tristis

I'm replacing the cables and housing on an old (80s?) Fuji Regis road bike that I'm fixing up. The front derailleur is a Shimano FD-AX50, which has a somewhat strange flat cable stop built into it, and the down tube has Suntour cable stops bolted on, with one of those curved cable guides on the right side for the rear derailleur cable. The issue that I'm having is that the left down tube cable stop forces the housing to take a fairly sharp angle up from the bottom bracket to get to the cable stop on the derailleur. Putting aside my concerns re: excess wear from the sharp turn, this angle prevents the ferrule on the housing from staying straight, so the cable rubs against the hole in the cable stop. Am I missing something? Is there a better way to route this? Do I need a different kind of ferrule? I've tried playing around with different housing angles and bends for quite a while, but I'm stumped.

Here's a photo of how I currently have the cable routed.

cny-bikeman

Does not look terrible to me, I would not expect the cable to have a problem with minor rubbing on the side fo the hole - the front derailleur has a very strong spring, sho should not interfere with the downshift, and I can't see it wearing the cable. It is probably the perspective but the derailleur looks like it might be mounted too high in relation to the chainwheels.

Andrew R Stewart 

I see a cable path that's about what is intended. The casing leaves the DT stop without a kink. The casing then curves in a smooth and consistent manor up to the, admittedly poor, der stop. Remember this is a low cost bike/der. Of course it won't have the same attention to detail as a nicer one. The only thing i would have done differently is to use lined 5mm brake housing and metal end caps. I doubt the shift lever is indexed so the compressionless housing is not needed and the larger and tougher end caps will help limit casing pull through. the tighter windings of the brake cable also limits casing punch through. Andy.

dsbrantjr

That RD looks like it was designed to have the bare cable come up from an under-the-BB cable guide, without a housing. Lacking such a guide your setup looks like it is about as good as it gets.

FBinNY 

From what I see, you need a stepped ferule to fit the stop built into the derailleur, but there's a netter way. Lead the housing under the BB, and up between the chainstays (forward of the KS plate). Let the housing end about halfway to the FD,m and route the wire straight to the pinch bolt.

The only drawback to this is that the open end faces up and will trap water and dirt if you ride in wet or dirty conditions. This is easily remedied with a boot like the one used on V-brakes.

BTW - this method, doesn't depend on the clip, and you can simply bypass it (I assume it's still needed for the RD), running the bear wire under the BB shell, using a short piece of teflon tubing or tape to lower friction.

Looigi

If it were mine, I'd move the clamp on the down tube a bit further up/forward, maybe a couple of inches, to get a better bend in the housing and so it is parallel to the seat tube below the FD rather than arcing rearward as it does now.