Hi everyone, welcome to my channel!
Or welcome back to my channel!
When I looked at this cheap frame, the Brand-X one,
I asked you a question:
should I install a dropper if I am to build this hardtail?
And the huge majority of you said yes, definitely!
And yes, definitely, to internally routed dropper.
but this one doesn't have any ports to get the cable out.
So here's my attempt to drill a hole right here on the seat tube,
just to get the cable out.
Other options are to drill a hole here at the back,
bring the cable under the bottom bracket and all the way up.
Or another option would be to drill a hole right here on my down tube,
and bring the cable out that way.
If I am to do that I would need
to bring the cable down through there (seat tube)
and then make a really sharp, more than 90 degrees bend here,
to bring the cable up, and I don't want to do that.
Also, if you open this frame as you can see,
there is no draining hole drilled here underneath the bottom bracket.
So you might want to consider that just to complete this mod.
And that's why I think the more elegant solution for me would be to make the hole right here
and run the cable on top of the down tube
something very similar to what I have on this KONA hardtail.
And measuring from the weld above the bottom bracket,
that Kona has the port about 8 cm high,
which is about 3.5 inches up from the weld.
This kind of port use rubber grommets to protect the cable from rubbing
and I measured this for you, and you will need a hole that's 6x14 mm long
If you were to measure center-to-center for drilling the hole,
that would be 8 mm for 6 mm drill bit.
I plan to mark the hole then center punch the two holes for the big drill bit
but before that I'm going to use this tiny 2.2 mm drill bit as a pilot hole.
Drilling the hole is going to have to be off-center making room
for your drill here on the side of the downtube.
You want to make sure your drill bit is perpendicular to the surface you're drilling.
Use a sharpie to mark your two holes right here on the tube.
I marked the work area and I took the frame down from the stand
because I want it to be as stable as possible.
You see my two punch holes over there.
Now I'm going to use the big bit just to make the hole as big as I need it.
Drilling is done, this was really easy to take your time guys.
What I'm gonna do next is either take a file and finish shaping up this hole.
Or use something like a Dremel, a rotary tool just to finish off that drill hole.
I ended up using mostly the half round file, and the flat on one side
and the round tiny file, and here is my opening!
If you're not going to use a rubber grommet like the one I showed you,
I guess you can make this hole only about 10 mm long here.
And one thing that you can also do to keep water out,
just put a nice small piece of tape on top of it just like that.
And here it is with that rubber grommet inserted.
You tell me that this doesn't look like factory...
Let the beer flow because I'm really, really happy how this turned out, wow!!!
And in order to keep that enthusiasm alive,
why don't we talk about how we route the cable up the down tube.
Obviously, you can use zip ties like this, kind of looks Mickey Mouse,
but I guess is going to do it.
If you have a bottle cage like this
you can attach to it in a couple points, definitely at the bottom and at the top.
and then somehow attach the cable here close to your head tube.
I want to point out to you this little clip here
It's called the Jagwire stick on housing guide.
It comes with 3M tape at the back,
so you're gonna stick this to your frame
and it provides you these anchors for your housing.
I am planning to install one more right here close to the head tube.
Believe it or not this was fairly simple,
measure twice cut once type of thing.
Always remember that by doing something like this,
you're definitely, definitely voiding the warranty,
any warranty that you might have for that frame is gone.
But if you're ok with that,
this is something very easy to do,
and I would argue it will clean up your bike quite a bit
as opposed to running an externally router cable through here
and have it dangling around as you are raising or lowering the seat.
What do you guys think???
If you have any other questions
let me know in the comments below.
As usual don't forget to Like, Subscribe
and keep an eye on social media.
And until next time, I will see you folks on the trails
hopefully riding a Brand-X frame,
just like this one.
Cheers guys, cheers!