bashley

Picked up a used 2013 Kona Jake frame and several sundry OEM parts, all unassembled.

Internal cable housing. There are no grommets or cable stops or anything else that appear to fit into the ports on this frame.

I'm wondering...Is the internally routed gear cabling designed for full cable housing through the down tube, or bare cable with some kind of stop at the entry/exit ports on the frame?

Thanks!

bashley

Andy_K 

Bare cable goes through the frame. The housing goes in just a bit at the top of the down tube and bare cable comes out the bottom. It's a good idea to use a bit of PVC cable liner from where it exits to the bottom bracket guide to keep it from rubbing the frame.

bashley

Thanks Andy_K. Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like from your description that the cable housing's entry into the port on the downtube is a plain cut-off, no ferrule?

Andy_K 

Yes, I believe that is correct.

FrozenK

My Major Jake (2011, carbon) does have ferrules where the housing enters the frame. If you can fit ferrules I would recommend you use them.

Flandria_76

Road.cc reviewed the 2013 Jake the Snake (same basic frame as the Jake) and mentioned the internal cabling was sleeved and how dirt and grime got in during the test of the bike.

Kona Jake the Snake (2013) review | road.cc

bashley

Thanks for the link. I would think that Kona would have spec'd the diameter of the entry and exit ports, either slightly larger if designed to accept a ferrule, or slightly smaller if only needing to fit diameter of cable housing. Too much slop in the opening would certainly be an invitation for an internal mud bath.

Haven't had a chance to get at this job, but looks like I'll need to test each option.

Andy_K 

For 2013, the Jake had disc brakes while the Snake did not. They are otherwise substantially similar, but the Snake has an internally routed rear brake cable where the base Jake does not.

The comment in the review about the internal cable routing being sleeved is correct though. I run my 2013 Jake the Snake as a singlespeed and have raced it in pretty muddy conditions. I haven't had braking performance problems the way they describe, but I did have an issue where the rear brake cable was causing a really loud creak. (It took me forever to track that cable down as the cause of it.) I fixed that by using a ferrule (which at least that line has space for).

I use my 2013 Jake as a commuter, so no mud experience, but it has seen a lot of rain miles. I had a shifting problem that was caused by the cable rub I mentioned above, but no problems with grit in the inner routing. I'm pretty sure this bike didn't come with ferrules on the shift cables. It's been a while since I've had to change that, and I can't remember off hand if there is room for them or not.