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The rear brake cable and housing are internally routed through the top bar of the frame. It rattles around when riding on bumpy roads and sounds annoying. What's the best way to mitigate this?

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  • How much access to you have to the inside of the frame?
    – Criggie ♦
    May 18, 2019 at 21:54
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    The whole outer casing is one-piece that passes through the top tube or is it a bare inner wire with cable-stops at the entrance/exit ?
    – Criggie ♦
    May 18, 2019 at 21:54
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    @Criggie I have very little access. Yes, both the cable and housing are going through the frame.
    – Allen Baker
    May 26, 2019 at 0:28
  • OK that's good. Can you try tensioning the outer by pulling a few millimetres out either end? At the other extreme, try shoving some more outer into the frame so instead of sitting slack it is pressed against the inside of the tube? Downside, without some kind of retention it may naturally drift back to where it was. Try indenting the outer where it passes through the frame, make it have a groove to rest in.
    – Criggie ♦
    May 26, 2019 at 2:08

1 Answer 1

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With the assumption that the whole cable housing is threaded into the frame (rather than cable-stop internal routing), there are two main hacks/bodges you can do to it.

  1. Electrical tape - fiddle with the cable until you feel that it's more or less either floating in the middle of the frame's tube or resting against it with sufficient force. If your frame tubing's fairly narrow (kind of like a steel bike frame), I suggest you go for the latter and push the routing against the frame inside. Mark the points of the cable housing just on the entrance/exit of the routing holes. Roll a few turns of electrical tape on those marks (just enough for tight-fit on the routing holes) and push them back to place.

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  1. Cable/zip ties - If your frame's routing holes are big enough, or has that detachable cover like this:

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you can wrap a lengthy zip tie to the cable and slip it inside the hole. The zip tie's resistance to being curled should keep your cable in place. Add more zip ties to your discretion.

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  • +1 for creative use of ties. And they don't have to be big to work successfully like this.
    – Criggie ♦
    May 26, 2019 at 2:08
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    There was indeed too much slack in the brake cable, which cause it to rattle. Pulling it out of the frame a bit and securing it with electrical tape worked a treat. Thanks!
    – Allen Baker
    May 27, 2019 at 15:42

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