Old 09-12-18, 06:04 AM
  #6  
T-Mar
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+1. It's economics. After paying off the tooling investment, plastic BB cable guides are extremely inexpensive. They can also be manufactured using self-lubricating material that provides far less friction. Being a homogeneous material, they maintain a consistent appearance, unlike metal, which corrodes after the cables wear through the paint. However, the big saving is that they can be quickly installed by inexpensive, unskilled labour. Brazing takes much longer and brazers are classified as skilled labour with much higher pay rates.

When you're a mass volume manufacturer, even a small savings per bicycle quickly adds up to large amounts. Mass volume manufacturers operate in a much more competitive market segment, where profit margins are smaller and careful cost management is necessary. The smaller, prestige builders have larger profit margins to absorb the extra cost of metal cable guides, either brazed-on or investment cast into the BB shells.

Plastic guides mounted under he BB shell started became prominent in the 1980s on entry and mid-range models from mass volume manufacturers. However, there were precedents. Simplex had their hybrid material cable guides that clamped to the down tube, just ahead of the bottom bracket shell. A Delrin cable guide housing was riveted to a metal clamp. These were ubiquitous during the early 1970s bicycle boom.
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