# Does anyone "cross" their shift cables at the top cable stop?



## gibbons (Nov 9, 2002)

You know how the shift cables exit the bar wrap, then have to make a dramatic down turn to hit the cable stop on the same side of the frame? Why not just let it go to the other side of the head tube and go into the stop on the opposite side? The cables can cross on the way down. One of our mountain bikes is done like this, it works fine. Anyone do it on a road bike?


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## Scotland Boy (Nov 11, 2004)

*Cross Cables*

I have also done this on one of my mountain bikes. As long as you leave enough cable outer length to turn corners, it works well. It even reduces the tendancy for the cable outer to rub on the head tube on its way past. My other MTB has the cables running along the top tube along side the rear brake, so you can't really cross them back over. I haven't thought of trying it on my road bikes. I suppose it depends where the cable stops are at the top of the down tube. Sometimes they can be at the side, meaning the cable would touch the down tube on its way across. I think I might try it though.


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## gibbons (Nov 9, 2002)

This is on a Giant Once Carbon. The cablestops are both on the same mounting piece riveted to the frame, and the centerlines of the cables are about 1cm apart, really close to the head tube. So currently, the casing has to wrap around the head tube, and make another tight bend back into the stop. I am re-cabling the bike, so I think I will give it a try. I will have enough length left over to switch to normal if I decide I don't like it. If the cables hit where they cross, that doesn't bother me at all. That's an insignificant amount of friction compared to the rest of the system, huh?


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## biknben (Jan 28, 2004)

gibbons said:


> If the cables hit where they cross, that doesn't bother me at all. That's an insignificant amount of friction compared to the rest of the system, huh?


Depending on the location of the cable bosses, the cables may rest against or be very close to the downtube on the way to the BB shell. If they are resting against the downtube you will damage the paint quickly. In that case, use cable sleeves and rubber doughnuts to protect the frame. If they are close, they will most likely hit the frame when you hit a bump in the road. That is annoying but rubber doughnuts will cure that problem too. I crazy glue the doughnuts to tha cables right where I want them otherwise they will eventually slide down towards the BB.

Have fun!


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## MDGColorado (Nov 9, 2004)

biknben said:


> Depending on the location of the cable bosses, the cables may rest against ... the downtube on the way to the BB shell.


That's what happened on my Specialized Roubaix. The cables rubbed on the bottom of the downtube, causing increased friction. I had to put them back to non-crossed routing. You might be able to just shorten the housings, thus reducing the sharp bends. That worked for me. Are you Ergo or STI? Ergo probablay has less cable length to play with. 

MDG
Longmont, CO


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## filtersweep (Feb 4, 2004)

gibbons said:


> You know how the shift cables exit the bar wrap, then have to make a dramatic down turn to hit the cable stop on the same side of the frame? Why not just let it go to the other side of the head tube and go into the stop on the opposite side? The cables can cross on the way down. One of our mountain bikes is done like this, it works fine. Anyone do it on a road bike?



Many bikes are sold new this way. My wife's Specialized was built this way.


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## gibbons (Nov 9, 2002)

MDGColorado said:


> That worked for me. Are you Ergo or STI? Ergo probablay has less cable length to play with.


Ergo Record 10. I kid you not, the stops for this Giant carbon are just far enough for rivets between. As such, swapping them won't make any difference in closeness to the downtube. 

A bummer is the fact that the stops don't even have adjusters, so the bike currently has those barrel type that go in-line in the casing. I think when I re-do it, I am going to rely on precise cable placement for the front (which isn't indexing anyway), and the adjuster knob on the rear derailleur. I can't think of a time ever that I have used the adjusters on-the-fly on a road bike. I don't race it, so there isn't a time when I can't stop. What do we think of doing that?


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## MDGColorado (Nov 9, 2004)

gibbons said:


> Ergo Record 10. I kid you not, the stops for this Giant carbon are just far enough for rivets between. As such, swapping them won't make any difference in closeness to the downtube.
> 
> A bummer is the fact that the stops don't even have adjusters, so the bike currently has those barrel type that go in-line in the casing. I think when I re-do it, I am going to rely on precise cable placement for the front (which isn't indexing anyway), and the adjuster knob on the rear derailleur. I can't think of a time ever that I have used the adjusters on-the-fly on a road bike. I don't race it, so there isn't a time when I can't stop. What do we think of doing that?


Should work fine. I basically never adjust the rear cable. You should be OK in front too. I have STI and would prefer Campy. Front indexing is a solution in search of a problem, and a mediocre solution at that.


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## Cerddwyr (Jul 26, 2004)

gibbons said:


> Ergo Record 10. I kid you not, the stops for this Giant carbon are just far enough for rivets between. As such, swapping them won't make any difference in closeness to the downtube.


You might want to check that. Even iff the stops are side by side in the middle of the bottom of the tube, the cables will still be closer to the down tube if they have to cross to the opposite side stop at the bottom. If they stay on one side, they are parallel to the down tube all the way down. My Specialized Allez came with the cables crossing over under the down tube, and I had a really annoying cable slap over rough stuff. I switched them to cross over between the levers and the stops instead, and the cables don't slap the down tube anymore.

