Today we will help you take some of the pain away from removing an internally routed cable. We are using a Commencal Meta 55, but the same procedure will work on other bikes with the cable routed in a similar way.

Step 1;

 Make sure you have the correct tools before you start and always wear the correct protective equipment. Safety first kids!

You will need;

a pair of good quality cable cutters.

 A 5mm allen key

 A sharp pick

 Some wet chain lube

 Lint free cloth or wrag

Step 2;

 Disconnect the derailleur inner wire from the cable clamp bolt using the 5mm Allen key. Remember to use the short edge section of the Allen key not the ball end.

 Take the gear shifter dust cap out of the shifter using a sharp cross Phillips head screw driver. Note on some older sram shifters you will need to back off the top two allen key bolts on the shifter to release this dust cover screw.

 Pull the cable out of the shifter and the outer cable and discard.

 Step 3;

 Put a drop of wet lube on the wrag and pull the new inner wire through it a few times. This pre lubes the cable and also takes away the protective transport lubricant (lanolin) that the cable is coated in from new.

 Step 4;

Remove the Ferrules from the outer cable. If you do not do this you run the risk of them dropping into the swing arm and your job will take a lot longer…

 Run the new inner through the old outer backwards so that the head of the inner wire is at the derailluer end.

 Lightly clamp the cable into the cable clamp on the rear mech.

 Now you should have your inner wire running through the old outer in the bike with the open end of the inner exposed. This allows you to pull the old outer off of the new inner leaving just the new inner wire in the bike.

 You can now use the inner as a guide to fit the new outer!

Step 5;

 Cut your new outer to length using as little outer cable as possible. Make sure the bikes handle bars can turn 180 degrees before pulling on the cable and that it doesn’t snag anywhere in the suspension linkage when its compressed. A clean route into your cable guides is advisable and make sure the outer cable doesn’t rub on your fork crown as this can cause wear and damage very quickly.

 use the pick to widen the ends of the cable outer. Pour a small amount of wet lube into the outer. This ensures there is minimum friction in the system.

 Feed the new outer onto the inner that is in the swing arm of the bike (Don’t forget to re-attach the Ferrules once you have the new outer cable routed through the swingarm).

 Your new outer is now fitted without having to resort to torches, magnets and other home made contraptions to get the cable fitted……I think hey presto is the correct term!

Step 5;

 Now you simply have to undo the cable clamp on the mech and pull the inner back out of the new outer and fit through the shifter the correct way.

 Once fed through correctly re attach to the mech and torque to the manufacturers recommended settings. Remember to make sure your shifter is in bottom gear (9^th or 10^th if your posh!) and your mech is sitting in the bottom gear also before attaching the inner cable.

 Fancy Learning more top tips? why not book yourself onto a Cytech course with us here at ATG-Training!!