Ignore the warranty issues. It’s a s/h frame.

What size hole and where would I find a suitable grommet?

I started with a 4mm bit and used a rat tail file to make it larger (and at the right angle).No need for a grommit as it’s a tight fit for the hose.

grommits from maplin if you want them. 2.50 for 10 ( ish ) put some oil on it when you fit it, maybe warm it up a bit too, and use a blunt flat screwdriver to ease it in, bit by bit. fit the grommit then thread the cable through it.
centre-punch the tube and start with a small bit – 1.5 or so. if you’re not accustomed to drilling holes in metal you may wish to cable tie a bit of cut up milk bottle or something over your target with a pre-drilled hole in that. if the bit starts to wonder then at least that should give you a chance to catch it before you run it along the length of the tube too far.

The Bandit? My new 650b one has a slot about 2″ up,from the bb.
I did think about drilling the one you’ve bought there myself before I bouht my Thomson dropper. Seems pretty beefy around that bit, and it would work well with the cable routing, assuming no front mech.

Is it a steel frame? According to several steel frame producers you can’t drill stealth holes as the steel is not strong enough to cope in that area. There is a new private frame builder starting out in Yorkshire, Farrer cycles, doing steel frames and his models have stealth routing so that’s confusing isn’t it?

Personally I think they just haven’t tried and tested it so don’t want the warranty aggro. If it’s a Nicolai drop them a line, they will advise you where to drill and say go ahead!

mattbee – Member
The Bandit? My new 650b one has a slot about 2″ up,from the bb.
I did think about drilling the one you’ve bought there myself before I bouht my Thomson dropper. Seems pretty beefy around that bit, and it would work well with the cable routing, assuming no front mech.

Yep, the bandit. Got a stealth reverb on its way.

I’m tempted to do it to my Heckler as Id like a 150mm droppererer next time I replace.

Why the grommit, to prevent the hose being cut up by the bare metal? (my BB is drilled to let water out so not bothered about water ingress or warranties).

Ive seen that Heckler with the routing out the underside cage hole, thats quite wrong.

I started with a hole but since the hose wants to pass through at an angle and I wanted it all to be easily movable as I sometimes drop the reverb in the frame too (standard reverb hose is quite easy to kink btw), I ended up with basically a slot. Drilling and working can be awkward if you want to get it in the middle, especially if it’s down near the BB which I reckon is the best place, if I was doing it again I’d offset it to one side.

Rather than do a grommet- which needs a bigger hole- I decided to put a cover on it (partly for dirt and water, mostly because it wasn’t a beautiful hole, because of the access more than anything else). So I glued one of these on:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOOK-Internal-Brake-Cable-Frame-Guides-fits-KG-281-361-381-481-286-386-486-x-1-/181375463111

And stuck a wee o-ring on the hose which I can push against the guide, just for a token effort at sealing. All turned out very nice.

But if you do want a grommet, commencal do one which is lovely.

And if I was doing it all again, I’d get a Lev.

found this quite good guide.

Drilling holes in perfectly good bike frames

reverb is here and frame should be turning up later today so will have a go tonight..