Dynamo cable routing

[David Nutter]

Hello,

I'm having a little trouble routing the cables for my rack-mounted rear lamp to the Nexus switch on
the front fork.

Currently the cables are twisted round the rack stays and rear brake cable guide then looped round
the top tube using the two brake cable stops as guides then secured with cable ties. This looks
really ugly and I was wondering if anyone knows of a better way?

I was considering using two-core cable instead of the two single strands of wire, but I'd rather not
have cables visible at all.

Thanks

-david

 

[Anonymous]

"David Nutter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>
> I'm having a little trouble routing the cables for my rack-mounted rear
lamp
> to the Nexus switch on the front fork.
>
> Currently the cables are twisted round the rack stays and rear brake cable guide then looped round
> the top tube using the two brake cable stops as guides then secured with cable ties. This looks
> really ugly and I was wondering if anyone knows of a better way?
>
> I was considering using two-core cable instead of the two single strands
of
> wire, but I'd rather not have cables visible at all.

You could run the cables along the top tube/rack etc, rather than looping/twisting. I tend to use
insulation tape - a single length of it all the way along the wire along the length of the tube
doesn't look too bad. Have a couple of bands of tape to hold the length in place (at both ends, one
or two in the middle, otherwise it has a tendancy to fall off).

The along-the-wire length isn't really necessary with the bands in place, but it does reduce the
snagging possibilities and imo makes it look neater.

Two core does make it a bit easier to do the run neatly.

cheers, clive

 

[Chris French]

In message <[email protected]>, David Nutter
<[email protected]> writes
>Hello,
>
>I'm having a little trouble routing the cables for my rack-mounted rear lamp to the Nexus switch on
>the front fork.
>
>Currently the cables are twisted round the rack stays and rear brake cable guide then looped round
>the top tube using the two brake cable stops as guides then secured with cable ties. This looks
>really ugly and I was wondering if anyone knows of a better way?
>

Various things I have done to make neat cable runs.

Firstly a straight run looks much neater than twisted round things.

On my tourer the I ran the cable along the top tube taped to the side of the brake cable casing
(this bike has continuous casing from lever to seat stay bridge. With black cable, brake outer
casing and black tape it's very neat.

Running from the rear of the bike frame to the rear of the rack I have used a length of old brake
cable casing with the wire run inside and then the casing zip tied to the rack.

Run the cable underneath the mudguard - drill a hole near the seat stays, pop in a small rubber
grommet, a similar one near the point where the lamp was mounted route cable underneath mudguards,
secured with duct tape.

>I was considering using two-core cable instead of the two single strands of wire, but I'd rather
>not have cables visible at all.

Not visible at all isn't really an option (there is in-frame routing which helps, but this isn't an
option really unless you are having the frame revamped. reducing it is the best possibility.

Me, I'm pretty much giving up on dynamo powered rear lamps, a decent battery LED or two does the job
with much less faff.
--
Chris French, Leeds

 

[David Nutter]

chris French <[email protected]> said:

> Running from the rear of the bike frame to the rear of the rack I have used a length of old brake
> cable casing with the wire run inside and then the casing zip tied to the rack.

Thanks to both posters, I shall go for a combination approach of running the two strands inside
spare brake housing which I think I can stretch from the rear of the rack to the fork crown without
it looking too bad. I have already adjusted the routing of the cables to put it underneath the
rack's bottom plate and held it in place with two bits of thin plastic drilled so the bolts that
hold the stays onto the rack secure the cables as well.

> Me, I'm pretty much giving up on dynamo powered rear lamps, a decent battery LED or two does the
> job with much less faff.

I want to get away from batteries for good! Nasty expensive leaky things prone to failing at
inopportune moments. Please don't shatter my happy illusions regarding their dynamo brethren
as well...

Regards,

-david

 

[Marten Gerritse]

David Nutter wrote:

> chris French <[email protected]> said:
>
> > Running from the rear of the bike frame to the rear of the rack I have used a length of old
> > brake cable casing with the wire run inside and then the casing zip tied to the rack.
>
> Thanks to both posters, I shall go for a combination approach of running the two strands inside
> spare brake housing which I think I can stretch from the rear of the rack to the fork crown
> without it looking too bad. I have already adjusted the routing of the cables to put it underneath
> the rack's bottom plate and held it in place with two bits of thin plastic drilled so the bolts
> that hold the stays onto the rack secure the cables as well.
>

Much easier to run a single wire through the brakecablehousing, and use the steel spiral for the
connection to earth /Marten

 

[David Nutter]

marten gerritsen <[email protected]> said:

> Much easier to run a single wire through the brakecablehousing, and use the steel spiral for the
> connection to earth

Hmm, I wouldn't trust the connections to the spiral to hold up. Since there's room in the housing
I'll stick to the two cables.

Regards,

-david