rpenmanparker 

For electronic it makes sense for the wires to not be exposed...at least to me. For mechanical shifting I certainly don't see it as an improvement, but what's so wrong about it? So many folks are bashing it, I just thought I would ask.

I was dreading running the cables on my new Chinese carbon frame (Cervelo design through and through), but it was stupid easy. The Cervelo-style cable management system is so damn good, it makes running the cables a total non-issue. And the cables are routed so they don't touch the inside walls of the tubes. No internal cable slap noise so far, so I am a happy camper. I did the routing before pressing in the bottom bracket along with its sleeve so I had the whole open BB shell to work in. That was pretty easy. It will be interesting to see how it goes to change out cables if I choose to leave the BB installed when I do that. But RMS13 reports that he ran the cables with the BB in place, so it can't be that big of a deal.

BillyD

Because it had it coming, that's why.

rpenmanparker 

Hey Billy, you're here a little early, aren't you. Give this thing a chance to get rolling before you scare away the crazies.

BillyD

We got crazies?

PepeM

Because it wasn't cool when we were young, therefore we do not like it.

RoderWrench

Because if it's not like mine, I don't like it.

topflightpro

Your frame may be easy to work on, but that is probably the exception and not the norm.

I have two bikes with internal routing in my house. My Argon is OK to work on. Not great. The RD cable exits the frame under the BB and runs externally to the RD. That makes things a lot easier. Also, the way the cables are routed through the front of the headtube creates a cleaner run through the frameset.

My wife's Amira, on the other hand, is a complete PIA to work on.

I've got 30m of cable liner that I use to to make it easier to replace cables - basically, I feed the liner over the cables before removing them, then use the liner to re-feed the cables back through the frame. Despite this, something inevitably goes wrong. And it usually results in me spending way to much time trying to fish something out of the frame. And I usually end up sounding like the dad from A Christmas Story. ("Oh Fudge" is not exactly what I utter.)

Not only that, the internal routing isn't always the most direct route for the cable, meaning shifting performance can be reduced. And the cables often bang against the frame, making a lot of annoying noise.

As frames get more complicated, running cables is even worse. I spoke with a Trek rep a couple weeks ago about the new Madone. Initial set up on that thing is pretty difficult and time consuming - for electronic or mechanical. But once the DI2 stuff is in, it's easy to deal with. But replacing cables, well, the guy gave me a look that basically said don't buy this if you want to run mechanical. (The brake cables are much easier to replace.)

Ice41000

Unnecessary, impractical, more complicated, harder to maintain.

StanSeven

I get the first three but harder to maintain? Or do you mean replace?

datlas 

I was a clueless internal-routed newbie when I had to replace the RD shifter cable on my Specialized Roubaix last year and I can tell you that it was a major pain in the ass to thread. It wasted several hours. Next time I will tie a thread to the old cable so I can chase the replacement in and it may be easier.

So I am not a huge fan. Yes it looks cleaner, but it can be a hassle.

Doctor Morbius

Because back in my day ........

JonnyHK 

Takes one to know one...just sayin'

Trsnrtr

I use nylon fishing line through the the old housing; pull the old housing out leaving the fishing line in; slide new housing over the line; pull out line and insert cable. Use a length of fishing line over twice the length of the housing. Done it a lot. No big deal.

Homebrew01

Because it was next up on the "hate" list.

rms13

Yeah, took me five minutes to run all the cables on the same frame with bottom bracket installed and no fishing line or pull strings.

WalksOn2Wheels

A lot of it comes from 1) inexperience and 2) bad frame design. How many people have you seen swear off of an entire company because of a singular bad experience with a single product? Those people are called idiots.

I have a Domane and a Crockett which both have internal cables. The Domane came to me completely unbuilt, so threading cables for the first run was definitely not what I would call fun, but it wasn't the end of the world. Having worked on many bikes in the shop with internal cable routing, I had a few tricks and it was all okay. The Crockett came as a frame, but Trek was nice enough to run some sheathing through the frame to ease the build process. That was much appreciated. The worst time I ever had working on a frame with internal cables was a Scott. But that was also the FIRST time I had done it, so I did a lot of stupid things. I didn't do those stupid things after that.

