First question: Ultegra 6600 brake calipers... how can I tell which is the front and which is the rear... they look identical other than the direction of the pads... or does it really matter? I saw a pic of a bike with the same calipers and the 'fin' on the pad holder was facing backwards (well, it looked backwards to me) so I don't know if that's correct or not.

2nd question... cable package... two types of cables supplied, kinda of confused as to which is for what. I think I figured it out, but wanted to double check. I know the short cable housing is for the RD, but I guess what's throwing me off is the thicker cable already set in their housing.

Unfortunately the frame doesn't get here until thursday... arrrgghhh!!!

Thanks for any help!

Pics are large, but you can click on them to expand them.

The one with the longer stud goes in front. The stud goes through the fork which is thicker than the rear brake mount point so the stud has to be longer.

Also, the tip of little wing on the bottom of the pad carrier points toward the front of the bike. I don't know why, I just notice that it does on my factory bikes.

The thicker cable is brake cable. The thinner is derailleur. The shorter piece of brake cable is for the front brake. As you guessed, the short piece of derailleur housing is for the rear derailleur. The two longer pieces are both for the front shifters.

To get them to fit right, you will likely need to cut the brake and derailleur housing to length for which you'll need a cable/housing cutter. Do NOT try to use a standard wire cutter as it will make a mess of the cut end. You need something like the Park CN-10 cable cutter that has V shaped cutting jaws. The two long pieces of derailleur housing connect between your shift levers and the front cable anchors on the frame. You can use them as they are but they may benefit by shortening them a slight bit. See the cable repair how-to at parktool.com. It shows what all the housing cut to the right length should look like.

good lord... I don't know how I didn't notice that difference! I guess I would have realized it once the frame arrives and I tried to mount them .. thanks...

ok.. on to the cables... any takers?

I edited my post above to add the cable details. It will help a lot if you can look at a fully assembled bike. If you don't have one handy, just go hang out at your LBS for an hour or so and look at what they have on display.

Cool.. ok... that's what I figured, but something just wasn't jiving for some reason.

I just went through the installation instructions that came with them, but it's kind of vauge... then I looked at my cross bike and it started making sense. I'm off tomorrow to get proper cable cutters too.

Thank you very for setting me in the right direction... much appreciated.

FYI, Zin and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance is a great book to have at hand when assembling your bike. The parktool.com site has excellent howtos as well.

Edit: Sheldon Brown has a good cable install tutorial at https://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

Thanks, I'll have to check that book out.

I've learned a lot from the park tool website too (very familiar with that one! ).

I've done everything to my cross bike except cable routing and setting up the RD, which is just a tad important I figure .. Between sheldon brown's website and park tools, I don't get much else done

The thick cables are for the brakes, thin for the DR's

One other tip: don't cut the cables to length until you are absolutely sure you have the housings all cut to final length and the cables routed correctly. Once you cut the cable, it will start unravelling if you have to pull it and reroute it. You'll end up having to throw it away and buying a new one because it's nearly impossible to get an unravelling cable routed back through the housings without it hanging up.

Since you've got the cable cutters, you'll also want to get cable end caps. These are tiny aluminum "tubes" that are closed at one end, and they are crimped onto the end of the cable (using the end cap crimper which is part of your CN-10) so that the cable will not fray or stab you, and it lets you avoid soldering the ends (high-quality cable is difficult to solder anyway). They usually provide a few with the cable package, but if not, you should be able to get a few from your LBS. They come in two sizes, but the larger size will work for both.

You can also use the CN-10 to cut your cable housing, but it won't be as clean as cutting cable. Now you need either a grinder or a Dremel tool to smooth out the cut housing...

Cable housing: the large housing is for the brakes. You should have one long roll (rear) and one short roll (front). The front housing will run from the lever right to the brake caliper. The rear housing will run from the lever to the rear caliper, unless there are cable stops on the frame, in which case you will need to cut the housing to fit. You should have "ferrules" (metal tubes slightly larger than the housing, closed at one end, but with a hole to allow the cable to pass thru) which will need to be pushed onto the cable housing ends. Sometimes Shimano components are not designed to have a ferruled housing run into them, so check by dry-fitting first.

For the derailleurs, you should have two medium-length pieces of housing to run from the levers to the cable stop on the down tube. From there, the front cable runs underneath the bb and up to the front derailleur. The rear cable runs underneath the bb, then thru a stop underneath the right chainstay. From there, you will need the small piece of housing to run from the stop to the rear derailleur. Frame stops are usually designed to be used with ferrules on the cable housing.

Even though good cable housing usually has a teflon sleeve inside, I like to oil or grease the cables before installing.

- L.

Thanks for asking the question. I just got in my Ultegra brakes today (eBay - shipped w/out boxes) and was about to post the same question before I read this. Thanks Proximo for the answer!

Good luck on your build. My first build (on a mtn bike) I butchered the cable/housing build. I had the D housing on the brake cable, the housing was TOO long - looked like spaghetti. Luckily, I'm friends with some wrenches at the LBS and they took pity on my attempt and did it right. Besides FD adjustments/alignment, I'd say the cable/housing was the most dedious part of the build.

I just recently did a road bike build and this one took only a few hours to do. The FD/RD adjustments took the longest part.

There's alot of pride (and learning experiences) when you can do you own build.

It's great satisfaction

I was just reading up on the cable housing cuts and how they can differ from the cable cuts... I've got a dremel so I'll be sure to use that to clean them up.

Thanks everyone for your input.