastic tubes that I can reinsert for replacing my shifter cables. My new frame should have internal tubes making it quite trivial; we shall see.

[MFC]

@Crickey7 144411 wrote:

After an extremely ill-advised and botched attempt to replace my internally routed rear shifter cable resulted in bad shifting, and multiple unsuccessful attempts to fix it failed, I finally learned my own trick on how to route them myself. Note: I have no idea how the shops do it.

I snipped the cables at the shifter end and removed all of the housing and guides into the frame at both ends. Then I cut a cable crimp so that it was open on both ends, and reamed it out so that I could get a cable into the cut end. I mated the new and old cables inside the crimp (with the non-flared end in the direction of the old cable), and crimped tightly. Then I pulled through. I had to re-do it at the bottom bracket because the plastic housing there was too small, but I believe most bikes with internally routed cables have access points there, so it was no big deal. The whole thing took less than a half hour, and now works perfectly.

At least with replacing cables, I think you can also remove the outer sheathing from some cable housing, then slide the remaining cable housing over your old cable and leave that in place when you remove the old cable to route the new cable through. My recollection is that Art’s Cyclery and GCN have some good videos on this but I can’t open them at work.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@hozn 144416 wrote:

I think the shops use magnets. Obviously that might not work if your frame is steel

I have also heard of vacuum cleaners to pull string through. I have plastic tubes that I can reinsert for replacing my shifter cables. My new frame should have internal tubes making it quite trivial; we shall see.

Both of these methods work great. Keep a spare cycling computer wheel magnet to lead a bare inner cable through the frame and out from the port.

We also use compressed air and cotton thread: tape over all the holes/ports except the two you need the cable to pass through, tie or tape one end of the string to the bare inner cable, insert free end of the string and either blow from the top hole, or vacuum from the bottom hole and the thread will pop right out. then gently pull the inner cable through. takes very little time.

also, if the bike doesn’t have plastic sleeves, grab some PTFE tubing (1.5-1.8mm ID) from McMaster Carr and (after you’ve got the cable threaded and need to replace it) slide a section into the frame. Polyethylene or polypropylene tubing can work, too.

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