Road bike shifter cable advice please.

Building up a new drop bar bike. First time I’ve had gear cables coming out of the back of the shifter and under the tape. Last bike was 3×9 with the shifter cable coming out the side of the shifter.

I’ve used electric tape to position the shifter housing and brake hose where I want them, but just how tight are you supposed to make the corner just behind the shifter?

Too loose and I can imagine everything feeling mobile under the bar tape. Too tight and I can imagine creating a lot of drag in the shifter.

Or am I overthinking it and you just go tight as you can with three or four wraps of electrical tape?

I’ve always pulled mine pretty much all the way in to the corner of the bar. Just as far as it bends without feeling like I’m forcing it. Never had a problem, I think the leverage on the STI’s is enough that you could make it fairly stiff and not have much problem.

Install the levers, fit cables and set-up the gears before wrapping the tape – the tensioned inner cable will seat the outer cable. I always fully wrap the bars with electrical tape from the levers to the centre – if you go the other way, you can pull the outer away from the lever which can cause problems with shifting.

I agree with @bassmandan

There are various methods as above but make sure, I can’t emphasise this enough, that the outer cable is securely seated in the lever before and after doing initial taping with electrical tape.

It’s certainly seated. I’ll not be rushing to fit another dropper to a Shimano lever with internal routing anytime soon. MTBs are so much easier.

If you tape the casing all the way, and then crash the bike or hit the lever on something so it moves, it may pull the casing out of the lever and throw the gear adjustment out of whack.

I would rather tape in just the corner spot and at one spot on the straight part of the bar, and wrap when gears are adjusted. Especially on cyclocross bikes, it is best to tape the casing just enough, so the casing can move with the lever if it gets turned a bit at some point. Depends on the bar tape used too though – and how tight you wrap it, but it makes it more likely that you can straighten the lever after a mishap and the gear cable casing stays inside the lever.

More importantly, use decent cable like Shimano SP41 optislick. – I just tape mine up with electrical tape 3-4 loops at various points, not the whole bar – remember it does stretch. Then wrap in bar tape.

Or just buy AXS! 😉

I binned the jagwire cable set, fear not.

AXS doesn’t sort the hoses although hydraulic is less affected by tight bends.

Wouldn’t want to have to use a Reverb dropper though. It would have saved a lot of headaches during building though.

I also agree with @mrauer.

I also tend to have a quick spin up & down the street with a few gear changes before applying bar tape.