timo888 

I'm going to be trying different bars on the Swift, and am thinking now's a good time to add cable splitters, which would make it easier to pack the bike up in a suitcase for travel. Might as well be prepared for that knock at my door and the gigantic check. I hope it folds because there's no rack yet on my Swift.

Are they all pretty much the same? Cautions? Recommendations?

Regards
T

deluxe

Splitters won't work on the Swift: you need a run of bare cable to use them on, and the Swift has only enclosed housing.

Otherwise, on other bikes, I have used the Davinci splitters (on gear cables only mind), and they work perfectly.

Brake cables have too much force on them to make splitting them a reliable method, and I wouldn't recommend that application of the technology.

timo888 

Does the cable have to be bare for its entire length? Is that what "a bare run" implies? I'd seen the phrase, but (mis?)understood it to mean "with the cable exposed as it nears the splitter".

I can see where there'd be a lot of tension on the brake cable, but couldn't that be addressed by using a coarse thread and steel rather than an aluminum splitter?
Regards
T

jur

A 'bare run' is a length of cable that is not enclosed by cable housing. This requires there to be cable housing stops and the Swift has none.

(Splitters are OK for brake cables too, eg the Moulton uses them as standard.)

timo888 

Beginning to see the light here. Bummer.

Is the retrofit brazing (or epoxy-ing) of cable stops onto an aluminum frame a major expense? There might be room on the gusset near the head tube for two stops, and then two more might be brazed or epoxied inconspicuously on the underside of the main tube between the seat-stay trusses near the pivot bolt.

Then the Swift could very easily develop multiple personalities. It could be an upright cruiser one week, with Brompton-style gull-wing bars, and then a road bike the next with drop bars. It could change handlebars as people change hats.

Regards
T

jagatron

I've been using splitters on brakes for 2 SS bikes for several years, never a problem. Same with the brake cable on a Bike Friday tandem. No problems. I believe all of these are DaVinci models. One thing that sucks about splitters: they are way more expensive than they should be. I tried to find a comparable method of doing this with brake line fittings, other hardware but couldn't. Luckily they don't seem to have many problems after sinking the money.

timo888 

It looks as if JB-Weld might suffice for this?

Regards
T

jur

No, stay away!

This is a bad idea: Especially for brakes, those cable housing stops experience a LOT of force, the same amount as what the inner cable exerts. And that is a lot if you think about the leverage of a brake lever and stopping under emergency conditions. That force is enough to snap the cable if some strands have frayed. It will tear off your JB welded stops the fist time you brake, leaving you with no brakes.

BruceMetras

As Jur said, you don't want to glue a cable stop in place... There are Cable Stops that use rivets that should work..

timo888 

Thank you, jur, for keeping me from a nasty fate, and Bruce, for the link to the pop rivet style cable stops. I'd been looking for such a thing but wasn't having any luck on Google; you saved me lots of time.

I'd use the pop rivets for the stops back near the pivot tube between the seat stays/trusses. But on the gusset up front a blind fastener would not be required. If the gusset is tapped, a 3mm Ø allen bolt with some loctite should be very strong, right?

Also, on this type of radiused stop designed for mounting on tubes, does the cable housing simply butt against the stop, rather than nestling inside it (or is the exit side and there is a place for the housing to be inserted on the opposite side)?




I've sent an email to Xootr asking for the wall thickness of the main tube, so I can choose the right size of pop-rivet. When I get the answer, I'll post it here.

Regards
T

timo888 

Something that may come in handy for this project:

https://mdmetric.com/prod/rivetnuttool/rivetnuttool.htm

4cmd3

I've seen cable stops that adapt a cable loop/guide for this purpose. e.g. check out Jagwire. It looked like a little bucket that went into the cable loop. Cable with jacket on one side, bare cable comes out the other. That said, I really have no idea if the Swift has cable loop/guides, but assume it must... ?

Check out the following under "Stoppers & Loop Guides"
https://www.jagwireusa.com/index.php/products/all/484

timo888 

Thanks for this. The Swift does have two cable guides on the left side of the main tube. There isn't enough room on the gusset to mount more than a single braze-on, so these Jagwire adapters would be a better solution than what I had in mind there.

If the housing for rear brake and derailer cable (or hub) enters the loop-adapters, and bare cable-runs emerge from the adapters and run parallel to the main tube, those bare runs must transition back to housing as the cables turn downward to follow the seat-stays. So two more cable-stops will be required at that transition, right?

Maybe there's an oversize clamp-type cable-stop that would fit onto the seat-tube.

Regards
T

timo888 

Thanks for this. The Swift does have two cable guides on the left side of the main tube. There isn't enough room on the gusset to mount more than a single braze-on, so these Jagwire adapters may be a better solution.

If the housing for rear brake and derailer cable (or hub) enters the loop-adapters, and bare cable-runs emerge from the adapters and run parallel to the main tube, those bare runs must transition back to housing as the cables turn downward to follow the seat-stays. So two more cable-stops will be required at that transition, right?

Maybe there's an oversize clamp-type cable-stop that would fit onto the seat-tube, or an undersize clamp that could be mounted onto the stays.

Regards
T