Bike packing cable router??...

Morning all,

I wonder if someone has had this issue or if there is a solution outside of buying a Sram Etap wireless setup??..

I have just done London to Paris with some Alpkit bags, these worked great but the issue I have found was when lashing the front bag it was compressing my gear cables in the area between exiting the bar tape and running into the frame. This meant in the morning when I put my sleeping bag back and got it lashed to the bars my gears would need a readjustment to compensate for their "newer" position..

Now don't get me wrong it was not a massive job more of a first world ball ache that I would like to do without..

So is there anything that can attach to either the stem or bar that acts as a compression block when the straps are lashed down???...

Regards

As long as your outer cable is still in place in your levers and in the cable stop, the length hasn't changed. Why would you need to adjust your gears again?

Might be worth asking in the bike packing thread:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/194843/newest/

Di2 would solve this problem, and will be cheaper than eTap

Compression on the cable causes what seems to be a tiny tiny amount of tension change in the cable, I have Ultegra 11 speed that is normally impeccable set up, from first attaching the front bag and then two days of taking it off and on I had to readjust and index gears..

I can only say head to your bike and compress your cable to the head tube then start changing gears, I suspect you will see minor indexing issues. I know when seting up 11 speed Ultegra that even 1/8th of a barrel adjuster turn will make a difference..

Re Shimano DI2, Yep I would go with it but my frame is a slightly older Carbon frame that is cable only, I do not really want all the faffing that goes with trying to route DI2 wires to non DI2 frame, I suspect I will be doing a few longer trips this summer so if needs must I will go down that route but I would like to see if there is a solution before I open that door, thanks anyway..

Revelate, Ortlieb, and a couple of other companies offer drybags/harnesses which come with foam spacers to allow you to keep the bag far enough from the bars to avoid cables and levers being squished.
You could also try a more flexible cable, such as nokon or any of the equivilents. I find the extra flexibilty makes routing around harnesses much easier.
I used them on my old 10" travel downhill bike years ago too, to prevent the gears from auto shifting under maximum compression.

I had thought of the Nokon option, however the more I think about it the more I think heading away from cables or at least away from major compression of them is the best option.

I am surprised that there are not more threads about this due to bike packing increasing in popularity and the fact I could not see how lashing a regular front bag would not cause indexing issues. I really like the Alpkit bags if for the lightweight and nothing else so I will look at making something to help protect the cables in the mean time..

Regards

Think if it as the path taken by the inner cable changing, as the outer bends. The inner does not precisely track the centreline of the outer, and the effect is more obvious with multiple tight bends.

PS I thought this was going to be a thread about portable networking hardware.