Cable Routing for Avid Mechanical Disc (or Disk) Brakes



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Hkek

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Someone once told me that it was best to run the brake cable jacket uninterupted from the brake
lever to the disc brake, rather than using the cable stops with short, intermittent sections of
housing. Is there any advantage to this approach? If it is good for disc brakes, wouldn't it also be
be good for rim brakes? -- Thanks!
 
"HKEK" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Someone once told me that it was best to run the brake cable jacket uninterupted from the brake
> lever to the disc brake, rather than using the cable stops with short, intermittent sections of
> housing. Is there any advantage to this approach?

Yes.

> If it is good for disc brakes, wouldn't it also be be good for rim brakes?

And yes.

-- Thanks!

Welcome.

Jon Bond only the facts
 
"HKEK" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Someone once told me that it was best to run the brake cable jacket uninterupted from the brake
> lever to the disc brake, rather than using the cable stops with short, intermittent sections of
> housing. Is there any advantage to this approach? If it is good for disc brakes, wouldn't it also
> be be good for rim brakes? -- Thanks!

I'm sure that it is a better approach for both. I would imagine the reason for doing this is to
minimize the exposure of the cable to the dirty, ugly world, or more specifically, minimize the
number of places the dirty, ugly world can enter the housing. Dirt, crud, water, all these things
will tend to increase the friction inside the housing and therefore increase cable/lever drag.

Having said all that, you will no doubt run straight cable on the front disc. On the rear disc,
you'll only use the normal stops along the top tube (assuming that is where your stops are), then
straight cable from the back stop to the caliper. I am about to install the Avids on my ride and
this is my plan. It seems like a reasonable compromise, the cable stops on the top tube are not
normally a cruddy area. Of course, I ride in a pretty dry climate, YMMV.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove .nospam. if replying)
 
> > Someone once told me that it was best to run the brake cable jacket uninterupted from the brake
> > lever to the disc brake, rather than using the cable stops with short, intermittent sections of
> > housing. Is there any advantage to this approach? If it is good for disc brakes, wouldn't it
> > also be be good for rim brakes? -- Thanks!
>
> I'm sure that it is a better approach for both. I would imagine the reason for doing this is to
> minimize the exposure of
the
> cable to the dirty, ugly world, or more specifically, minimize the number
of
> places the dirty, ugly world can enter the housing. Dirt, crud, water, all these things will tend
> to increase the friction inside the housing and therefore increase cable/lever drag.
>
> Having said all that, you will no doubt run straight cable on the front disc. On the rear disc,
> you'll only use the normal stops along the top
tube
> (assuming that is where your stops are), then straight cable from the back stop to the caliper. I
> am about to install the Avids on my ride and this
is
> my plan. It seems like a reasonable compromise, the cable stops on the top tube are not normally a
> cruddy area. Of course, I ride in a pretty dry climate, YMMV.
>
> --
> Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
>
That's what I did here in San Diego. Zip tied the housing to the fork crown, then again on the leg.

Mike
 
"Craig Brossman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> (snip) I'm sure that it is a better approach for both. I would imagine the reason for doing this
> is to minimize the exposure of
the
> cable to the dirty, ugly world, or more specifically, minimize the number
of
> places the dirty, ugly world can enter the housing. Dirt, crud, water, all these things will tend
> to increase the friction inside the housing and therefore increase cable/lever drag.
>
> Having said all that, you will no doubt run straight cable on the front disc. On the rear disc,
> you'll only use the normal stops along the top
tube
> (assuming that is where your stops are), then straight cable from the back stop to the caliper. I
> am about to install the Avids on my ride and this
is
> my plan. It seems like a reasonable compromise, the cable stops on the top tube are not normally a
> cruddy area. Of course, I ride in a pretty dry climate, YMMV.
>
> --
> Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove .nospam. if replying)

I'm sure that most of you have more experience at this than I, but for my Avids, I used a set of
Avid Flak Jacket cables. They are an excellent cable and come with little wipers for the exposed
cable that do a pretty good job of keeping debris and foriegn matter out of the housings.

Just my $.02

Danny
 
"Danny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Craig Brossman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > (snip) I'm sure that it is a better approach for both. I would imagine the reason for doing
> > this is to minimize the exposure of
> the
> > cable to the dirty, ugly world, or more specifically, minimize the
number
> of
> > places the dirty, ugly world can enter the housing. Dirt, crud, water,
all
> > these things will tend to increase the friction inside the housing and therefore increase
> > cable/lever drag.
> >
> > Having said all that, you will no doubt run straight cable on the front disc. On the rear disc,
> > you'll only use the normal stops along the top
> tube
> > (assuming that is where your stops are), then straight cable from the
back
> > stop to the caliper. I am about to install the Avids on my ride and this
> is
> > my plan. It seems like a reasonable compromise, the cable stops on the
top
> > tube are not normally a cruddy area. Of course, I ride in a pretty dry climate, YMMV.
> >
> > --
> > Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove .nospam. if replying)
>
> I'm sure that most of you have more experience at this than I, but for my Avids, I used a set of
> Avid Flak Jacket cables. They are an excellent
cable
> and come with little wipers for the exposed cable that do a pretty good
job
> of keeping debris and foriegn matter out of the housings.
>
> Just my $.02
>
> Danny
>
>
I ran the Flak Jackets for a season and hated them. They seemed worse that standard Shimano housing
and were more expensive. I am glad to hear that someone likes them, but from what I hear on this NG,
you are in the minority. Still, it doesn't matter what we say, good luck to you.

BTW, our experience matters very little, your opinion is just as valuable, certainly more so when it
comes to your own backyard.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove .nospam. if replying)
 
HKEK wrote:
> Someone once told me that it was best to run the brake cable jacket uninterupted from the brake
> lever to the disc brake, rather than using the cable stops with short, intermittent sections of
> housing. Is there any advantage to this approach? If it is good for disc brakes, wouldn't it also
> be be good for rim brakes? -- Thanks!

It's a trade-off.

plus side: less entry points for water and contaimination. slightly lighter.

minus side: the housing is more compressable than the hard stops so you will have marginally
less breaking.

Given the latter (passed on to me by the head wrench at my LBS as something that'd been passed on to
him), I went with the breaks and ride-on cables. Before switching to the ride-on cables, he wanted
me to try full housing so that I could tell him how much difference I noticed (if any :)) so that I
could verify what HE'D been told!

David
 
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