Tandem Cycling - Off Season Maintenance Question

While on an extended tour last fall, we got caught in the rain and subsequently had some rear derailleur shifting problems on our 2005 Burley Duet that were eventually linked to a rust problem on the cable guide under the excentric bottom bracket. We cleaned it up as best we could and replaced the cable, but now it's time to solve the problem for good.

Obviously, I need to sand, prime, and repaint, but I'm concerned that I'll just have the same problem again because I assume the problem was originally caused by the cables scraping away the paint inside the guide and allowing rust to begin forming.

Does anyone have any recommendations of anything I can do to "line" the steel guides on the bike? I think I've heard that you can buy a real small diameter cable housing, but I'm not sure how or where I could attach it. I've also considered filing off the existing cable guide and trying to install a different plastic version, but the idea of trying to drill and tap a new hole in the bottom bracket shell to attach it is a little intimidating to me.

What are my options?

Does anyone have any recommendations of anything I can do to "line" the steel guides on the bike? I think I've heard that you can buy a real small diameter cable housing, but I'm not sure how or where I could attach it. I've also considered filing off the existing cable guide and trying to install a different plastic version, but the idea of trying to drill and tap a new hole in the bottom bracket shell to attach it is a little intimidating to me.

What are my options?

Santana's with a similar arrangement use a nylon tubing to guide the cable around the frame. Seems to last a long time but I do routinely check it:

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/djsincla/Santana/IMG_2499.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/djsincla/Santana/IMG_2498.jpg

Similar to the Santana with the black nylon liners, clear teflon cable housing liners can usually be found at a pretty good bike shop that you cut to fit. I pitched a fit when we took delivery of our first Santana and I saw the steel cables running through the steel cable guides under the bottom brackets. Our dealer was kind enough to send me an envelope full of 10" sections of the teflon liners that has lasted me through several tandems over the past 10 years. The teflon liners wear line iron and last several years. I think I may only be on the 3rd set in our '98 Erickson which has close to 20k miles. The ones on our travel tandem didn't last as long since they were popped in and out of the open cable guides.

Photos below of the installation on our Erickson and of the raw teflon liners. Check with your LBS or one of the tandem specialty dealers. If no one can come up with the stuff let me know and send me your address off list and I'll mail some to you.

Thanks for the pics guys. Sounds like I was on the right track after all.

It looks to me like the only thing holding the liners in place is the tension on the cable, so the same thing should work for me.

Our weather is supposed to improve a bunch by the weekend, so working in the garage should be a more pleasant experience. I'm hoping I can get some riding in and still get this project started.

It looks to me like the only thing holding the liners in place is the tension on the cable, so the same thing should work for me.

Pretty much, but they will occasionally "walk" on you. In one instance where I had a liner that refused to stay put I wrapped a sliver of PVC / vinyl electrican's tape around the mid-section of the liner to tighten up the fit and it stayed put thereafter.

I was put on to the teflon liner sections idea when I ordered some parts from DaVinci, friction holding them in place. They haven't slipped, but here is another idea that would eliminate the potential for slip (though the liners feel a little thinner to me, I have these cables installed on a single):

http://drycables.com/index.html

This has nothing to do with the original poster's question, but, man, those are some squeaky clean teeth and chains in those pictures! Hot waxed? Winterized? Perhaps just a 'posed' picture so they all got baths?

D

Hot waxed? Winterized? Perhaps just a 'posed' picture so they all got baths?

Hot Waxed? Yes.

Winterized? No.

Just Posed? No; I actually too the photo 5 minutes before posting it.

Recent Bath? Yes. We did our annual Christmas Lights ride (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=376048) on Dec 22nd and the tandem got a bath on the 23rd. We've only ridden it twice since then.

In southern Arizona we have no real 'off-season' and we pretty well can ride year 'round.
However the usual ongoing preventative is checking out tires/brakes before riding.
Nuts/bolts/cables/etc. get a going over about every 6 months; cleaning/waxing chains when needed ( +/-3,000 miles) or when we run into some nasty weather (rain/dust devils, etc.).
The delrin/teflon cable housing inner-liner in some cable housing works fine with the under the BB guides.
On our Zona tandem we designed the cableruns next to the internal lateral. We've had occasion, decades ago, with cable runs under the BB and boob tube that would be convenient places for worms to hang on to when caught in the rain!
Of course for folks with the open frame design, it's back to square one for cable runs.
Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Pedal on into 2008!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Thanks to the expert advice here, problem solved.

Before and after pics are here..... (http://twilkins9076.bravejournal.com/)

I'm not much of a painter, so we've got a nice tape line, but we should be in good shape now.

Thanks again for the help.

Nice job... :beer: