Advice on cleaning up my front cables please

[mrfish]

PS. Also make sure that stiff cables don’t force the wheel to one side when you lift up the bike as this makes riding no hands harder.

[jencvo]

+1. Do most of what the posters above say.

You’re aiming for the minimum length cables which allow your bars to turn and touch the frame. If you cut them shorter and crash or put your bike in the car, you will have a battle: cable vs cablestop vs bar tape and cable will win every time.

The front brake cable is the easiest to get right as you want to cut the cable outer so that it naturally enters the brake caliper (or fork in your case) exactly straight. This varies if you change stem spacing or bar taping, so some trial and error is needed to nail it. Some ProTour mechanics do this, others have cables 1cm too long, probably because they set it with the brake adjuster fully closed and the riders opened it to get the feel they prefer. But caution- on some slammed small bikes you will need to remove the brake to take the stem off.

Then the arrangement above/below/back/front of the cables can be optimized depending on the bike by taping the cable outlets in place to test various options. Don’t forget to try crossing the cables inside the frame to improve management of shift cables.

Then it’s down to preference. I try not to have cables behind the bars and not under the brake hoods. Also I don’t like cables flapping in the wind or the rear brake cable hitting my left knee. Also no zip ties. Heat shrink is only for Di2 cables.

Hey what diameter shrink tubing would I need to route hydraulic and Di2 cable through? Would 6mm be enough?