Folding Bikes - cable hang on the brommie

this is totally pathetic of me, some would say, but you know what puts me off investing in a brommie, other than I am broke ?

the way the cables hang down like that, for the rear brake and gear change. I know they need some slack for the fold, but, its, visually, spoiling the elegant line of the thing. Is it just me (yes, prbbbly) ? Has anyone dealt with it, elegantly?

I simply dealt with it by ignoring it for the three years that I owned my own Brompton. For me, after a while the cables seem to disappear or at least melt into the bike. And the black cables do tend to stick out more with the original red that my bike's color happens to be than a darker background color would camouflage. My Brompton's strong points seem to overcast the far fewer weaker points of your concern.

I also have a dislike for the cable hang - looks unfinished. The Ultimate folding bike's cables are much better on what is essentially the same frame.

The way the cables are routed through various little loops and so on is actually quite well thought out. I also hadn't twigged that the brake lever design is also part of the cable routing until I tried swapping the brompton levers for some rather nice old Dia-compe ones I had knocking about.

Anyway, the dangling cables don't look great in photos but now I have the bike I don't even notice them. Probably best to just get over it.

Might have to go and have a look now though...

I took any cables that attach to the rear off and went fixed!
[they are ugly but a necessary evil if you want to change gear and stop the bike)

coming soon telekenitic brakes upgrade ! Here is the link ;
www.justguess.html (http://www.justguess.html)
Good luck
I have 4 cables on my dual drive Mezzo,must get round to shortening some of the excess cable ,as I oringinaly allowed an extra foot on top of what was reguired for folding just to make sure. The problem is that if you trim too much cable off you can ruin the cable line and have more friction in the system than with a shorter cable.Likewise too short a run may make sharper curves again increasing the friction. Sheldon brown articals on brake cable routing are excellent . Any one know of any alternative systems other than complex internals.