How to hide the cables under the handlebar tape?
- Thread starter LemonJuice
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
A bit harsh for an innocent question.
matticus
Guru
Of course THE most elegant solution is down-tube shifters.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Or single speed , or fixie
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Charles - you have not been following/contributing to the other threads on this bike, for example last week's [EDIT: not a week; a month!] 20 page one!! Read that and stay smooth (NB missing lots of pictures).
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/repair-the-bike-or-buy-a-new-bike.260987/
You'll be guessing wrong then.
Some top drawer willy waving there, and I love how irrelevant to the thread it is.
I like to be able to see equally well at night on both short and long rides, but thanks for sharing your experiences.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
If you didn't like 'washing line' cables ruining your night vision, why did you carry on riding with them then (or choosing that bike to ride in the dark)?
Thank you for complementing my favourite chest of drawers: it was made by my father.
CycleChat threads are sometimes like that: divert off specific topic (hide cables under bartape) to share riders' opinions and anecdata eg: the reasons (other than style and tidiness) for under-tape cable runs, and the penalty (some concealed cable run STIs are unreasonably prone to cause the cable to fatigue, fray and part, leaving a knobbed end which is a b****r to get out, sometimes).
Getting in the way of a bar bag is the main drawback for me (and you pointed that out), but one I'll put up with (and do without).
An aero-drag penalty is the other main one. But riders concerned with that are unlikely to be riding 8/9 speed bikes.
Thank you for complementing my favourite chest of drawers: it was made by my father.
Well you're saying what you think is a disadvantage of STI side entering gear cables; and I'm disagreeing, indicating where I'm drawing my experience from (add evening riding to a distant pub weekly through the year). Presumably the OP has a motive for the question and that's worth chatting about, no?
CycleChat threads are sometimes like that: divert off specific topic (hide cables under bartape) to share riders' opinions and anecdata eg: the reasons (other than style and tidiness) for under-tape cable runs, and the penalty (some concealed cable run STIs are unreasonably prone to cause the cable to fatigue, fray and part, leaving a knobbed end which is a b****r to get out, sometimes).
Getting in the way of a bar bag is the main drawback for me (and you pointed that out), but one I'll put up with (and do without).
An aero-drag penalty is the other main one. But riders concerned with that are unlikely to be riding 8/9 speed bikes.
I think I will bow out now! Too much for me.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Morning @faster
I have looked again at the 'washing line' gear cable result in reflected light issue, with my set up.
Any effect on my night vision/illumination of the road is minimised because:
I mount my light underneath (rather than the typical 'on top of') my handlebars, and a couple of inches to the right of the stem clamp on the bars. This means that the core of the beam is clear to the tarmac and only some peripheral light is caught by the (black) cable which causes no shadow (as the light is heading up, not down). I have a small standby (2 x CR2032) light, again on the underside, on the opposite side, with a similar clear beam path to the road ahead.
I commend this as a 'cockpit arrangement'/light position for the reason just given (with side entry cabling) but also because it keeps free the top side of that bit of bar for other stuff.
I have looked again at the 'washing line' gear cable result in reflected light issue, with my set up.
Any effect on my night vision/illumination of the road is minimised because:
I mount my light underneath (rather than the typical 'on top of') my handlebars, and a couple of inches to the right of the stem clamp on the bars. This means that the core of the beam is clear to the tarmac and only some peripheral light is caught by the (black) cable which causes no shadow (as the light is heading up, not down). I have a small standby (2 x CR2032) light, again on the underside, on the opposite side, with a similar clear beam path to the road ahead.
I commend this as a 'cockpit arrangement'/light position for the reason just given (with side entry cabling) but also because it keeps free the top side of that bit of bar for other stuff.
A facelift (cosmetics) idea: buy red and white tape.
Looking from the side (alike the picture) red tape over the cable trajectory from stem backwards, and white tape over the cable trajectory from stem forward. That will break the continuity in the view of the now black cables.
Because I think that is why you don't like the cables: the contrast. Black on red/white. They draw attention like that.
Looking from the side (alike the picture) red tape over the cable trajectory from stem backwards, and white tape over the cable trajectory from stem forward. That will break the continuity in the view of the now black cables.
Because I think that is why you don't like the cables: the contrast. Black on red/white. They draw attention like that.
Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
The OP is clearly an inexperienced cyclist who has been given a decent beginners bike and has spent a lot of time in this and other threads asking questions about changing various elements of the bike, without really understanding what he's asking about. It seems that he has spent no or very little time actually riding the bike, but seems to have done some reading and looking at bike specs and wants to improve the bike before he's done any real riding on it.
Various people on here have given advice and tried to explain how things work and why they are as they are, and he has been advised to accept things for the moment and get out on the bike to get some experience and learn how things work on the bike he's been given. Until he does that, the questions he's asking asking and the answers he's getting are not doing anything to help him with actually cycling.
