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Old 07-01-22, 02:55 AM
  #25  
Road Fan
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Bikes: 1980 Masi, 1984 Mondonico, 1984 Trek 610, 1980 Woodrup Giro, 2005 Mondonico Futura Leggera ELOS, 1967 PX10E, 1971 Peugeot UO-8

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Originally Posted by unworthy1
well, yes
and no.
To split some hairs here,the Campy unit is the best and most commonly available, but there are others such as the Zeus, very much a Campy clone and Huret both of which will be harder to find and probably cost more than the already pricey Campy, if you did find them.
Also the clunky Simplex that has breakaway Delrin parts, not even worth looking for but probably could get for free if you found one.
You'd think that Shimano would have made thousands of these guides, yet I can't recall ever seeing one!

So the OP is correct that since he wants to use a bottom-pull FD with NO cable housing, the cheaper route is the plastic under BB shell bit, once you have a hole drilled. It doesn't HAVE to be tapped for threading since some of the guides snap into a plain hole...but I'd tap it.

The small problem you'll now have is this routes your RD cable to BELOW the chainstay, and the OP's frame has cable stop on the TOP of that stay. So if you don't want to braze one the simple fix is a clamp-on cable stop, and that doesn't have to be Campy or any pricey thing. In fact I have a small collection of mostly SunTour but a few other brands of these and can part with one for the cost of shipping but I bet any co-op has bins full of them.
These were generally intended to mount so the cable was on top of the chainstay, but nothing prevents them mounted "upside down" and I have done it dozens of times, works fine. Just have the machine screw above rather than below the stay.
Isn’t it an even cheaper solution to cut a pair of brake cable outer housings (or just one if you only really need to guide the FD?), hold it under the BB shell, thread in the FD or RD cable, and attach the cable and adjust it? You’ll still need a bottom cable housing stop at the end of the DS chainstay. But if you kept scraps of outer brake cable and bought the lined stuff, like Jagwire, that part of the project should be essentially free.

What year and model is that frame? I want to look it up in Vintage Trek. Can you share the serial number?
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