am8117

Should I ditch the cable guide? What was its original purpose? It has a liner, but there's no more rounded shape inside at all.

Any reason why the hanger was not positioned a spacer or two lower from the factory?

What would be a better routing, over the top or still keeping below the bars?

Are fork crown cable hangers better or worse?

Andrew R Stewart 

One advantage of crown mounted cable stops is that it takes any steerer flex out of the picture. One disadvantage is that you are pushing the stop down on the single mounting bolt, keep that bolt tight! For steerer mounted hangers I like to place them as low as possible and still have the exit end clear the top tube were the bars be completely swung around. Those plastic liners can be made from common poly tubing or from the stuff bike shops sell. Andy

am8117

That's some great insights, especially I would have not thought about clearing the top tube.

The cable guide I meant the whole "hockey stick", it is removable and the narrow end happens to be 5mm end cap width, so why hockey-shape it. I saw Tektro sells both a version with and without the guide. I wondered why and why Kona used it. Id does move freely around the axis of the opening but that's not really happening once installed for the front brake housing.

dabac

I wouldn’t.

If you bent an outer cable that tight, there’s a risk that the cable would kink, flatten or otherwise misbehave in a manner that interfered with how the inner wire would run.
I would guess that someone decided that having it all the way at either end would look better than having it in the middle. And the bulge of the headset make putting it all the way at the bottom impossible.
Can’t Say From Here.
The risk with having the hanger on top is that you can get brake chatter. You start braking, the fork bends, which tightens the brake wire more. So you slack off the brake and the fork straightens. Then you brake again, bend the fork, which tightens the brake, causing you to slacken. And repeat.
With the hanger below, there’s less change in wire length due to fork bending, so less risk of brake chatter.

OTOH, ”ain’t broke, don’t fix”. If you DON’T have brake chatter, going from hanger above to hanger below won’t create a noticeable difference.

ClydeClydeson

The cable hanger might interfere with the top of the headset if you remove the spacers. It might be able to go one or two spacers down, but likely won't work if you try to put it with no spacers underneath.

As Andrew said, crown mounted hangers separate the action of the brake from fork flex. My experience has been that fork flex with headset mounted hangers are either an acute problem with severe juddering under braking, or not a problem. If it's not a problem on a particular bike there is no advantage in switching to crown mounted hanger, in my opinion.

Unca_Sam

#1: The guide is to provide a better entry for the cable housing. The bend would be a little tight for housing. You can replace the liner too, since it's there to keep friction down and as a sacrificial layer before you start sawing through the guide.
#2: Where it is, it's out of the way of the top tube. I imagine it's a CYA thing so a careless consumer doesn't complain that the hanger dinged the paint when they let the handlebars swing around.
#3: for Ergo routing/mountain lever mounting, the most direct route is fine. Over and behind the bar is the aesthetic routing for non-aero levers.
#4: Fork Crown hangers are better if you experience squealing/shuddering in hard stops. There are some suggestions in the thread here.

blamester

Move it and see if it's better. If it's not put it back.

FastJake

The cable guide is just another possible way to introduce flex into the system. If you lower the hanger all the way and you can route the housing so it's not kinked, I would get rid of the guide.

If you feel comfortable drilling your stem, that's my favorite cable hanger. It weighs 0g, cleans up the appearance a bit, and has basically no flex to it. But it can be awkward to route the housing if you're using aero brake levers... More info: https://www.renehersecycles.com/rene...cable-hangers/

Rolla

Not than anybody asked, but I vastly prefer this kind. It has a barrel adjuster for cable tension, the lower position prevents fork chatter, and I think it looks cleaner, with less severe bends in the housing.

am8117

Yes. so no excuse to inspect the headset bearings before this season either.

Thanks everyone for the answers, really appreciate them all!

I am looking what I could change about this whole setup because Kona originally had CX additional brake levers on there:
https://www.tektro.com/products.php?p=209

I have just removed them and with that gone it's more traditional road bike STI levers only. With that I felt the routing of the housing can be better, but I am adding barrel adjuster- there was one on those additional levers only. Because of the added inline barrel adjuster I want to keep it "in-line" as much as possible, but obviously have to go start bending the housing early after it leaves the bartape.

I have a fresh start and noticed the cable guide is all like flexibly compressing each time I press the lever. Also I do not know if the original housing/cables got so dry but now with all replaced and slick cable I I can feel as-if every little grind. I have had that in the rear and removing about 3mm of housing at the saddle eliminated it, so I figured every little radius change helps.

