internal cable routing disaster

curium

So the internally routed rear brake cable on my Cube Peloton Race has been removed during a calliper replacement.

This is my first internally routed cable bike so I blindly assumed that there would naturally be a guide channel within the top tube to facilitate cable replacement. Apparently not!

So I've spent the last 2 hours blindly fishing about with the new brake cable in the hope that by divine intervention it will appear out of the exit hole. There outer does no go through the top tube so I can't use it as a guide, It stop at the entry point and resumes at the exit point.

The whole ordeal is made harder by the fact that while there is an exit and entry aperture, within the top tube itself the cable seems free to do whatever it wants.

I pulled out the seatpost in the hope of guiding the cable from there but the seat tube runs all the way down with only a tiny hole indicating where the top tube joins.

Anyone know any tricks to deal with such a scenario? Am I shit out of luck?

rolf_f

If you have a cheapish spec brake cable knocking about (or the one you are trying to fit is a cheapo ) you might find a magnet may help. Mind you, you might need a rare earth magnet for the magnetic field to be strong enough.

BTW, why would the cable be unthreaded during the caliper replacement?

k-dog

You need to feed something through which you can then attach the cable to - and then next time do that before you pull the old one out!

I've heard of using wool - feed it through one hole and attach a vacuum cleaner to the other hole (might have to block the seat tube hole too) and it gets pulled through.

Either that or a long stiffer wire which you can angle to the exit hole - tricky though.

maringirl

You can on some frames remove the plastic cover where the cable outer stops to get a little better access - often a tiny little allen key (1.5 - 2mm) holding them in. Once removed it is 'easier' to see end of cable being pushed through and fish it out with a spoke or similar

curium

Wooooooh!

My brilliant missus managed to un-thread a brake cable to produce two strands and use it to construct a hook and loop. She then threaded one through each end and after much trying managed to hook them together (At this point I was close to tears on the back of 2 hours of trying!)
We then unthreaded the end of the replacement brake cable and twisted the single strand that was through the hole already around the replacement cable, secured it a bit more with candle wax and then pulled the whole lot through.

The original cable was removed because i had to cut it to replace the rear brake caliper and there was not sufficient length to reconnect it to the new calliper.

I need to publicly thanks my missus as she came home to find I had a bike in her kitchen, bikes on the TV and no cleaning done. She could of gone mental but quickly sussed that my pride and joy was on life support and gave me a brake

StillGoing

A vacuum cleaner and cotton is all you need. 2 sec job and easy.

rolf_f

curium wrote:

The original cable was removed because i had to cut it to replace the rear brake caliper and there was not sufficient length to reconnect it to the new calliper.

You'll make your life a whole lot easier and cheaper if you just pull the ferrule off the end of the cable and pull the cable out of the caliper. You can then re thread it later (being careful to ensure the ends are twisted together properly) - there is no need to cut the cable. You don't half make life difficult for yourself.

ricky1980

the entry points should have screw on caps which you can remove with a 3mm allen key. this will enlarge the exit and thus allowing you see the cable. use the same allen key drop it into the top tube and fish out the cable...it is very easily done. the hassel is the shifter cables in the downtubes