POLL: What sort of routing would you prefer your mountain bike to have:

Frame internal providing it's tube in tube

Where is "don't really care, it's not a factor in my buying decision", many other aspects of a bike are above the cable routing.

We considered adding that as an option but decided it was a daft thing to include on a poll so we didn't 🙂

as much internal as possible, although i haven't had to do thru headset , i also have never had to change a headset bearing so it's not really a biggy. I just don't want horrible looking flappy cables grabbing excess mud

Gears full outer - either internally or externally routed. 

Brakes - external 

Not the one that i got with my Orbea Wild. Fully internal via the headset. Not an issue yet but i know its gonna be at some point. 

Well this is going well! 🤣

Where's the '1990s top tube guitar string routing' option?

I would absolutely not buy a headset routed bike. It's totally unnecessary maintenance complexity, especially when you still have the big external loops out of the brake levers and shifters. 

I was of a mind to buy the sort of primo bike that had internal handlebar and stem routing too, then I'd be rich enough never to do my own maintenance and might think about it. 

I'd prefer fully external bar the dropper but would happily buy an internally routed frame if it has tube in tube. I would definitely not buy anything with headset routing, stupid idea, especially on a mountain bike. 

Brakes and shifters are tricky when compared to roadie world but as much internal (or wireless) as possible. Surely shouldn't be beyond the capability of a manufacturer to put a shroud down the inside of a suspension fork rather than relying on zip ties. 

Internal means nothing to snag on bikepacking bags or passing shrubbery, nothing extra to get covered in mud. 

I have set up a through headset cable routed bike.....and it's fine. No slower than any other internally routed set up really. I wouldn't choose it for myself, but it wouldn't be a stopper on a bike decision all other things being equal. Not seen early headset bearing death either despite it being subjected some gritty wet winter races. 

And like weeksy said ^ it's all the other things that are far more important.

I don't care, but through the headset is daft. Takes me about a minute to add or swap a spacer round the stem, or maybe five minutes to change a stem. Might matter for roadie pros chasing the last watt of aero gains, not me.

I voted frame-only internal but I'd have liked to say "as long as it doesn't suck". My current bikes? They don't suck and it's fine. But I've had bikes where oh my god did it suck, in at least 3 different ways.

In the end, like pressfits and so many other things how they do it is way more important than what they do but equally people'll often dismiss a perfectly good idea based on terrible execution on the one bike they owned.

Posted by: Onzadog

↑

Frame internal providing it's tube in tube

Internal (not thru headset) but channelled so you can easily re cable (and without motor out on an e-bike) .

I’d also quite like a split rear gear outer cable so that last ft or so can be easily swapped. 

Internal through the frame for me. However my Orbea wild ticked too many other boxes so ended up with headset routing. Which is gash so with a few 3d printed parts I've converted it to external through the front triangle and kept it internal through the swingarm. Why Orbea can't include a couple of blanked off ports on the downtube is beyond me, they still haven't done it on the newest Wild but I see Mondraker have on the new Crafty

Some right weirdos voting based on their (wrong! 😉 ) choice...and I'm including myself in that as well!

I don't care but if you are going to sell a bike with through the headset would you please use a decent headset.  It is exceptional cruelty to stick brake hoses through some bearings with a life expectancy shorter than the brake fluid's service interval 🙁

I'm holding out for wireless brakes...

External brakes. Wireless everything else.

Had 2 frames made like that now.

External for brakes. Internal tube in tube for everything else.

Absolutely must be tube in tube *glowers at my rattling Canyon*

External recabeling 5min

Internal cabling did not go well and took me a month to do it after several frustrating hours.

I've got no intention of buying a bike with internal routing again ever. Not quite at the point of selling this bike and buying one with external routing, but getting closer. 

It makes absolutely no difference to my 15mph average and was a total pain.

And now I've done it, the right hand shifter is now playing up. It was fine. Now it's not

I've got 2 bikes with internal routing, neither is tube-in-tube, they've both been a doddle to route the cables, I don't understand how cack-handed you'd need to be to struggle? Measure the distance between the ports on the outer, poke it through so the curve points vaguely towards the next port, wiggle a bit until it pops out.

I'd actually say it's easier than the old 'guitar fretboard on the top-tube' setup.

As for a new bike, I don't really care. Not anywhere near as much as magazine reviews seem to anyway. Except on the road bike, the routing on my new bike is just messy. Through the headset is just so much neater, especially with Di2.

