So the bike is back on the workstand after I received my new stem, bars and seatpost - all matching 3T Team jobs. They're pretty damn nice but I'm having a little difficulty with the cable routing.
The bars in particular are the carbon 3T Ergonova Team.
My first issue is the routing itself. It's a hole that will comfortably take one cable, and it looks like probably two at a push - because I'm running SRAM Red shifters instead of shimano, both cables run along the bars rather than the shifters coming out the front, so ideally I'll have two cables each side going into the routing holes. Should I be attempting to get them both in or are they not designed for this? They say they're SRAM compatible. Should I be threading them both at the same time or individually? Should I tape them together or allow them to move individually?
What's also a pain is that there's no internal chanelling. There's an entrance and an exit hole on both sides but once the cable is in the entrance there's nothing inside to direct it out of the correct exit. any tips on threading the cable outers back out again? I managed to poke a skewer inside when experimenting and direct a brake outer out again, but see this getting complicated with a second outer present.
I'm also worried about damaging the inside of the bars with any exposed metal from the ends of the cable. I guess I could tape up the ends, and it's not like anyone will ever see in there unless I've severely wiped out!
Now my next reluctance is that I've only just rebuilt the bike last spring, so the cables are all only one season old. In order to use the internal routing, at the very least I'll have to decable the entire bike in order to thread them through. This isn't the end of the world, but given how prone trimmed cables are to fraying i feel that if I start, there's a good chance I'll need to replace the cables all round. They're Gore Ride On jobs too so they weren't cheap.
To this end then, I've completely chickened out so far. I've installed the bars but taped the cables underneath and ignored the internal routing altogether until I've got a strategy for ensuring I can get it done. They look good but obviously have cable bulges and I feel like it's a waste of a good feature of the bars. Also because the cables are stiff I have to tape them a fair way along to hold them in place so I'm unable to cut the bar tape off short to expose the glory of the carbon and the logos - a small matter, but a frustration all the same.
I'm off to John O'Groats via Lands End in May and ideally I wanted the most comfy set up ready for then, so although I could keep it like this for a season and then rebuild completely over the winter, I'd ideally like to be able to use the bars as intended for the tour, and for this summer season.
Anyone with any experience or advice to share?
The bars in particular are the carbon 3T Ergonova Team.
My first issue is the routing itself. It's a hole that will comfortably take one cable, and it looks like probably two at a push - because I'm running SRAM Red shifters instead of shimano, both cables run along the bars rather than the shifters coming out the front, so ideally I'll have two cables each side going into the routing holes. Should I be attempting to get them both in or are they not designed for this? They say they're SRAM compatible. Should I be threading them both at the same time or individually? Should I tape them together or allow them to move individually?
What's also a pain is that there's no internal chanelling. There's an entrance and an exit hole on both sides but once the cable is in the entrance there's nothing inside to direct it out of the correct exit. any tips on threading the cable outers back out again? I managed to poke a skewer inside when experimenting and direct a brake outer out again, but see this getting complicated with a second outer present.
I'm also worried about damaging the inside of the bars with any exposed metal from the ends of the cable. I guess I could tape up the ends, and it's not like anyone will ever see in there unless I've severely wiped out!
Now my next reluctance is that I've only just rebuilt the bike last spring, so the cables are all only one season old. In order to use the internal routing, at the very least I'll have to decable the entire bike in order to thread them through. This isn't the end of the world, but given how prone trimmed cables are to fraying i feel that if I start, there's a good chance I'll need to replace the cables all round. They're Gore Ride On jobs too so they weren't cheap.
To this end then, I've completely chickened out so far. I've installed the bars but taped the cables underneath and ignored the internal routing altogether until I've got a strategy for ensuring I can get it done. They look good but obviously have cable bulges and I feel like it's a waste of a good feature of the bars. Also because the cables are stiff I have to tape them a fair way along to hold them in place so I'm unable to cut the bar tape off short to expose the glory of the carbon and the logos - a small matter, but a frustration all the same.
I'm off to John O'Groats via Lands End in May and ideally I wanted the most comfy set up ready for then, so although I could keep it like this for a season and then rebuild completely over the winter, I'd ideally like to be able to use the bars as intended for the tour, and for this summer season.
Anyone with any experience or advice to share?