Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Yes you could, but it depends where you drill them.I'm wondering about internal and external bike cables. If you have a bike with external cables and you wanted to hide them, could you drill holes in the frame and turn it into a hidden cables frame? For example would it be ok to drill through a £2000 carbon fibre frame?
Typically you want to get them from the handlebars into the downtube. From there somehow you want one them to go through the BB into the chainstay and out the chainstay somewhere by the dropout so that you can reach the RD. The other one would go from the BB upwards towards the FD.
The best place to enter would be into the head tube. The downtube has torsional stresses on it and holes don't do well there unless they are reinforced as iin those lugs welded onto steel bike water bottle cages but not as those crimped rivets on alu frames. The latter is the worst. The former is excellent.
The head tube is pretty stable and safe to drill as long as you stay away from the bearing race seats.
On the exit point at the FD you may be able to find a reinforced bit, perhaps by the FD hanger bracket if there is one. I'll have to look at the frame to decide where I would drill it there.
As for the chainstay, anywhere near the end just before the dropout would be good. It would be thicker there.
It can be safely done but don't be a cowboy. I would suggest you find suitable grommets first and then drill to accommodate them. If can't find a suitable place but still want to go hidden Di2, then get a carbon repairer to do the job for you by making and gluing on some reinforcing lugs made from carbon sheet. You can even do this yourself, it isn't difficult. The best place to look for a carbon repairer is to go and ask at an upmarket kayak or racing scull shop or club.