When I first got my Zesty 514 (2012 carbon version), I pulled out the front mech cable and converted it straight to 1 x10.

Now I want to convert it back to gears at the front, but I’m struggling to figure out the correct cable routing. It seems there’s a hole through the brace between the chainstays that takes the front mech cable up from below the bb shell to a guide cam on the mech and over to the clamp bolt. However, it looks to me that the cable is going to rub a groove where it comes out of the hole in the chainstay brace. Do I need some kind of sheath or cable sleeve?

Could anyone take a photo of the cabling at the front end around the bottom bracket of a Zesty? Preferably a carbon one – I don’t know if the alloy one is similar or not?

not got a pic but the cable goes above the main pivot on the NDS then clamps to the chainstay and goes around and underneath the chainstay into the hole in the brace.

You can use a bit of plastic sheathing in the hole such as the type you use on top tube cables to prevent cable rub but it’s not essential. The front mech outer housing goes round the back of the downtube and through a screwed in clip on the non driveside swingarm and then underneath with a very sharp bend up into the bottom of the chainstay brace that allows the outer housing to fill with water and crud very quickly as it runs down the bare cable, splodge some grease round the cable exit point to prevent this.

We sell zestys in the shop so i’ve changed the internal cables and outers many-many times

Lots of pics of my 2012 714 here:

MT’s 2012 zesty

Including what happens if you don’t helitape the heck out of the swing arm!

Std routing is:
Cable exits lower top rhs of downtube, infront of seat tube
cable passes on the rhs (chainside) of the seat tube and is held by a small (dual) clamp (with the rear gear shift cable, attached to the bonded in threaded insert)
Cable turns 90deg right, to arc behind seat tube, and over towards the lhs of the swing arm
Cable is held by bolted clamp, vertically against the LSH of the swing arm
Cable loops downwards, turning 180deg on itself, to enter a hole in the centre of the swingarm, through which it passes and then is attached, pulling downwards, onto front derailure.

Frankly, it’s a S**T route tbh, lots of turns, lots of possibilities to rub stuff. Think i’m going XX1 when i’ve saved a few pennies to get rid of it for good!

Interestingly, if you install the cable as in those pics posted by soma, and without any extra protection, an pull tight over the seat tube and swing arm, the cable WILL go clean through your carbon arm in a matter of a few weeks if it’s wet……….

(see my pics for the aftermath of that occurance ;-(

oh, yeah, luckily, as you have a carbon 2012, it won’t matter if the cable rubs through the frame, because the swingarm mounting will tear out of the front triangle in a while anyway…………

Thanks guys! It does seem as though the cable coming through the hole in the swingarm will saw its way out of the hole over time as it rubs on the exit from the hole.

I was running 1×10 (34T chainring, 36×11 out back), but I’m off to Morocco in 2 weeks and the advice is that 1×10 won’t be low enough. With the 1×10, I can keep with the guys I’m going with who are running triples, but I’m a bit wary that pushing too high a gear will wreck my legs in a couple of days.

Thank you Somafunk for the pics, they really helped me.

I just wanted to add to the info above that there may be two holes in the swing arm to choose from underneath, like my 714 has and if you feed the cable through the hole nearest the drive side it then splits into two more holes as it exits the top of the swing arm. I used the exit hole nearest the chainrings to direct the cable towards the front derailleur which means it isn’t likely to rub through the swing arm.

Strangely the hole nearest the drive side was blocked with a silicon bung on my bike, which was the reason i thought it wasn’t used previously. I just poked this out and have used grease and Jagwire cable ends to try and stop the u-bend of the cable housing filling with water and dust.

Once you’ve attached the cable to the front derailleur, the spare cable can pass down through the non-drive side hole in the swing arm, which is the direction it points to, it should squeeze through with a cable end crimp on too.

Good luck.

Sorry if this is a little OT but how do you rate the CCDB air Maxtorque? Is it a marked improvement over the Fox shock. I’ve got a Fox Float on my 2009 Zesty 314 and am reasonably happy wit its performance…probably because I haven’t got much to compare against.

At the std 140mm, doing mainly fast but not what i would call “big hit” stuff the std fox shock is ok.

At 160mm (using Spicy shuttle) the CCDBa is simply perfect. Total control, total repeatability, even after blasting down 20min long EWS stages in La Thuile. Highly recommended.