Strangest cable routing ever
 

I'm chugging slowly up my last hill for the day and I find myself on the tail of another cyclist.

As I look at their bike I can tell that there is something wrong with it, but my tired brain can't quite compute it for a couple of minutes. The synapses are telling me "something is out of place" but it isn't obvious.

Then BAM, I see it. How is this girl still riding? OMG, WTF, etc.

The rear derailleur cable is INSIDE the seatstay. The housing is running just over the teeth of the cassette. I'm thinking to myself "how do you even do that?" Not while changing the wheel - you have to either install the housing/cable that way or remove the derailleur.

I catch this girl and say there is a problem with her bike. Luckily we are at the top of the hill and her faster friends are waiting in a bus stop. When I point it out and explain it everyone is a bit stunned. We take a closer look and the housing has been eaten away by the chain and a few strands of the cable are cut and loose.

It seems that she had traveled to a race and her bike box is a bit small, so she removed the rear derailleur. When putting it back together she hadn't noticed the cable running the wrong side of the frame. She had ridden for a couple of hours today and had commented that the shifting was a bit off.

She took out her multi tool, whipped off the derailleur, flipped the cable over and was ready to go again in moments. Now she has to get a new cable on Monday.

"The guys at the bike shop know me VERY well", she says with a cute smile!

I certainly LOLed!

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Should read the whole post...

Tell me you saw her again last night and finished the job.

Nah...no spare cables at home. Wife doesn't allow it. :p

She'll have to get the nice boys at the bike shop to do their usual 'fawning over the blonde triathlete chick' routine instead.

Nice catch Jonny.

I'm sure your brain didn't compute the anomaly right away because of fatigue ... sure, that's it.

So let me get this right, your behind her and your looking at her what? derailleur cable? OK....... Your wife must be a very happy woman. Her husband Training has worked flawlessly!

:)

Ha! If I even tried telling my gf this, she'd know better and say, "Ok..now do you want to tell me what you were really looking at?"

Her technique involves a rolled up newspaper and a quick whack across my snout.

<<< look at my avatar...now does that look like a fierce wild animal to you?



Seriously though, I think that she'd be glad that I helped out someone I didn't know and rescued them from a potentially dangerous situation.

Must have been it. I was at the end of a ride with about 2300m of climbing (7500ft?) and I'd only had one caffeinated gel.

Either that, or his wife is also a member of Bike Forums! ;)

Luckily no. If she was a member she might find out how much schwag I have and what it cost!

If I`m going to ride behind someone I`d rather it be a women too.:):innocent: