Top tube cable routing

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Permalink Reply by Jon Hicks on August 31, 2010 at 6:08pm

Standing on the bike, looking down at the top tube...

From left to right (left side of bike to right):

Front Derailleur (left)
Rear Brake (center)
Rear Derailleur (right)

If you place the RD in the middle, you will have to cross the cables. Also, placing the RD on the right gives you the straightest shot down the seat stay.

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Permalink Reply by StokedRad on November 8, 2011 at 6:00am

What is the part needed to reverse the direction of the front derailleur cable to allow it to work as needed. Or do you just pull the cable from top to bottom through the FD?

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Permalink Reply by igknighted on November 10, 2011 at 8:14am

Shimano makes a top-pull cross specific FD (CX70) which would be my first choice.  I used it for the first half of the season and front shifts were the best I've had on my cross bike (sorry, SRAM).  More commonly, there is a pulley that is placed below the FD (the frame should have a place to screw it in), and this turns the cable around.

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Permalink Reply by StokedRad on November 10, 2011 at 9:19am

Any pictures of your cable routing through that Shimano top pull derailleur?

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Permalink Reply by igknighted on November 10, 2011 at 6:04pm

Don't have a picture of mine (sold that bike), but it looked just like any top-pull MTB setup.  The cable left the housing up near the saddle at the last housing stop and runs directly to the derailleur.

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Permalink Reply by Tavis on November 10, 2011 at 9:03am

There is also a german company called Speed that makes converters to turn a bottom pull derailleur to a top-pull. I'm using one on my sram FD and it works better than the pulley did. 

http://speen.de/speen____SportsEquipmentEngineering/products.html

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