2003 15.5" WSD Rockhopper gear cable routing

Iain C

The gear cable routing on my other half's 2003 Rockhopper Comp (15.5" WSD) which I've just bought her second hand seems a bit odd. The front mech shifter obviously lives on the left side of the bar, but the cable outer goes into the guide at the top of right hand side of the downtube, and the inner cable then passes around the BB guide back over on the left hand side (which it must do to get a good run to the front mech). The rear shifter routing is vice versa, starting on the right hand side of the handlebar, going thorugh the left cable guide, and crossing back over to the right bb guide before going on to the rear mech.

This obviously means that the cables cross underneath the downtube, which seems a bit odd as they wear against each other and it makes fitting a front cruddie awkward. The bike has been immaculately cared for and really well maintained, so I'm just wondering if there is any reason for this routing or if I can swap the two sides over and get a parallel rather than a crossed cable run?

The previous owner asked the dealer he bought the bike from about this when he spotted it and he was told it was right, something to do with the cable routing needing to be like that for such a small (15.5 WSD) frame. I'm not convinced, after all the two downtube cable guides are only 2" or so away from each other in the grnad scheme of things...

However we went riding yesterday and I noticed that the runs on one of the other girls very similar 15.5 Rockhoppers was parallel and conventional...any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

nicklouse

it is normal. it can gibe better cable run on around the headtube.

there is no convention and the wires do not ware any more or less.

and i would leave the routing as it is.

Iain C

Thanks Nicklouse, will leave alone then.