Originally Posted by
cyber.snow
... I was really turned off by the fact that the lines to the rear brakes and shifter ran down the top of the center bar and visions of jumping off and getting pinched in the wrong placed danced through my head.
I had this on my cyclo-cross bike. Makes shouldering the bike a lot easier. Never had a problem "getting pinched".
However, the TREK MTB I'm converting into a touring bike had the rear brake cable running the length of the top tube. I didn't like the idea of having an exposed cable, so I cut off the cable stop and filed it down smooth before getting the frame powder coated.
After getting it back, you can't even notice the cable stop was even there.
Anyways, I bought some NOS Dia-Compe cable clamps to hold the cable housing on the top tube. Much better.