Took me 3 hours to find a stupid cable routing mistake on a fixie

I was building up a fixed gear frame last weekend and could not get the rear brake cable to pull smoothly. Tried new housing, lubed everything up, even swapped the cable itself. Spent like 2 hours messing with it before I realized the inner cable was catching on a tiny burr inside the frame's cable guide. It was this little metal lip from where they drilled the hole, maybe 2mm wide. I filed it down with a round file in like 2 minutes and the cable moved perfect. Now I always run a finger inside every guide before threading a cable. Has anyone else dealt with something dumb like a frame defect eating up your whole afternoon?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanw9122d ago

Took me 3 hours to find a stupid cable routing mistake" - yeah that tracks. I spent an entire afternoon once chasing a ghost rub on my rear brake only to find out the cable housing was like 4mm too short and was pulling at a weird angle inside the frame. Felt like a total clown when I just swapped it for a longer piece and the problem went away in 30 seconds. Those little frame defects are the worst though, you never think to check for a burr inside a hole you can barely see. I bet half the time people think their brakes are junk when it's just some tiny metal lip causing all the drag.

the_faith22d ago

Wait, how come none of us ever check the dumb obvious stuff first? I spent a whole Saturday once swapping out a brand new derailleur cable three times because I swore the housing was fine. Turned out I had a tiny kink in the housing right near the barrel adjuster, but it was hidden under the handlebar tape. I literally pulled my hair out adjusting limit screws and tension for hours before I just happened to yank the tape off and saw it. Felt like an absolute idiot when I just snipped an inch off the end and everything worked perfect. Those little internal frame burrs get me too though, I had a seatpost once that wouldn't stop creaking and it was just a speck of aluminum flashing inside the tube that I couldn't even see without a flashlight.

ray61322d ago

Buddy of mine spent two days chasing a creak on his brand new bike. Turned out a tiny piece of leftover carbon from the molding process was stuck inside the steerer tube. Just rattling around every time he hit a bump. Drove him absolutely nuts.