Since the cable guide is free to swivel in the hanger I have no control over the bent much and it makes it move in that way with each press too. I have had shuddering once before but nothing that brake pads adjustment would not solve. Squealing became a problem each time the pads wear down a bit. It became an art of adjusting but this all only happens in the front so I am figuring out if I can help it all by eliminating unnecessary sources of compression-prone points in the way.

I had thought it's something about the originally mounted Avid Shorty 4's that they are of that bad quality canti, but I have no issues with the rear whatsover so looking for what I can do about the front first while redoing the handlebars at the same time.

am8117

Also, I did not snap the original state and not at the bike to take a picture now, but I figured from pictures on the Internet most people have eliminated the CX Tektro levers too.

The original routing (with the CX levers inline which were already removed here) was more like this (ignore that the guy had swapped left to right, bent is the same as original):
https://media.karousell.com/media/ph...62_progressive

What I was attempting now was more like this:
https://tuckamoredew.files.wordpress...3/imgp2203.jpg

But then I found the over the top routing styles and it made me think about removing the cable guide and lowering the hanger.

79pmooney

Before you dive into this, get some new housing and cables. If you need another 1/4", what you've got won't work without compromise. And if you don't need it, well, those items are consumables.

With the new housing in hand, you can play with various routings to see what has the most gentle bends and looks pleasing, Just hold it to the handlebar, leaving what you've got in place until you know your new plan. (I hate unwrapping handlebars then deciding I liked what I had.)

_ForceD_

That bend in the cable seems a little excessive to me. I wonder if you position this pulley it it’s place.




https://www.browardmotorsportscyclin...SABEgL3I_D_BwE



Dan

am8117

Thanks! I'm already doing this. I have actually swapped the STI levers, for better or worse the shift housing comes out from under the bartape too now. It comes out under the brake ones, so I was wondering if routing it over would not help.

I have spare housing, I kind of realised I might sacrifice one new cable for doing all this (pulling out, recabling and retightening the bolt), but so far so good because everytime I do something with positive effect I am ending up shortening the cable overall, so new anchor point is above the previous one.

The old bartape stays on for now, I have two spares but I was shocked the old one held on so well I could reuse it for now.

So after doing all this experimenting with different positioning of the newly nline barrel adjusters, the rear is as smooth as silk, the front is ... ehm ... and I have reached the stage where routing looks good to me when just holding it that route, but only after I put it in place and redo the cable ... I feel it's not as good as the rear.

Maybe I'm a perfectionist too much about this, but I just don't believe the front should feel any worse than the rear with longer cable everything else being the same.

am8117

Isn't this meant for when mounting V-brakes with STI levers only?

_ForceD_

On the website it says it can be used with any style of bicycle brakes. But it looks like that end without the barrel adjuster would fit into where that bent cable guide is inserted into your clamp. You just might have to move it down one or two spacers to allow clearance for the pulley.

Dan

am8117

You're right I did not know it can be installed both ways:

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...and-adjustment

However I do not know if the narrow end is 5mm I would need to check of some V-brake I believe they are narrower. If that was the case however, I wonder why Kona would not have just used that originally with a regular V-brake "noodle", the cheap kind without pulleys.

Anyhow I would eliminate the bent, but not the additional movement that the component does in that hanger ... I'll consider that first.

Thanks though!

am8117

Interestingly the same kind of hanger, 5 years later, just with different headset, no extra guide used anymore:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/23...g?v=1604185333

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/23...g?v=1604185333

ClydeClydeson

That cable guide on the Kona was probably included with the cable hanger, and discarding it and selecting another would introduce additional cost and waste. Probably so little extra cost and waste that it seems ridiculous to us now, but I am 100% certain the instant the designer or product designer selected a hanger that had a cable routing guide included, they didn't think about it again.

OTOH If you ever experienced brake shudder on the front, you should consider switching to a crown mounted hanger. Or even better, switch to mini-V brakes, which will work with your levers but do not require a cable hanger. The only drawback, in my experience, is mini Vs have limited clearance for wider tires and fenders.

_ForceD_

I have…on a friend’s bike. That is some serious s#it. I was riding on relatively flat ground when it happened. Can’t imagine that on a significant descent.

Dan

Unca_Sam

There's merit to using a fork-mounted stop. My touring bike (using the Avid Shorty 4's and Kool Stop mountain canti pads) uses a fork mount, and I appreciate the barrel adjuster due to the link-wire design. I'll also say that the shorty's use of a link wire rather than a straddle might make a stop at the crown a little close to the integrated carrier.