Klein Attitude rebuild notes -- cable threading M8000 brake installation
08-17-20, 08:36 AM
#1
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Klein Attitude rebuild notes -- cable threading M8000 brake installation
Here are some quick notes about issues I had building up two older (2004-2006 ish) Klein mountain bike frames for two of my kids' NICA race season,
I did some searching on this forum and around the internet for guidance, and didn't find a ton, so thought I'd offer something on these two points.
The new Shimano XT M8000 brakes are now shipped as two pieces:
The set comes with rubber line covers that fit over the levers, mounting bolts, and some plastic shims to keep the pads apart, but there are no olive and barbed inserts visible in the packaging.
I turns out that the olive is already in the brake lever, under the fitting nut. The fitting nut has some grey grease pre-applied that almost looks like a caulk or sealant or glue.
The yellow fitting that plugs the levers is held in with a rubber O-ring. You just pull it straight out, with that end of the lever pointed up. Once you pull it out, that port will be open to let out mineral oil and accept the line. Keep the other yellow plastic pieces in until your brakes are all hooked up and ready to actuate -- they'll prevent you from accidently squeezing out a bunch of mineral oil.
The brake line has the barbed insert in it, covered by the rubbery cap. The rubbery cap is good for guiding the line through internal routing. It has a hole to tie line to. The barbed insert is plugged with a little bit of sealant in the hole you can pick out. Or you can just cut the line to length and use a fresh insert.
Looking back, this is all pretty simple. But I was confused about the yellow plastic plugs and where the olive was. In short, just pull out the plugs, and the olives are in position to accept the line.
Second, threading a derailleur cable through an old Klein Attitude top tube:
The main issue is that the cable stops are part of the frame, so the hole on each end is only slightly larger than the cable. You could not, for example, thread housing through -- that would be much too large for the hole.
Because these holes are so small, it makes my go to trick -- using a string and vacuum -- ineffective. I tried a shop vac and floss, but could not get enough suction through that tiny hole to move much if any wind, and if I was moving any air inside the frame, it was hard to get the draw to be another tiny hole -- it came from elsewhere, despite my efforts to plug up all other sources.
I also tried a straighted coat hanger, even sharpening one end on a grinder to get it to find the hole with greater probability. I didn't have any success with this. That surprised me. I don't know why it didn't work.
For both bikes, what worked was positioning the frame so that the exit hole for the cable was straight below the entrance hole, and repeatedly dipping a derailleur cable toward it. The cable needs to have a welded or soldiered end. It was like trying to hit something harder than a three-pointer. Maybe like trying to chip in or something. Throw a dart at 20 feet to the bullseye.
On one bike it was quick and easy, on the other bike, that's where I struggled and tried all these different methods. I eventually got out my drill and increased the size of the hole by a half millimeter or so.
These were bare frames -- in the future, I will slide thin tubing over the cables before removing them.
If you buy an old Klein frame, be prepared for this as part of the bargain, or use it as a negotiating point if the cables are gone.
Here are the bikes:
I did some searching on this forum and around the internet for guidance, and didn't find a ton, so thought I'd offer something on these two points.
The new Shimano XT M8000 brakes are now shipped as two pieces:
- the levers, with two yellow plastic fittings, one to keep the mineral oil plugged up, the other to keep the lever from moving
- and the calipers, with the brake line attached and terminated on the other end in a rubbery cap.
The set comes with rubber line covers that fit over the levers, mounting bolts, and some plastic shims to keep the pads apart, but there are no olive and barbed inserts visible in the packaging.
I turns out that the olive is already in the brake lever, under the fitting nut. The fitting nut has some grey grease pre-applied that almost looks like a caulk or sealant or glue.
The yellow fitting that plugs the levers is held in with a rubber O-ring. You just pull it straight out, with that end of the lever pointed up. Once you pull it out, that port will be open to let out mineral oil and accept the line. Keep the other yellow plastic pieces in until your brakes are all hooked up and ready to actuate -- they'll prevent you from accidently squeezing out a bunch of mineral oil.
The brake line has the barbed insert in it, covered by the rubbery cap. The rubbery cap is good for guiding the line through internal routing. It has a hole to tie line to. The barbed insert is plugged with a little bit of sealant in the hole you can pick out. Or you can just cut the line to length and use a fresh insert.
Looking back, this is all pretty simple. But I was confused about the yellow plastic plugs and where the olive was. In short, just pull out the plugs, and the olives are in position to accept the line.
Second, threading a derailleur cable through an old Klein Attitude top tube:
The main issue is that the cable stops are part of the frame, so the hole on each end is only slightly larger than the cable. You could not, for example, thread housing through -- that would be much too large for the hole.
Because these holes are so small, it makes my go to trick -- using a string and vacuum -- ineffective. I tried a shop vac and floss, but could not get enough suction through that tiny hole to move much if any wind, and if I was moving any air inside the frame, it was hard to get the draw to be another tiny hole -- it came from elsewhere, despite my efforts to plug up all other sources.
I also tried a straighted coat hanger, even sharpening one end on a grinder to get it to find the hole with greater probability. I didn't have any success with this. That surprised me. I don't know why it didn't work.
For both bikes, what worked was positioning the frame so that the exit hole for the cable was straight below the entrance hole, and repeatedly dipping a derailleur cable toward it. The cable needs to have a welded or soldiered end. It was like trying to hit something harder than a three-pointer. Maybe like trying to chip in or something. Throw a dart at 20 feet to the bullseye.
On one bike it was quick and easy, on the other bike, that's where I struggled and tried all these different methods. I eventually got out my drill and increased the size of the hole by a half millimeter or so.
These were bare frames -- in the future, I will slide thin tubing over the cables before removing them.
If you buy an old Klein frame, be prepared for this as part of the bargain, or use it as a negotiating point if the cables are gone.
Here are the bikes:
10-23-21, 08:52 PM
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Threading the needle.
As it happens I'm in our shop right now finishing up on a Candy Apple disc brake Palomino. I found that the rear eyelet can be removed by wedging a very thin screwdriver between the eyelet and the frame material. Once you have some separation, you can use a slightly larger screwdriver (angled) to tap the eyelet out the rest of the way. I used a combination of a magnet and a piece of nylon tube liner (curled, then inserted half it's length and allowed to uncurl to act as a funnel). I held the magnet just before were I thought the end of the makeshift funnel should be.
It worked on the second attempt.
It worked on the second attempt.
