New Bars Internal Cable Routing - Hydraulic brakes

super_davo

Not keen on the bars on my new Ribble; much too wide and the bike would look much better with a set of aero bars. Pretty set on Prime Doyenne because they look the part and come in 38cm (and the bike is not a weight weenie bike else I would be going for Primavera carbon).

However... bike has hydraulic brakes. I have always shied away from doing any work on hydraulic brakes other than changing pads as "a bit scary".

I've looked at a few videos and disconnecting / reconnecting cables like I would need to do to change bars over looks a fair bit easier than I thought it would. Is it literally as simple as unscrewing the cable from the shifter then reconnecting once threaded through the new bars? Is there anything I need to do to stop any oil leaking from the shifters or cables whilst I thread then through the internal routing on the bars or is there some valve system to stop leaks anyway?

I could take to a bike shop if required, but that would mean a long wait given current backlogs. Which similarly means I don't want to start a job I can't get someone to bail me out if it proves too much for me...

whyamihere

What brakes do you have? The answer will change depending on what's fitted.

super_davo

105, R7020. Haven't taken the bar tape off yet but there are no interruptors on the hoses, looks like they screw directly into the shifters.

david37

swapping over to internally routed aero bars seems to fall into the category of dead straight forward or an absolute hell that you wish you'd never started and feels like it will never end.

"could you just swap these bars" sends a shudder and impending doom through me.

super_davo

Prime Primavera have massive entry and exit ports so the routing of the cables / hoses does not faze me. Lots of photos on this thread:

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/13110213/wiggles-prime-primavera-carbon-handlebar/p2

Its the potentially needing to bleed and readjust the hydraullic brakes a week or so after getting the bike that gives me shudders. But if you can literally just disconnect, swap bars then reconnect without any of that faff, that changes the game significantly.

david37

super_davo said:

Prime Primavera have massive entry and exit ports so the routing of the cables / hoses does not faze me. Lots of photos on this thread:

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/13110213/wiggles-prime-primavera-carbon-handlebar/p2

Its the potentially needing to bleed and readjust the hydraullic brakes a week or so after getting the bike that gives me shudders. But if you can literally just disconnect, swap bars then reconnect without any of that faff, that changes the game significantly.

that sounds good then.

Bleeding the brakes is actually pretty straight forward. most people seem stressed by it but find it's no biggie once they've had a go.

just take your time and put some cardboard down the first time.

PMark

I changed the bars on my bike back in September (also wanted something with internal cable routing). I don't have hydraulic brakes on my road bike, but still took me half a day to do as you have to remove/reinstall all the gear cable too plus re-wrap the bar tape. Unless you have done it a few times before, I suspect re-wrapping the bar tape will take you longer/cause you more fun than doing the brakes.

That isn't to say you shouldn't do it and it's not very hard to do, but don't expect to do it very quickly.

whyamihere

If you're careful, you might get away with it. Keep the open end of the hose and the port in the lever pointing up as far as possible. You should probably accept that you'll need to do a lever bleed though, Shimano uses a funnel on top of the lever, so get one of those and some mineral fluid. It shouldn't need a full bleed, but if it's a brand new bike, the factory bleed isn't always perfect, so it might be worth doing anyway.

super_davo

markdurdle said:

I changed the bars on my bike back in September (also wanted something with internal cable routing). I don't have hydraulic brakes on my road bike, but still took me half a day to do as you have to remove/reinstall all the gear cable too plus re-wrap the bar tape. Unless you have done it a few times before, I suspect re-wrapping the bar tape will take you longer/cause you more fun than doing the brakes.

That isn't to say you shouldn't do it and it's not very hard to do, but don't expect to do it very quickly.

Changed bars, tape and cables loads of times before, just fairly late to the hydraulic game. Aero bars are actually easier to wrap because you stop so early on and miss all the centre bit where it really shows if you're not that good at it. I fitted some Deda Superzero on my rim brake bike last year and took about an hour tops.

david37

super_davo said:

markdurdle said:

I changed the bars on my bike back in September (also wanted something with internal cable routing). I don't have hydraulic brakes on my road bike, but still took me half a day to do as you have to remove/reinstall all the gear cable too plus re-wrap the bar tape. Unless you have done it a few times before, I suspect re-wrapping the bar tape will take you longer/cause you more fun than doing the brakes.

That isn't to say you shouldn't do it and it's not very hard to do, but don't expect to do it very quickly.

Changed bars, tape and cables loads of times before, just fairly late to the hydraulic game. Aero bars are actually easier to wrap because you stop so early on and miss all the centre bit where it really shows if you're not that good at it. I fitted some Deda Superzero on my rim brake bike last year and took about an hour tops.

if that took you an hour, allow a weekend for the latest one.