Internal Cabling and Alloy Steerers

rusty_nail

I'm trying to decide on my first road bike and I've decided to spend around the £1000 mark. I'm happy with an aluminium frame and 105 groupset which is fairly standard at this price. There's so many options and I aim to try out a few before making a decision. However I'm a bit of a sucker for the full internal cabling which I think looks the part and I'd imagine protects the cables reducing maintenance. However at this price-point I've only found 2 bikes with full internal cabling, the Wilier La Triestina and the Scott Speedster 20. Both of these have carbon forks but alloy steerers. So my question is, will the alloy steerer make a noticeable difference to bikes with a full carbon fork? And do I really need internal cabling, are there advantages or disadvantages to it? Thanks

g00se

Internal cabling doesn't make much of a difference - until you're getting into the realm of marginal gains. Looks nice though. Some folks complain of cable rattle though - with not much that you can do about it.

The alloy steerer is nothing to worry about - will add 200 grams over a carbon steerer and some folks think they are safer.

ride_whenever

Nothing wrong with alloy steerers, as above I'd rather have external cables as generally there is less drag with less outer.

jelley321

Internal cable routing wont make much of a difference over external can just make the bike look tidy, If you really want a bike with internal routing, another bike you could think about is the Cube peloton race, it has full 105 groupset and is a very nice bike to ride. And as said the alloy steerer won't make a difference.