Hi All,
I just bought a used BMC RoadMachine Three. It was advertised as a 2023 model but I think it’s probably 2022 as it doesn’t have the down tube storage. Beautiful bike and the previous owner maintained it incredibly well.
Anyway the point of this post is to see if it is possible to integrate the brake cables into the frame? I guess it comes down to if the head tube, head set etc allows for it? It has the BMC ICS2 stem on it (or something very similar, there isnt actually BMC branding on the stem) and Lightweight Kompaktbugel bars.
by Difficult-Basis-9017
2 Comments
No. If the frame has ports for the brake hoses to enter on the fork crown and downtube, it likely doesn’t have the ability to run fully integrated hoses.
Just a few weeks ago, I replaced the stem on a 2024 canyon that had fully integrated brake hoses. The stem and steerer had an entirely different interface than 99% of bikes on the road. The hoses needed to be installed and routed in a pretty particular order to prevent binding.
You’d need to change the fork, headset, stem, and handlebars to hide roughly 2 feet of brake hoses. You’d pay easily $500+ just in parts for something like that.
The tangential advice I’d also share is to look at the bikes the mechanics at your LBS ride. A very small percentage of bike mechanics ride bikes like yours since they’re not easy to work on. Personally I own something north of 15 bikes. All of them are steel, and only one has a mostly-internal rear brake routing. It’s only through the top tube and it’s sleeved too so still very easy to work on. Im also one of 4 mechanics at the shop I work at and the owner is the only person who even has a carbon bike. His is a Serotta with Ti lugs and some carbon tubes.
My current gravel bike has internal routing and I wanted to change the stem to a Redshift. What a pain in the ass.
Try and find FSA headset parts in next to impossible. I order 3 different headset spacer from AliExpress and found one that fit with a bit of a modification and I still had to design and 3D print a part to make it all work. It’s fine except if you ever want to make any changes. I prefer the ease of external routing.