Drilling a hole in my Archon Ti for Di2. Is it wise?

Back by popular demand, the general all-things Road forum!

Moderator: robbosmans

WeightySteve
Posts: 291
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:44 am

by WeightySteve

Right, thanks guys.

It's with my LBS now who's gonna do it tomorrow or day after. Fingers crossed....

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



User avatar
Chris ABG
in the industry
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:09 pm
Location: Manufacturer

by Chris ABG

Hello Steve,

Just wait a day or 2 - I'll check with my colleagues on a recommended approach for you on this....

Thanks,


Chris

WeightySteve
Posts: 291
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:44 am

by WeightySteve

Thanks Chris, but I just phone the shop to tell him to hold off on the job, and he said he's already has a pilot hole through and it went smooth.

Nice slow drilling, 1 rev/sec, no heat buildup or anything.

Lets hope I havent made a huge mistake! Let me know what you think anyway, and I'll post a couple of pics up when I get the frame back (later today).

User avatar
corky
Posts: 1732
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:53 pm
Location: The Surrey Hills

by corky

so that's the exit taken care of...... what about the entry? & what abut the front mech exit?

User avatar
Chris ABG
in the industry
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:09 pm
Location: Manufacturer

by Chris ABG

Now that the hole has been drilled, just make sure any burrs/excess material have been removed from around the hole. This could prevent future cracking etc.

Good luck !

WeightySteve
Posts: 291
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:44 am

by WeightySteve

Drilled hole looks clean (and harmless) enough. Might need to bore it out another 1mm or so once I get a cable set to cut apart it looks a bit narrow, but very happy (and relieved!) with the result so far.

For the rest, well I can't see how i can take the wire from the junction box (or SC7900) inside the down tube, this would involve drilling the down tube and I'm very much against that, so I think that will stay external underneath until it gets to the bottom of the bottom bracket.

Then its probably pretty "standard" for this mod, take the battery up seat tube and into the seat pin (Litespeed have convienently drilled holes in the BB shell where the tubes meet. So I can easily go up the seat tube and also easily get the wire from the chainstay into the BB area and again up the seat tube.

For the front mech i'm toying with drilling a hole through the center of the bottom bolt that fixes the seat tube bottle cage on and feeding it through that, or worse possible case lead it down to under the BB again and through the (once again, very convenient) second hole in the BB shell.

Thanks for all the tips, they've really helped.
Attachments
Drilled
Drilled
Chainstay BB shell hole
Chainstay BB shell hole
Other helpful holes
Other helpful holes

Marcelovich
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:15 pm

by Marcelovich

Hi

This is my first post. I've been lurking around for a while. Sorry to bring back an old topic but I'm interested in hearing how this project went? Any feedback?

Thank
M

WeightySteve
Posts: 291
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:44 am

by WeightySteve

No probs.

Yes it went as well as it could. The frame is still alive (~10K miles later) and the hole drilled in the chainstay end cap didn't lead to any issues with cracks etc.

I did however have issue with the custom soldering job inside the bottom bracket that replaced the external junction box. Lots of crap (water/dirt) makes it into there and it eventually corroded things a bit leading to a short circuit and a bike with no gears one day.

I bought a new wiring harness and left the junction box alone and fixed under the BB as intented, then just hacked the battery wire and led that into the bb and seat-tube for an internal battery. So now, the wire from the junction box to the rear mech runs on the underneath of the chainstay and hence the hole drilled is no longer used and covered up to stop fish getting in and swimming around in there :)

Marcelovich
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:15 pm

by Marcelovich

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll stick to a mechanical groupset for the moment.

Post Reply