A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Proper Front Disc Brake Cable Routing
Posted December 5, 2007 
Comments(1) Let me tell you a little story about properly routing the cable for your front disc brake…
It all started when I purchased my Specialized Stumpjumper at Landry’s Bicycles. I was replacing a stolen bike in the middle of the NCCA collegiate racing season, which also happened to coincide with the gap between bicycle model years. I was lucky to find a bike that fit that was in stock, but I got one.
And what did I do the day after buying it? Raced it, of course!
With the stress of a stolen bike, college, work, and racing season, I couldn’t be bothered with checking out the bike. Plus, Landry’s is always on the “Top 100 Bicycle Retailers” list and they were a sponsor of our team, so I trusted them.
But that led to a little problem… (more on this later.) The problem was caused by the front brake cable routing, which can be seen in the picture on the left.
See, the brake cable is wrapped tightly behind the fork crown and down the fork leg. I never questioned the cable routing until one day when I realized the cable was eating into the aluminum on the fork crown!
You can see the damage in this picture:
Granted, the fork will still work fine. But if given the choice, I’d rather not have the cable rubbing like that. To fix it, I wrapped cable ties around the cable on the fork crown and the head tube (kind of like makeshift cable guides.) That fixed the problem, but it caused another!
The cable tie around the head tube wouldn’t stay in place, so it ended up scraping all the paint off the head tube!
I wasn’t happy at all so I just said “screw it” and let it go.
Then one miraculous day I found an article at BlueCollarMTB.com about proper front disc cable routing. Then everything made sense!
It turns out the cable was not routed properly in the first place! So with the help of that guide and a little common sense, I re-routed my cable to go in front of the fork and down the inside of the leg.
(See the picture on the right, or the picture below, for an example of the proper routing.)
After that simple switch, my braking performance has improved and I have a feeling my fork legs and cable housing will last a bit longer!
What’s the moral of the story then?
Always double check a new bike to be sure it is setup properly.
Chances are the cable was routed improperly when it left from the Specialized warehouse. And not all bike mechanics will bend over backwards to make sure things are perfect. (Although a bike from a bike shop will at least be put together properly, unlike Wal-Mart bikes.)
So you have to look out for yourself! If something looks wrong, it could be. Check it out, read up on the subject, or take it back to the shop if you have to.
(Of course, you could learn to do your own repairs, too.)
Also, note that the “complete idiot” in this case is me, for assuming that the cable was properly routed to begin with.
Happy trails!
