Cables and hoses through headset.

Looking at a Cube e bike and become aware of the stupidest thing ever.
Not a huge fan of internal routing for anything but a dropper .
Has anyone ever gone external?
Looks like I could fix some guides to the battery cover.
How much would it cost for a shop to change headset bearings if I leave it as it is?
I guess bottom bearings would be easy to change .

How much would it cost for a shop to change headset bearings if I leave it as it is?

Depends on the exact arrangements – some setups now have split spacers in the headset or are routed into the steerer tube or down a guide alongside the steerer.

Looks like I could fix some guides to the battery cover.

Which would mean dismantling a new setup anyway and potentially re-doing the whole lot. Besides, how often do you replace headset bearings…? It’s not like it’s a regular monthly job.

My cube headset bearings have started to feel a bit rough.

Asked local lbs for a cost to change them. £80 which includes bearings. Bearings from merlin are £30 so £50 labour.

Asked local lbs for a cost to change them. £80 which includes bearings. Bearings from merlin are £30 so £50 labour.

Had they actually seen it had integrated cables though?

Although as suggested above, upper bearings last ages, and apart from a bit of jigging about the lowers aren’t that different to normal unless the front brake goes that way too.

I think on my own bikes I’ve changed headsets about twice in my life. – and one of those was because I snapped the cup.

Sure ain’t going to go to hassle of rerouting cables to make a once every maybe 5 year job easier.

I’ve integrated cables on my propel. Slight fiddle to set up but has had zero impact on my life since. Bike is 5 years old.

Had they actually seen it had integrated cables though?

No idea, I bought the bike from them and they are a cube dealer. They asked the mechanic how much it would cost and he said £80.

Bike is 2 years old and done 950 miles.

It can be a PITA but as mentioned above it’s not something you do every year. I’ve done it once on my 3 year old mountain bike.  I ordered the headset bearings then realised I needed new olives for the rear brake as the hose wouldn’t come through the frame without cutting the end off. So all in I needed a replacement gear cable for the rear mech, An olive for the rear brake hose and  replacement DOT brake fluid.

It took a few hours to strip out, then fiddle about getting the top headset bearing installed with the hose and cable outer through it, the lower bearing was as a normal instal and it was also a bit of a pain re cabling and re installing the hose through the frame. Then of course rear mech indexing and refill and bleed the rear brake line. £80 is a great price for a bike shop to do it.

If the stock headset on this Cube is anything like the the one that came with my Cube e-bike then they are complete junk and won’t last long anyway so expect to change it fairly soon. The one on my touring hybrid came with those god awful plastic cups although mine isn’t internally routed so yours might be better quality I don’t know. But once adjusted it would develop a little play few weeks later. Got fed up adjusting the headset and chucked in a full metal FSA number. Been rock solid 1.5 years and 7000 miles later.

I had my cube headset apart – its actually simple if fiddly setup They do not go thru the top bearing but alongside it IIRC  and no interference with the bottom bearing at all.  The only bit I found fiddly was putting the two part spacers back together around the cables

I needed new olives for the rear brake as the hose wouldn’t come through the frame without cutting the end off

why not just disconnect the hose from the lever and re-use the olive? no need to pass it through the frame then

some engineery-type will probably tell me this isn’t possible, but why can’t we have a cut caged bearing that has a c-shaped race (rather than continuous circle) so it can be manipulated to slip a hose in/out?

It’s one of the (many) reasons that I will never work in the bike industry again. I’ll probably never buy a bike again to be fair, the ones I have will see me out.

Mrs_oab’s Merida has some dafty cable arrangement through the stem and head tube. However they are ‘outside’ of the headset bearings, so as easy to change as an external cable set up.

5lab yes it may have been easier disconnecting from the lever end to save frame routing but the olive would still have to be cut off to get the hose through the nice plastic ring below the stem that keeps everything looking tidy at the front end where the cable/hoses enter. Canyon designers special. So it would still be a hassle. Probably best to draw out all the dot fluid with a syringe to prevent a mess. Then fill with new after it’s all reconnected and perform a bleed.

If the groupset is SRAM you can get pulling eyes which screw into the inserts and stop the DOT fluid leaking out, they also make pulling the cables eaier.

This review has them going through the stem as well as the headset, for ugliness and stiffer mechanical shifting! https://singletrackworld.com/charged/2024/06/focus-jam-2-sl-9-9-review/

It’s times like these I say ‘thank you’ to the designers at Shand and Brompton for externally routing everything (and 3/4 of a thanks to Orange too – docked marks for the rear swing arm internal routing).

Specialized meanwhile need a red hot poker up their rectal cavity for their shite method of sand collection around the internally routed yet still exposed  to extenal grit  stupid placement of cables in my Tarmac SL6.

As a few have alluded to, there are different versions of ‘headset routing’ some being exceptionally stupid, others being about on par with the prior methods.

Internal routing was/is  the same – example, I can recable my internal carbon Santa Cruz faster than my external aluminium bird. Internal guides mean you just feed the cable in and it comes out the other end. Actually quicker than faffing with ~7 external clips for the external routing.
However some internal bikes are a nightmare. I know people who have to remove the bottom bracket to install or recable their dropper.

Internal routing is just annoying full stop.