Originally Posted by
The MAX
So I recently bought this 1984 Miyata Terra Runner, which besides needing a new FW, chain, and some cables and tubes, is in outstanding shape. Just hauled the BB out, and the grease is just like the day it came out of the factory.
However it came from a German lady, I'm pretty sure they bought it in Germany, as the brakes were reversed (right was front), Suntour thumbies mounted to stem, reflectors look upside down, and it is equipped with a swiss made bottle dynamo and german lights. Anyway, I'm striping it down now for a rebuild and cleaning. Swapping out the crappy RD and thumbies for nicer/newer Suntour XC Pro stuff from early 90's (NOS). The PO had the wire for the front light zip tied and taped to the DT and then hot glued along the inside of the rear fender. Same for the rear, hot glued all the way down the rear fender.
I'm wondering, is there a better way to do this? Is it blasphemy to consider drilling tiny holes in the frame for cable routing?
Explain to me how you've routed your lighting systems!
I'm also thinking about swapping out the bulbs for some of these
http://www.reflectalite.com/LEDpage.html. I saw something on here a while back about LED conversions, this seems to be a much easier way to go about getting more bang for your buck from a bottle generator. Anyone use these before?
I've had good luck drilling holes in the frame to route dynamo wiring internally, but only when the frame was slated for a repaint afterward. Otherwise, you risk rust starting from the freshly exposed steel. Also, unless done properly, internal wiring can cause more headaches than it's worth. An easier and very reliable alternative method is to glue some wire guides along the downtube and wherever else you want the wiring secured externally. What I did on one bike was to use 1" lengths of narrow shrink tubing. I glued them along the downtube and ran the wiring through them. I think I used three on the downtube. I didn't bother to heat shrink them, they just happened to be the right diameter I was looking for. Heck, you could cut up a plastic drinking straw and get the same result. Here are some pics:
Closeup:
You can barely tell there's wire there:
For the adhesive, I used
Automotive Goop. I use it for just about everything. I've commuted with this setup all winter and spring and it hasn't failed me yet.