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Thats weird. Ayako Toyoka is on Di2
Yeah, last season pretty much the whole European CX circus was on di2 for the strength of the motors. Of course they can swap bikes every lap, but ?!?
Was there anybody having issues with the sand at Tokyo CX?
"Toyooka"
Oh for the record - Do not get Di2 if you plan to race CX - it stops working in sand and snow, regardless of internal or external cable routing.
For the recorde I would LOVE to ride Di2 for both road and CX
Jesus christ.
I think we need a trophy setting up for such superb postings I have cringed, shuddered, laughed and been confused beyond reason, all in the space of 2 pages of internets. Good work!
And the 7800 horizontal exit allows a perfect arc and entry into front , internal guides, done right, by the way, ala Cannondale.
Internal cabling is only a PITA when:
1) You can't route a new cable easily. I.E. no internal straw or the straw itself becomes disconnected or damaged. (Pretty common on carbon frames that use plastic straws)
2) The cable routing has more friction resulting in sluggish or heavy shifting. Anytime you run cable through or around something it generates drag. External cabling can minimize the contact area of the cable and also the cable is generally routed through optimum housing.
Internal Cabling is nice when/because:
1) Less chance of snagging cables on things. (Including your kit)
2) May be more esthetically pleasing.
3) Less prone to environmental issues.
4) Less friction when done properly (less use of external housing).
Just one annoying factor - if the rear derailler cable exits centerline of the dropout (front of axle) it may interfere with mounting on common bike stands and some fixed trainers.
I have bikes with both and I do prefer external shift cable because I can manually adjust it or check if an adjustment is required 'on the fly'. Also - if you have an incident (sometimes known as a crash) , and bugger the brifter, external cable can be easier to MacGyver.
External cable routing is by and far going the way of the dodo, so is it really useful to discuss the pros and cons at this point? For road bikes this allows better aerodynamics (I heard that many modern "normal" frames beating first-gen aero frames already). Because more and more bikes rely on hydraulic disc brakes, brake cable routing is not an issue (because you practically don't need to change the hydraulic cables ever and friction is not an issue with oil or brake fluid). On the MTB side, my last bike to have externally routed cables was purchased in ~2007, I think.
Add to that the growing popularity of electronic shifting — if you have electronic shifting with hydraulic brakes, I don't think you will ever need to touch your internally routed cables again.
Only if they come in anodized purple!Maybe if they appropriately teardrop all the cables/housings...?
Just to clarify my argument: I think external cable routing is going extinct in the mainstream for road and mountain bikes. Even cheap entry-level bikes from mainstream manufacturers have internal cable routing. Cannondale's entry-level bikes seem to be an exception to the rule, though. And for higher-level bikes that are not from boutique manufacturers (e. g. low-volume steel or titanium frames) I can't think of an example of a new frame design with external cable routing.I cannot agree 100%. Internal cables are becoming more popular, yes. External routing going away? I don't agree,. It is less expensive to manufacture and 100% functional.
I also have a 2018 MTB with external routing. So maybe it is the brands you like specifically that are going that way?
It is also that people didn't know what actually was aero and how to test it. So they took shapes that looked aero, but I don't think they did that because they believed it was "just for the looks", but because the engineers believed it was aero. Conversely, what was learned about aero design was applied to mainstream bikes, so the "non-aero" frames benefitted from that.I am not surprised by the aero findings. I have long believed most aero bikes in the first generation or two were as much about looking aero as they were about being aero.
Aerodynamics has become all about marginal gains. IMHO the biggest difference is the seating position: when I test rode the Strada, I felt much lower than on a BMC Teammachine, and probably that had the biggest impact on aerodynamic efficiency. (Spectacular bikes, both of them.)And lets not forget just how HUGE cannondale tubing was in the beginning anyway.
I am willing to be you could take the cables off of the Aero frame and a modern frame would be more aero.