Posted by: doomanic

↑

I'm holding out for wireless brakes...

GMBN had a video where one of the presenters had cobbled together some wireless brakes. It did actually work amazingly well but it looked a bit Heath Robinson.

He had the good sense to trial them extensively on a test rig before actually riding them.

Edit: here we go

I've got 2 bikes with internal routing, neither is tube-in-tube, they've both been a doddle to route the cables, I don't understand how cack-handed you'd need to be to struggle?

You've been reasonably lucky. 

When I worked fixing bikes some were like yours, some were utter horror shows that took significant time with the special tool, magnets etc.

Usually if the cable housing was in place it was fine, but often the customer had removed it then brought it to me to fix... 

I'm not overly bothered but if I had to choose I'd probably go external on a steel hard tail, mostly internal on a aluminium full suss or carbon anything. Don't want them routing via the headset but it wouldn't stop me buying a bike.

Posted by: thisisnotaspoon

↑

I've got 2 bikes with internal routing, neither is tube-in-tube, they've both been a doddle to route the cables, I don't understand how cack-handed you'd need to be to struggle?

I have 5 (including my kids' bikes). All a doddle ... apart from one.

A titanium hardtail with ports just about the diameter of brake hose. Even with a magnet tool once you get to the last cable/hose it's a game of ****ing ****ety ****-**** and there's tools being hurled around the shed. There's not even space to pull the hose through with fishing line tied to it.

Don't mind as long as it doesn't go through the headset.

My Highlander has external run neatly tucked away under the top tube which means when it's new bearing time the rear triangle can come off with the brake hose and shifter cable / mech still attached. Haven't had to do anything to it yet though 🙂

The problem i've had with the under top-tube routing is that the dirt/cables destroy the paint work.

I voted external w/internal dropper, though I'm fine with an external dropper that has the cable entry at the collar area. 

But it depends. A carbon bike can have internal cables w/o much if any significant impact on strength:weight. A metal frame with internal routes generally has a heavier down tube than it needs due to the wall thickness needed, and whether heavier or not those cable ports are a weak point. Designing for aesthetics over engineering is a slippery slope I'd rather the brand I bought from wasn't on. So - metal frames with external cables every time for me personally. Metal tubes are great, simple effective structures, and tube integrity is important. 

Not down the underside of the downtube!

The other advantage of tube in tube is that you far get less cable rattle.  I'd have frame routed everything, doubly so if the brake routing was large enough to get the hose hardware through. Triply so if you could get HEL QR brake couplers for MTB.   

It took me 4 hours to replace the gear and dropper cables on my Rise.

It takes about 4 minutes to snip the cables ties off and swap the cable on my extranlly routed HT.

I'd go for external routing every time if it was an option.

I get that people prefer the aesthetic of internal routing and it does look cleaner but I don't care how it looks. I want it to be fun to ride and as a bloke who works on his own bikes, easy to work on.

I've actually been looking at stick on cable guides so I can run the gear cable and brake line externally. Routing would get a bit tricky though and I'm not sure sticky guides are sticky enough to keep it in place.

Internal dropper routing makes sense from a functional perspective. If there were more externally actuated posts, I'd happily have a cable running externally but given where the actuator is on most posts, it just makes sense to run the internally.

Posted by: phil5556

↑

when it's new bearing time the rear triangle can come off with the brake hose and shifter cable / mech still attached.

This is a very good point.

Working in any way on my bikes with external routing is so much easier than the bikes with internal routing.

My Levo is a particular PITA when it comes to changing the main pivot bearings due to the inner sleeve that the brake and gear cable run through connecting the front to the rear of the bike.

Easy enough to change cable/hose as they slide through the sleeve from bottom to top, but awkward as hell to get the rear triangle off the bike.

Having to bleed a brake when you fit it to an internally routed bike is also an extra step no one needs.

Posted by: davosaurusrex

↑

Internal through the frame for me. However my Orbea wild ticked too many other boxes so ended up with headset routing. Which is gash so with a few 3d printed parts I've converted it to external through the front triangle and kept it internal through the swingarm. Why Orbea can't include a couple of blanked off ports on the downtube is beyond me, they still haven't done it on the newest Wild but I see Mondraker have on the new Crafty

 

More info please. How did you do this?

Shocked that more people have voted for internal than external, and I assume the five of you who voted for headset routing all work for Merida or Orbea?

It would be interesting to see how the results correspond with who builds their own bikes vs. buying complete.

