I ride a folding bike though this is sort of a general bike project. If there's a way to cross-post to the folder-forum, that'd be cool

An oddity of this style bike (20" wheel folder) is the distance between bars and front fork. Not usually a problem - except, it seems, for wireless cyclocomputers if you've got the bars raised to accomodate a 6'0" rider: not enough signal strength to work reliably. (!)

The other day I gave my wireless comp to my dad as his old comp was toast and bought a new VDO wired model.

Quick install and a 7km ride yesterday. Worked fine. Ugly wire running down the front of the bike. NOT usually a problem - except this rig has a folding stem and certain angles of fold were likely to tear the wire off.

BTW: I Googled on installing computers and advice generally came back "run the wire along the front brake cable." No dice: the wire isn't long enough.

So, the rainy day project: dismantle the front end of the bike, run the cable through the star-fangled nut, down the threadless stem and hinge, through the head tube and down the back of the left fork to the sensor.

What might have been a 20 minute project on a regular bike turned into 4 hours and involved, drilling, Dremeling and soldering.

Some pics of the process.

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/dremel.jpg

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/drill.jpg

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/wedge.jpg

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/wedged.jpg

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/hinge.jpg

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/star.jpg

Last two pics show the only external evidence of the installation - inch of wire at the top, about 6 inches running from out of the fork to the sensor.

http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/bottom_wire.jpg.http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/LJ/hidden_wire/top.jpg

Biggest difficulty was the lower extremities: there's a second set of stem hardware below the hinge - complete with long bolt and wedge - that keeps the fork in place on the bottom half of the hinge.

Had to drill a hole in the wedge and the bolt-flange to run the wire. If it weren't for that, this would've been a walk in the park.

Acid test: the computer still works. :)

Looks pretty spiffy!