I finally got the hang of setting up internal cable routing on carbon frames

For the longest time, I was fighting with those little plastic guide tubes and fishing lines, and it would take me like 20 minutes of swearing to get a rear brake hose through. The tip off was last Thursday when a regular customer brought in his new carbon road bike and asked if I could swap the bars. I was dreading it. But then he casually mentioned his buddy at another shop just uses a vacuum cleaner with a bit of plastic bag over the hose. I tried it with my shop vac, tying a tiny piece of a zip-top bag to the end of the cable, and it sucked the housing through the down tube in maybe 10 seconds flat. I mean, idk why I never thought of that before. It felt like a real 'duh' moment that saved me a ton of headache. Has anyone else got a weird little trick for internal routing that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

shah.matthew2mo ago

That vacuum trick is a total game changer, right? I keep a few of those thin plastic bread bags at my bench just for that. Another thing that works for me is using a magnet on a stick if the frame has a metal guide tube already installed, you can pull the cable through without any fuss.

spencer_wood2mo ago

Honestly @shah.matthew the vacuum trick feels like extra steps to me. I just tape the new cable to the old one and pull it through, works every time. Magnets are cool though.

reese5501mo ago

Wait, did you see that thing about using a bit of yarn with a shop vac? Tbh @spencer_wood, the tape trick is solid, but the yarn gets sucked right through like a charm.