Now here is a question.Normally the right hand lever is for the rear brakes, due to reasons discussed at length elsewhere. And the right lever runs the rear derailer for, as far as I can tell, no better reason than to match up with the rear brake. Well, I have gone to right/front braking on my fixie, and I really prefer it. If I could run the front derailer of the right lever, I could also solve the crossover problem, in that the cable would just need to cross to the opposite side of the bike before meeting the stop, and then make a straight run to the appropriate derailer. I am pretty sure that Shimano levers can't be set up that way, but what about Campy? I originally liked the Shimano shifters because I could both up and down shift from the drops, and the Sora I tested just felt bad. I translated that to a dislike for thumb shifting. What I am thinking now is that I really don't shift both directions from the drops. Actually, since I don't race, I rarely shift from the drops at all. I spin there, but I do most of my riding from the hoods, so if Campy would allow me to put all rear control on the left, I would switch. Then I could route the shifter cables under the tape too, which looks much cleaner to me.
Any joy, or am I stuck with a rear derailer on the right and cable crossing issues no matter what?

Gordon


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

*you can run your brake cables*



Cerddwyr said:


> You might want to check that. Even iff the stops are side by side in the middle of the bottom of the tube, the cables will still be closer to the down tube if they have to cross to the opposite side stop at the bottom. If they stay on one side, they are parallel to the down tube all the way down. My Specialized Allez came with the cables crossing over under the down tube, and I had a really annoying cable slap over rough stuff. I switched them to cross over between the levers and the stops instead, and the cables don't slap the down tube anymore.
> 
> Now here is a question.Normally the right hand lever is for the rear brakes, due to reasons discussed at length elsewhere. And the right lever runs the rear derailer for, as far as I can tell, no better reason than to match up with the rear brake. Well, I have gone to right/front braking on my fixie, and I really prefer it. If I could run the front derailer of the right lever, I could also solve the crossover problem, in that the cable would just need to cross to the opposite side of the bike before meeting the stop, and then make a straight run to the appropriate derailer. I am pretty sure that Shimano levers can't be set up that way, but what about Campy? I originally liked the Shimano shifters because I could both up and down shift from the drops, and the Sora I tested just felt bad. I translated that to a dislike for thumb shifting. What I am thinking now is that I really don't shift both directions from the drops. Actually, since I don't race, I rarely shift from the drops at all. I spin there, but I do most of my riding from the hoods, so if Campy would allow me to put all rear control on the left, I would switch. Then I could route the shifter cables under the tape too, which looks much cleaner to me.
> Any joy, or am I stuck with a rear derailer on the right and cable crossing issues no matter what?
> ...


any way you want to. if you want the right lever to control the front brake, by all means do it. 
DO NOT try and reverse the funtion of the shifters. that will not work. i run the right lever/front brake set-up on my cross bike, and the more normal right lever/rear brake set-up on my road bike. works fine.


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

*not having the adjusters*



gibbons said:


> Ergo Record 10. I kid you not, the stops for this Giant carbon are just far enough for rivets between. As such, swapping them won't make any difference in closeness to the downtube.
> 
> A bummer is the fact that the stops don't even have adjusters, so the bike currently has those barrel type that go in-line in the casing. I think when I re-do it, I am going to rely on precise cable placement for the front (which isn't indexing anyway), and the adjuster knob on the rear derailleur. I can't think of a time ever that I have used the adjusters on-the-fly on a road bike. I don't race it, so there isn't a time when I can't stop. What do we think of doing that?


is no big deal. on all the bikes i build in the shop, i screw them all the way in, so they can't loosen up while riding. i do that on all the pro race bikes i work on, as well. hell, my cx bike has no barrel adjusters, and i don't bother to put the inline one on. if everything is properly set-up and maintained, there is really no need for them. 
ok, now that i've said that, go ahead and beat on me...i'm sure somebody out there feels pretty strongly in the other direction.


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## Cerddwyr (Jul 26, 2004)

cxwrench said:


> any way you want to. if you want the right lever to control the front brake, by all means do it.
> DO NOT try and reverse the funtion of the shifters. that will not work. i run the right lever/front brake set-up on my cross bike, and the more normal right lever/rear brake set-up on my road bike. works fine.


It is the shifter I would like to switch. It seems to me that a right front shifter would solve the crossover problem. So far as I can tell, the standard is to have the left side boss at the bottom feed the front derailer, and the right side boss at the bottom feed the rear derailer. If the Right lever was for the front derailer as well as brake, the cable would cross over the bike to the left top boss, run parallel to the down tobe, and all is good. No crossover between boses, no double crossover between lever and boss. Bummer that you can switch your brakes, but not your shifters.

Gordon


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## C-40 (Feb 4, 2004)

*there may be a need...*

A campy triple FD definitely needs a cable adjuster. It takes a substantial amount of additional tension on the cable to insure that the shift from the little ring to the middle ring will execute with one sweep of the lever. Too much tension and the middle to little ring shift won't execute.

A campy double FD will work adequately without a cable adjuster, since there are 5 unused click to take up the tension if it's insufficient.


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