Sitting on the train this morning opposite an elaborate folding bike I got to thinking how ugly all the guides and stops and inner and outer material that cables seem to necessitate these days are.
It looks so much nicer to see a clean frame devoid of extra cabling. And it seems daft to have immaculate detailed welds and smoothed brazed joints and ornate visually impacting dropouts and then weld a metal lump that holds three other metal lumps with wires coming out of them, as an afterthought.
Obviously if you don't want a SS that doesn't stop you are going to need to add these hideous extras.
One way of doing this is to maximise their impact and therefore reverse the hideousness by making a strange beauty out of it (that pink 'Dale with white cables or Kev's Yeti spring to mind). Or you could minimise impact by going the downtube route like Specialized as opposed to (and i know you're not allowed to slag off Yeti or Fat, but...) those ghastly triple verticle stops on the seat tube/ top tube joint that so many framebuilders insisted on. Urrggghh. Ruins the smooth fillet brazed purity of mrs Wu's DeKerf.
There are exceptions though. Thought the cable 'hole' going down to the f mech on First Flight's Yeti in the YOTM above, looks great. And Klein do a good job of hiding them to great effect.
Mine sit on the top tube of my bike like a shortchanged guitar neck. Making me feel like i should've shelled out the extra £200 as a cost option to have them 'down' routed. Cables on top and below - balanced at least.
Someone needs to invent a lightweight wireless gear change and braking system so I can have a bike without these hideous additions.
Retrobike inventors please enquire.
It looks so much nicer to see a clean frame devoid of extra cabling. And it seems daft to have immaculate detailed welds and smoothed brazed joints and ornate visually impacting dropouts and then weld a metal lump that holds three other metal lumps with wires coming out of them, as an afterthought.
Obviously if you don't want a SS that doesn't stop you are going to need to add these hideous extras.
One way of doing this is to maximise their impact and therefore reverse the hideousness by making a strange beauty out of it (that pink 'Dale with white cables or Kev's Yeti spring to mind). Or you could minimise impact by going the downtube route like Specialized as opposed to (and i know you're not allowed to slag off Yeti or Fat, but...) those ghastly triple verticle stops on the seat tube/ top tube joint that so many framebuilders insisted on. Urrggghh. Ruins the smooth fillet brazed purity of mrs Wu's DeKerf.
There are exceptions though. Thought the cable 'hole' going down to the f mech on First Flight's Yeti in the YOTM above, looks great. And Klein do a good job of hiding them to great effect.
Mine sit on the top tube of my bike like a shortchanged guitar neck. Making me feel like i should've shelled out the extra £200 as a cost option to have them 'down' routed. Cables on top and below - balanced at least.
Someone needs to invent a lightweight wireless gear change and braking system so I can have a bike without these hideous additions.
Retrobike inventors please enquire.