Sometimes the frame design is awful. The new Madone is awesome, but as someone said, you probably REALLY don't want to run mechanical on it. It's extremely specific. There is a chart for what cable length to run based on how many spacers you are running, because there is zero room for excess slack like you would have on any other frame, because it's FULLY internal. I mean, they give you the length down to the mm. Too long and you're going to have a hard time clamping everything down. Too short and you're not going to meet the stops and shifting and/or braking just won't work. You might be able to get away with removing maybe one spacer without having to recable it, but I haven't worked on one of those, so I couldn't tell you for sure. Woe be to the shop that has a customer who insists on reducing his stem height one spacer at a time on his Madone.

Also, as some have mentioned, some frames make noise. Definitely not all. But some will say "internal routing is noisy" regardless of frame. Those people are called idiots.

And I went a few rounds a couple of months ago with some people on this board regarding the cleanliness of internal cables. In my opinion (and in my general experience), internally routed cables are much less prone to corrosion. External cables tend to take in moisture and dirt into the housing at the exposed stop points. On some bikes, you can pull the cable out of the stop, move the housing, and clean and lube these points (but you still can't clean inside of the housing), but on any shifters with cables routed under the bars, you're not going to be able to pull those back to clean/lube the cable unless you're also doing bar wrap. With internal cables, you're much, much less likely to get moisture and dirt into the cables. Exceptions are provided for particularly bad designs. The one mentioned in that thread was the Specialized Transition, a tri bike, that had this collection of stops JUST below your chin in an aero position where you could just drip sweat all day directly into your cluster of cables. Great idea, Specialized.

Oh, that reminds me: working on ANY tri bike sucks, so those don't count when talking about internal cables.

rpenmanparker 

That frame really has a sweet design. I know we have to thank Cervelo for it, not Workswell, but just sayin" it is a pleasure to work with whoever thought of it.

BoSoxYacht

Internal cables can be a PITA to deal with when repairing frame damage, so I'm always happy when I see a frame come into the shop with external routing.

In the SW, internal routing provides no real benefit other than a cleaner appearance.

TrojanHorse

New frames come with cable liners you can use to fish new cables through. If you have those AND you slide them in before you remove the old cable, it's a piece of cake. If you don't, ask your shop, they probably have them laying around. I had no trouble at all on my Roubaix and I'm about to do it again with some new shifter cables. I did CA Cross the shifter cables inside the DT.

It makes cleaning the bike a hair easier & the bottom of the downtube is usually what needs it the worst, and it looks a little bit sleeker but I wouldn't say there's an inherent advantage.

Shimano traditionally has a lighter cable tension than say, SRAM, so maybe that leads to some of the shift difficulties I've heard about. I didn't notice any particular difference when I went from my old external cable roubaix to a newer internal roubaix. YMMV.

RJM

I'd rather see the cables...I prefer the more industrial look and it seems to work better....

My preference is for externally routed cables coming from the handlebars too, but my current setup doesn't have those.

Doctor Morbius

Yep, right after disc brakes on road bikes. Or should I say disc breaks on rode bikes?

Ice41000

I meant clean and lube, but replacing too.

Also, noise.

crazyarm07

Internal cables can definitely be a pain in the ---, but I think the newer designs are taking that into account and getting a little bit better. I just got a Park Tool kit that has magnets and stuff, it's made it a LOT easier for me (I have internally routed Domane, Madone, Crux, S1)

ColaJacket

Imagine discussing a disc brake road bike with internal cables.

And even in the SW, a bike can benefit from internal cables, especially if it is pretty aero to begin with. I did see a report where internal vs. external cable can save several seconds over a 40km time trial.

GH

BoSoxYacht

Linky?