Posted by: chakaping

↑

Shocked that more people have voted for internal than external

If internal is done correctly there's no consequence to it, it just goes top to bottom internally and takes minutes to swap a line. It's when it's just lobbed through the frame with nothing and you have to fish it out that it then becomes a pain.

i also have never had to change a headset bearing so it's not really a biggy.

How much off-road riding do you do in winter?

I've bikes with both internal and external routing but none thru the headset (and intend to never have) and the easiest bike to work on is my Cotic Flare Max, external everything except for the last 12" of the dropper cable.

External for me. I don't "mind" dropper cabling that goes in the bottom of the seat tube, but I'd service dropper posts more often if I could just pull them out the frame without having to faff with feeding cables in and out, as its literally only just long enough and it turns into a 3 hand job.

I have one carbon internally routed frame (everything else is steel). Its got proper ducts for all the cables and hoses, but the routing around the BB and the exit from the rear dropout for the mech cable leave very tight bends in the outer and that bike needs way more faffing with gears than any of my others which go years without recabling. This one needs replacing every 6 months or so - the mech spring stops being strong enough to pull the cable tight - a sure sign of gummy cables.

I voted for external except the dropper. Yeah, I have an external dropper on an old bike, but it's always gunking up at the cable entry/ actuator point. Internals go longer without cable maintenance. But the difference between external, tube-in-tube internal, internal loose, and thru-headset routing is just one more step in the task. Nothing insurmountable. Not worth making a fuss about imo. Just do the extra step when needed as it's only minutes and it's done. If it was a massive ballache, then I would still be on a rigid steel externally cabled singlespeed with a square taper bb. 

The main problem with any internal (apart from annoyance of rattling) is that if you need to throw on a spare rear brake in a hurry ( which if you race or do a lot of riding away from home is probably something that happens sometimes) you have to faff around with undoing connectors. Hydraulic fluid pissing around. Taping the spare rear brake cable to the outside of the frame which invariably rubs through and eats your frame if its wet and gritty out 

At the very least the designs should allow you to swap a brake out without needing to shorten brake cables and install new connectors. But all of the ones i've had or seen don't have big enough holes in frame to get the fasteners through......and really if you even have to bleed a new brake to get it onto the frame in the intended way then its hard to see why it should be considered a good design 

Brake hose fully external, always. Everything else is a ... "it depends".

Good point Bill. I was only thinking about the faff/extra steps from a home maintenance point of view. Ie is it a one cup of tea job, or longer.. But if you are swapping anything in a wet, windy field whilst your rider or you are desperate to get back to it, then yeah external. Probably less swapping of parts on xc bikes than dh though.

The main problem with any internal (apart from annoyance of rattling) is that if you need to throw on a spare rear brake in a hurry ( which if you race or do a lot of riding away from home is probably something that happens sometimes)

Yep, had to do this a couple of time on uplift days or Alps holiday.

My Bird Aeris 9 is quite cool in that the blanking plates for the internal routing holes have cable guides on them - so riders can choose internal or external (I went external obvs).

Always been "anything except through the headset", however I'm very interested if anyone has tried these?

https://easybikeparts.co.uk/collections/complete-headsets

got to be internally routed, hoses/cables down the downtube or toptube look a mess.

that said their are differences , my old canyon was a nightmare to internally route, my SC tallboy, its all lagged so took 10 seconds to push the rear brake hose from back to front..

not keen on the headset situation

Not down the underside of the downtube!

I still argue this actually makes the most sense on a hardtail.

The simple logic is that there can't be crud inside the outer cable, if there's no outer cable. I'm not convinced the window in which a full length outer shifts better is actually all that wide.  And when it does deteriorate you just swap that last 200mm loop of outer and wipe some cable-magic on the inner.

Posted by: reeksy

↑

I have 5 (including my kids' bikes). All a doddle ... apart from one.

A titanium hardtail with ports just about the diameter of brake hose. Even with a magnet tool once you get to the last cable/hose it's a game of *ing *ety *-* and there's tools being hurled around the shed. There's not even space to pull the hose through with fishing line tied to it.

Thanks - that's me triggered!

Worked on one of those 'king things once.  The shop guy booked it in as a standard cable swap so got charged £8 per cable.  Took me most of the bloody day!

External. Like on my Shand 😍.

Internal is just a total PITA when it comes to doing any repairs.

Want internal dropper.

Don’t mind internal or external gear

Only want external brake.