Bike is a 2013 Forme Flash 2.0
Chorus 11 mechanical groupset with Athena rim brakes.
Been riding this bike for many years and the only gripe I’ve had is that the cables feel so messy up front!
Happy to replace the handlebars/stem or anything that might clean it up.
Also deliberating switching to a front disc setup with some new forks if that’s a worthy venture
by EmuBig8944
17 Comments
Get a new bike.
If you get the lengths of housing so that each pair of cables exits the bar tape together and they stay together as they go round that first corner it looks much tidier
Sram red etap rim brake. Or a new bike
electrical tape
Black housing wouldn’t call so much attention to itself.
ride brakeless fixed
no cables
redo them, they are routed wrong.
Mainly by shortening the housing. Controversial, but you can also move your front brake to the right hand side. That way the cables don’t have to cross. Also the front brake cable can be really, really short because it is only pivoting in place. You may also consider whether you really need an inline adjuster for the rear derailleur. Normally there is an adjuster at the rear dropout.
Probably just a cloth and some water would do it. They don’t seem so bad in the picture.
It’s the red housing that make them look so messy. Too eye catching. Go with black housing
Longer brake housings and shorter shifter housings, you should be able to have similar lengths. Red is nice, but personally I think mixing it with black adds just enough color. You also may not need a pair of barrel adjusters, most rear derailleurs have one already AFAIK
Set it up fixed gear no brakes
Had the same problem. Other than buying new handlebars this was the best
https://preview.redd.it/c23hxm87bmef1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ab2cfebfe986fed3d8a60fac1b681ee183c746f
You may be able to clean this up slightly using the suggestion that someone else suggested of very slightly trimming some of those cables but ultimately this can’t be solved without basically going out and buying a new bike with some proper or full internal cable routing (which a lot of manufacturers have now reversed course on excessive internal routing due to problems with maintenance).
This is already a step up from my last Tiagra set-up where I had cables coming from the shifters down instead of under the bar tape.
Clean routing means bending those cables in funny ways which isn’t the best solution either… so that leaves you with going wireless with electronic shifting. Then you’ve only got some cables for the brakes which can be hidden well and easily. Done deal.
Welcome to the never ending money trap of cycling.
It’s not messy at all that’s what a bike looks like
Black Housing. Fuck that red.
get some cable clamps to tie them together, front brake cable would look a little nicer if it was a little longer it wouldn’t look so stretch, a nice arch looks better if you can get all the cables to have the same basic bend it’ll have a symmetry that won’t look so messy.