gmason

When my new bike arrives, it will have internal cables. Does anyone have any ideas about any special maintenance or lubrication issues with these?

Thanks...Gary

Raiyn

I'm no fan of internal cable routing. It just makes things harder than it needs to be for purely aesthetic reasons. I'd get some Teflon cables as that's one of the easiest ways to ensure that you have some form of lubrication in there.

Great looking, but not my cup of tea

Brian

Raiyn's more of a beer guy. I just don't think he drinks tea at all.

Raiyn

While I do love a good beer I do like tea as well. I'm a Green Tea with Mint man.

cyclezealot

I have a Klein...It looks great..When I bought it, never thought about maintenance...The solution, let your trusted wrench change it out at least every two years...I just went through this at my LBS...The mechanic is now expereinced with this problem..Really , quite simple...Just attach the new cable to the old as you pull the old one out...Cable stretch..Won't last more than two years anyway.
Before he realized what is the correct way to change out the cable, he even used a vacuum machine to suck it out...Didn't work..It was a Saturday and when the wrench called Klein , they were closed for customer service calls.

Brian

Your mechanic sucks. Sorry.

Raiyn

That may have been the problem in the first place.

I'm kidding cz, The door was wide open

Brian

If I didn't say it, you would have.

dbg

I presume you mean inside the handlebars. And compared to under the tape it doesn't seem that different to me. Maybe a little more tedious to change eventually.

Or maybe you mean inside the tubes. I actually sought out a frame with the rear brake cable routed inside the top tube for a my most recent touring bike build. That makes it impervious to all the different racks it gets thrown onto.

gmason

It is a Casati Laser - the cables run inside the frame tubes.

Given the cost differential from outside cables, I assume that they do it the way it was done in the old days. That is, small diameter tubing run inside the frame tubing to carry the cables.

I really don't see much of an issue, but wondered about peoples' experiences.

Cheers...Gary

Raiyn

They didn't do that in the "old" days, It's a much more recent "innovation" and not one I'm fond of from a mechanical standpoint. From a looks standpoint it's a nice thing but I'm still no fan of it for my personal bikes.

dbg

So is cable housing integrated into the tubes, or can you thread new housing through the tubes when you need to replace them?

My top-tube internal routed cable (Raleigh Technium frame) just has holes and guides for running standard housings through the tube. I don't know the recommended procedure for change, but I left the old cable threaded through the tube, pulled the old housing, then ran the new housing over the old cable to guide it into and out of the tube openings. Then I replaced the cable.

sydney

Depends on how the internal routing is set up. The housing can go thru the tube or just the cable.