I know this has come up before but can’t find any of the posts so quick question:

I want to fit a covert/stealth dropper in to my steel frame, will it disintegrate in seconds if I drill a 4mm hole in the centre of the bb shell?

I appreciate that this will void the warranty but I’m fine with that. It’s on a stanton sherpa.

And what were those rubber bung/plug type things you can buy to help water/rust proof it after?

Cheers all

be fine. centre punch first eh? 😉
de burr and leave it would get my vote. if you really want a gromit maplin will sell you some for cheap. in the BB shell i’d leave it TBH. better off letting water out there.
edit to add: put some oil on the gromit and fit it, then the cable through that.

Usually the dropper cable exists near the bottom of the seat tube, not sure why it would go through the BB shell. Won’t it rub on the crank spindle?

l.e. Should be easier to thread the connectamajig+hose through the grommet and then fit the grommet in the frame.

As long as it’ll twist round the BB, and won’t that leave a big loop under the BB?

Most ‘stealth’ frames I’ve seen have it on/in the downtube, then over the top of the BB and into the seatube somewhere just below where the bottle cage would sit.

edit: @ otsdr only if you miss out some bits of the BB assembly!

Sherpa 29?

If so how do you plan on routing it from the BB?

yeah good point about the loop of cable, maybe better an inch up the down tube?
But the metal is much thinner there…

I just presumed the bb shell would be safer due to the thickness of the steel

Just drill out one of the bottle bosses if there are any? It’ll be the same thickness of steel as probably used on several bikes, some will have bottle bosses, some wont, drilling one wouldn’t worry me particularly.

doh….yeah the crank shaft…maybe just the non stealth version then!

I swear I read about other people DIY’ing this on their frames though?

Maybe chat to Stanton and see what they suggest?

I’ve seen a number of frame designers get a bit squeaky about drilling random holes due to physics and stuff.

yeah.
TBH one of my frames i specified with stealth, and as i run a ks post ( no cable movement ), i wish i’d gone external. it’s a faff if you need to pull the post.

http://syntace.my1.cc/liteville/pdf/RockShox_Reverb_Stealth_an_Liteville_engl.pdf

If the seat tube is thick enough then that’s where I’d put it. However, seeing as the main tubes are all butted 853, there’s a fairly high chance it’s not, and nor is the down tube.

In fact, do any fancy steel hardtails have stealth dropper routing?

In fact, do any fancy steel hardtails have stealth dropper routing?

Don’t think they do. I emailed cy at cotic about drilling my rocket and he said the butted tubing is not strong enough (hence no stealth routing on their hardtails).

all the cabling and dropper on my Soul are external.

all the cabling and dropper on my Anthem are internal.

One bike is much easier to maintain than the other and doesn’t rattle…..

😛

ha! ok thanks I’m glad I posted…..i’l go for the easy to clean/non rattley version I think 😀

I always drill a hole in the BB shell to let water out anyway.
Never had a BB shell crack yet…

I think i noticed that the new Orange steel hardtail thingy has stealth routing.

In fact, do any fancy steel hardtails have stealth dropper routing?

Not sure if it’s fancy, but it does have stealth dropper routing: http://www.marinbikes.com/gb/bikes/description/2016-pine-mountain-2

Onza Jackpot does (and very nice it is too)

Shame the onzas have a press fit BB and not really posh steel… Look nice though

I contacted one of them, can’t remember if it was Stanton or Cotic to ask why no stealth routing. Apparently the tubing is not strong enough where a stealth hole needs to go and it will cause a frame failure (so they say).

I couldn’t be bothered to send them pictures of other steel frames with stealth routing that don’t fail and just fitted a normal dropper post instead.

Chromag now come with stealth routing for the dropper, entering in at the down tube.

Rootdown 2019

The one on that picture is reinforced and you’ve no idea if the tube butting has been adjusted to cope as well?

The Marin, Onza and Chromag all use generic chromo steel, not fancy 853. This means the walls are much thicker at the point you’d want to make the hole for the stealth dropper, so there isn’t a problem.

There is steel and there is steel. There’s a reason a Cotic 853 frame weighs 30% less than a comparable 4130 frame.