There it goes in: Newcomer Bold makes the cables disappear from the head tube into the inside of the frame

Innovations and price awareness route the cables inside the frame
Gone are the days when shift and brake cables were routed on the outside of the frame. Several innovations have ensured that the signal transmitters disappear inside the frame. Carbon frame construction is simpler and cheaper when the old, conventional cable stops are eliminated. The current electronic shifting systems rely on direct cabling anyway, the battery is usually located in the seat tube, so internal cabling is immanent. With dropper seat posts, the internal cable routing ensures a tidy appearance on the bike. Other aspects such as a tidy cockpit and aerodynamics provide additional reasons for routing the brake and gear cables inside the frame.

Magnets help with cable laying

Manufacturers often shy away from the cost and effort involved in frame construction to install continuous tubes
that allow outer sheaths to be pushed through easily and without resistance. Park Tool has an ingenious helper for the "one opening at the top, one opening at the bottom - yawning emptiness in between" system:

Park Tool saves screwdrivers a lot of fiddling and cursing: The "IR-1" routes cables inside the frame almost in the blink of an eye. Gone are the days of using a flashlight (to shed light into the dark interior of the frame) or even a vacuum cleaner (to suck out an inserted thread to help with cable routing at the exit opening in the frame).

Versatile problem solver
With the "IR-1" set, outer covers can be spiked on with a small lance or electric cables (à la Di2) can be put over with a kind of suction cup, which can then be used to pull a blue, plastic-coated steel cable into the frame. If there are no cables - either pulled out or not present on a new frame - the black, also magnetic wire end can be guided from the outside along the inside of the frame to the exit using a strong external magnet and then the outer cover or electric cable can be pulled in.

Packs the brake line reliably: "clutch lance" with subsequent blue installation line

For special problem cases, for example in the down tube, a positive magnet can be inserted from the head tube, while the negative magnet attracts from the bottom bracket. Once these two ends are coupled together by the strong magnetic force, the continuous auxiliary cable is laid in the frame, which is used to guide the necessary cable into the frame.

The cable to the front derailleur control finds the right place by means of a coupling and magnetic guide

The silver "coupling lance" and the black "electric cable plug suction cup" can withstand an amazing amount of pulling force if a little force is needed to get the outer cover or electric cable in or out of the frame through the opening. Another solution for simplified cable routing is the variant for brake or shift cables, in which the blue cable is inserted into the old outer casing, thus providing a guide for the new cable to follow.

The "IR-1" set is available from the Swiss Park Tool distributor Velok and therefore from specialist retailers for the recommended retail price of CHF 79

www.parktool.com
www.velok.ch

Simple brake line or brake replacement, internally in the frame, using the example of a hydraulic rear wheel disc brake:

1. cut the brake hose of the existing brake at the brake lever (without picture)

2. dock cable with silver clutch / screw into brake line. For a properly secure fit of the "coupling lance", compress the outer cover in the "docking area"

3. Pull out the brake hose towards the brake calliper on the rear triangle. Apply some lubricant to the entry and exit points on the frame so that the clutch and cable encounter less resistance and friction. The cable is in the frame. Unscrew the lance.

4. with a new brake, unscrew the cable on the brake lever, cut off a short piece of cable with the pressed olive and needle. Dock / screw in the cable with a lance. For easier handling, attach the brake calliper to the rear triangle if necessary.

5. Pull the brake line with the blue wire rope into the frame and guide it through the exit at the control ear. Ride the line up to the brake lever. Connect the line with the new needle and olive to the brake lever. In some cases, bleeding the brake system is not even necessary if not only a new line but also a new brake is installed.