Crossing over gear cables?

scale20

Called into a bike shop over the weekend to look at a Cannondale 29er and on looking under the down tube they had crossed over the bare inner gear cables. In all my time I have never come accross this, they said it gives slicker shifting, dont see how. Plus, surely it cant do the bare cable any good if they touch where they cross?

Am I missing something here or are they talking cr@p?

cooldad

New one on me.

supersonic

It gives a less tight route around the headtube.

nicklouse

Very common and in many cases good practice as it can give better routing around the headtube.

cooldad

You learn something new every day. Even if you know everything.

scale20

Hmm, never seen it before, thought someone had dropped one building it up!

How does it affect the cables then? They touched where they crossed, over time wouldnt they wear down, possibly fray from all the rubbing and vibrating off eachother?

nicklouse

Makes no difference to them. They wear-out fast on the ferules. Like I said vey very common.

bikaholic

As stated, criss-cross cable routing is nothing new or unusual (been doing it this way since the nineties) - it's the most desirable way of routing cables where the cables form smoother loops around the head tube.

Also, if you do it right, you won't need to use frame protectors or patches.

Most Specialized frames come with a stepped BB cable guide just so that criss-cross cable routing would be possible without them touching at the exposed sections.

allthegearnoidea

a Lot of lapierre's have the same, a lot of people look at it the same was as OP, and to most it does look wrong, but is how they are, and have been as above for a long while,

jndb72

They were routed this way on my Specialized