[nnamssorxela]

So I was browsing through the bike shop the other day and noticed a Rocky Mountain Flow that had the front brake line routed through the steerer tube using one of them fancy bolts with the hollow center. Is there an advantage of this? The bike had front and rear brakes, as well as 1, if not 2 shifters. Did they do it just to clear up the cable routing a little?

I can understand why someone would want it if they were running a SS set up with only a rear brake so you can do all the fancy spins and bar spins etc, but what about if you have both brakes, not to mention shifters as well? From a little research, it looks like some people run the front brake through if they have one, and then the back brake just has enough slack in the line for maybe a 360 as long as you spin the bars back around?

The gravity whip cap and GT hollow stem cap are both examples.

-Alex

 

[climbingbubba]

exactly what you are thinking. people route it through steer tube to allow them to spin the bars as many times as the rear brake will allow (unless they get a hydro gyro for the rear).

you can still do this with a rear shifter cable. most people keep it the same length as the rear brake and tape them together.

now if they had a front shifter cable then that is just stupid.

 

[nnamssorxela]

I can't remember if it did or didn't have a front shifter? But all the cables were pretty short as it was. Seems pretty interesting though, however the hydro gyro thing seems like a nightmare. I'm not going to be bar spinning anytime soon anyhow...

Thanks,
-alex

 

[trib]

Ages ago when i was part of the MBUK forum there was a guy who made something similar to the gravity whip cap but with Goodridge hoses so you could run a hydraulic front disk and have no kinks or twisted hoses.

I think most people just run longer rear hoses and no front brake these days though

 

[sittingduck]

It keeps your front brake cable from getting damaged if you bail too. Some times your bars will spin if you let go of your bike and it can be tough on cables.
I want one for my squishy bike, but it has a 1.5" head tube, and I've never seen the hollow bolt setup for 1.5.
I have one of these on my dirt jumper:

 

[buckoW]

or you can make one yourself with a grinder.

the second one protects the housing better.

 

[sittingduck]

or you can make one yourself with a grinder.
the second one protects the housing better.

What do you do, grind off one of the "leaves" of the star nut?
Do you secure the cable at the crown, so that the slack from the fork compressing stays below the steer tube? When I had suspension, the cable was able to go up and down through the hollow nut.

 

[climbingbubba]

What do you do, grind off one of the "leaves" of the star nut?
Do you secure the cable at the crown, so that the slack from the fork compressing stays below the steer tube? When I had suspension, the cable was able to go up and down through the hollow nut.

sittingduck - you can do it the ghetto way by drilling a hole in the topcap and then taking a dremmel and dremmeling out the one of the prongs on the starnut. they have 6-8 so one won't matter. its just hard work and you want to be sure you round out the cut parts as much as possible

or

you could get the new FSA whipcap. they look really sweet. plus they come in 1.5 so you would be set. a friend of mine just got the 1.5 to put on his intense slopestyle. should be sick.

 

[trib]

if you're using a cable operated front brake you can drill out the top cap bolt so that a cable can pass through it, much neater. Then just cut your cable housing so that it sits snug into the top of the bolt and attach a separate length to go from under the bolt to the front break

 

[sittingduck]

Thanks, climingbubba!
Cutting the housing is not an option with hydros, trib.