more and more bikes are being designed
with internal cable routing which is
great because it looks absolutely
amazing but when it comes to working on
your bike it's certainly more time
consuming at best but some bikes not
this one I hasten to add some bikes have
internal cable routing that is so bad so
infuriating that it could lead you to
spontaneously sell it and then retire
from the sport altogether I know let's
try and avoid that shall we we've not
touched on the subject for a couple of
years now so we have scoured the
Internet and spoken to pro mechanics
around the globe to find out what the
latest and greatest internal cable
routing hacks are there are a few ways
that cables a threaded internally some
bikes have a cable stop somewhere the
front of the bike and then a large hole
at the bottom bracket making it
relatively easy to fish the cable out of
others like this one have an actual tube
that's routed all the way through so
that makes it really simple for the
cable to push through whereas others
others have a tiny hole for entry a tiny
hole for exit and those require a mix of
black magic voodoo and probably a week
of your spare time in order to actually
set your bike up if you're not building
up your frame from scratch then you can
of course use your current cables as
guides relying obviously on you not
having removed them already
what's that you've removed them already
ah you haven't anyway for those of us
who have fortunately still got cables in
place there are a couple of tips firstly
one with a thin plastic sheath and then
second one using some thread
firstly then the inner cable sheath now
you can likely pick these up from your
local bike shop and it is basically a
little plastic tube that is just bigger
in diameter than your in a cable so with
that in mind you see that you can thread
it over your cable and then through the
internal part of the frame before it
pops out the other end then leaving that
in place you can then remove the cable
but then that obviously will be the
guide for the new one the simplest
technique is to use a magnet the kind
that you might find on an old school
bike computer sensor here actually
handily grafted onto an old spoke and
the principle is that obviously a cable
is magnetic and so we can use our
magnets to help draw the cable down our
frame tube and knowing exactly what
position it's in and then the idea is
that we can help guide it out the hole
at the other end
now the ease with which you can do that
depends obviously on the size of the
hole and then you may actually end up
finding that you need to dig around
still down at the other end and you may
also in fact me to employ the services
of gravity as well so manipulating the
position of your frame in order to try
and get that in exactly the right place
now if you do a lot of internal cabling
I you're a mechanic then you'll probably
already know about Park Tools amazing
invention where they take magnets to the
next level with their internal cable
routing kit so it's like a selection of
different tubes and magnets that do make
the job much much easier but we still
have one last hack to try
it's the Tom last method
Tom actually demonstrated this in a
video a couple of years ago and it
involves a vacuum cleaner yeah that's
right you heard a vacuum cleaner and it
works using the thread again I know
we're going down that route you attach
it to your handlebars and then you
thread the other end into your frame in
the place where you want to attach the
cable and then here's the clever bit you
use the vacuum cleaner to suck the
thread oh yeah I mean it out of the
other end of your frame now perhaps not
quite simple as that you should
definitely employ gravity as well to
help and you may need to find the use
the correct attachment to the vacuum
cleaner and also block up any other
holes on your frame so that you get a
good suck stop
[Music]
now you can see you might actually need
two people it's a step that you're going
to make oh I got it now as you can see
my bike is successfully recalde in terms
of the methods that we've used well by
far and away the easiest the clear
choice is to use the thin plastic tube
before you remove your cables in the
first instance well I'm pleased to say
that the vacuum cleaner method really
does actually work so if you are
presented with a bike that is incredibly
difficult to do I would suggest that you
try that before you throw it in the bin
now to actually recap on a bike entirely
you might actually need a video on that
subject and if you do we have one here
for you just there or for some tips on
how to index your gears which is of
course linked to wreak abling then click
just down there for that one otherwise
make sure you subscribe to GCN to do
that just click on the globe