Bicycle Mechanics - Internal Cable Routing: How Do I Keep From Messing This Up?

Hi, it's my first post over here, I'm usually hanging out over in the Road Forum.
I have a Kestrel that I'm changing from STI to bar end shifters/ brakes and I'm concerned about the internal cable routing. I don't want to wind up in the situation where I'll have to try to thread some cables through, I'd like to run some small tubing all the way through while the original cable is still in there. What can you folks recommend based on your experiences? Thanks very much.

Hi, it's my first post over here, I'm usually hanging out over in the Road Forum.
I have a Kestrel that I'm changing from STI to bar end shifters/ brakes and I'm concerned about the internal cable routing. I don't want to wind up in the situation where I'll have to try to thread some cables through, I'd like to run some small tubing all the way through while the original cable is still in there. What can you folks recommend based on your experiences? Thanks very much.

I don't know about that bike but my custom with internal routing had a small brass (bronze) tube inside the top tube - the cable was not just routed freely inside an open top tube.

From the instructions that came with my Kestrel 200 SCi:

Your Kestrel frame comes with a...length of cable housing pre-threaded through the top tube. Insert your cable through the...housing, then remove the housing, leaving the cable threaded through the top tube. Your own housing may then be fitted back over the cable.

(And if you remove the housing before fitting a cable):

Put a 45 degree kink about three inches from the end of a piece of stiff wire (brazing rod if you have it, though a wire coat hanger will work) and thread it through the top tube, watching at the far end of the tube. When you see the leading end of the wire line up with the hole in the top tube, twist the wire until the kink pops through the hole. Then thread your housing over the wire.

Guide the cable into frame....place a big magnet at the hole. cable will go out hole by magnet. more or less the instructions from kleins website....and it works.

Guide the cable into frame....place a big magnet at the hole. cable will go out hole by magnet. more or less the instructions from kleins website....and it works.

Now that's a smart technique!

If you lose the cable completely, in spite of the cable-threading suggestion above, it's not that hard really - threading the housing thru the headset end, then removing the seatpost to thread it out thru the seat tube end - your fingers inserted into the seat post hole/lug will help get this done.

Thanks very much for everyone's input.