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Trevtassie: That was probably me but I also mentioned spec'ing good compressionless housing like the Elite Link which has lightweight inner liners and then reusable lightweight links. However I will say Yokozuna also makes a fine compressionless brake housing but it will be a touch heavier and won't look quite as cool or Jagwire does a standard housing called the Pro Compressionless housing but I like the link stuff.
I try to avoid coated cables as the coating can wear off and could gunk things up.
I realized the difference some of the smaller cheaper upgrades like cables/housing and pads can really make on a bike. You can spend a lot of money on great new derailleurs or brakes and certainly in many cases it can improve things quite a bit but sometimes those little upgrades can also make a good difference.
I guess with bamboo you can easily repair it almost anywhere but I still am a steel advocate. Curious who the frame builder is mainly to see new exciting bikes but also out of curiosity to see how they are doing their frames.