Edelux rear light cable routing.

[quixoticgeek]

For those of you with dynamo rear lights. How do you route the wires from the front to the rear? Currently mine are routed by wrapping them around the frame. But I'm not 100% happy with it. Is there a better way of doing it?

J

[aidan.f]

I use tape, eirher good quality electrical insulation tape, black paintwork  so a good colour match or clear helicopter tape. Run the cable straight down the middle of a strip under down tube and chainstay.

[Kim]

On my Dawes, which is the token dynamo-equipped DF bike: Cable-tied under the downtube and along the left chainstay alongside the speed/cadence sensor wiring, then twisted around a mudguard stay from the rear dropout, with a short flying loop of cable to a cable-tie on the underside of the rear rack that serves as a strain relief before entering the light.

Main problem is that I used the standard-issue bell wire that came with the lights, so it's a bit loosey-goosey under the downtube due to lack of elasticity, and has a fugly white stripe along it.  I've been working on the principle that I'd do a more aesthetically pleasing job with Schmidt-style coax when it needed replacing.  I've been waiting for it to need replacing for about 11 years now...


The other cycles have longer continuous runs of bowden cable outer, so cable-tying electrical wiring alongside those is neat and easy.  (There's some rule of wiring aesthetics that states that a single cable zip-tied to solid object looks like a bodge, but a bundle of cables zip-tied together looks like a nice neat job.)

[quixoticgeek]

On my Dawes, which is the token dynamo-equipped DF bike: Cable-tied under the downtube and along the left chainstay alongside the speed/cadence sensor wiring, then twisted around a mudguard stay from the rear dropout, with a short flying loop of cable to a cable-tie on the underside of the rear rack that serves as a strain relief before entering the light.

Main problem is that I used the standard-issue bell wire that came with the lights, so it's a bit loosey-goosey under the downtube due to lack of elasticity, and has a fugly white stripe along it.  I've been working on the principle that I'd do a more aesthetically pleasing job with Schmidt-style coax when it needed replacing.  I've been waiting for it to need replacing for about 11 years now...

Makes sense. Do you know the spec of the connector for the rear B&M lights?

J

[Kim]

It's the weird small one that I don't have in my collection of random electrical connectors.  2.4mm?

(I've used a more standard 4.8mm for the dyanmo to front light cable on the recumbents, where the cable needs extending, so it made sense to join it under the light using a different size spade to differentiate it from the rear light output.)

[Paul H]

On a bike with a top tube brake run, the coaxial cable is heat shrunk to the hose.  On another bike which has redundant gear cable fittings, I've put the coaxial cable inside some PU tubing and used those, if you're interested I'll dig out the tubing size, it was a tight fit but the next size up wouldn't work.  On a previous bike, I super-glued the coaxial along the underside of the top tube, with a wrap of helicopter tape at either end, that was in place for sixteen years and only came off when the bike was resprayed, at which time removing the cable also removed some paint.
All three are probably over the top and took some time to get right, I've nothing better to do and expect then to last the lifetime of the bike. The part I am sometimes dissatisfied with is from the light to the frame, under the fork crown is neater, but without mudguards probably a bit vulnerable.  I'm pleased with the tubing, hidden in plain sight, for a bike that's going to get some abuse (Frame bags rubbing?) it's pretty indestructible and runs from light to light and secured at both ends, I could probably lift the bike by it.

[JonB]

The newer disc brake bike is super smooth (not done by me), it follows the internal routing of the rear hydraulic brake hose into the down tube, comes out under the bottom bracket and then routes up inside the mudguard to a mudguard mounted rear light.
For the ones I've done myself I've used very small cable ties to follow the rear brake cable along the top tube. Then used the cable ties around the top tube where there is no outer cabling, return it to the brake outer cabling until it gets to the seat stay and then wrap it around the seat stay to a rear light mounted on the seat stay. I've been happy with that.

[andrew_s]

B+M connectors are 2.8 mm spades*.
I use the Schmidt loom, on the grounds that the co-ax cable is neater than speaker wire etc, and that Schmidt do a better job of the connections than I would.

I generally run the cable along the brake cable - currently down tube, chainstay, and from the (disc) brake up a leg of the rack. On other bikes, it's been top tube, down to the brake, and the underside of the rack or taped on top of the mudguard if there wasn't a rack.

* interestingly, SJSC charge £6 for 100 of them, but £9 for 50

[grams]

You have a full length hydraulic rear brake hose now which will need replacement on the same interval as Kim's bell wire, so run it along that with cable ties or heat shrink.

[rogerzilla]

There is no really unobtrusive solution unless you have a black frame.  I generally ziptie the wire to the underside of the top tube.

[Ian H]

One bike has the cable taped along the downtube, under the BB and taped to the chainstay.

Another has the cable spiralled round the brake cable and shrink-wrapped along a mudguard stay.

The Black Hallett has integral wiring and a 'wireless' fork.

[Lightning Phil]

On my road bike the top tube has holders for full length hoses / outers.  I run the Dynamo rear light cable along there. No tape or zip ties required.

[fuaran]

There is no really unobtrusive solution unless you have a black frame.  I generally ziptie the wire to the underside of the top tube.

Can get speaker wire in a variety of colours. Should be able to find something that matches.

[Cudzoziemiec]

On one bike, which has fully enclosed cables and a rack-mounted light, it's cable-tied to the rear brake cable, then up a rack leg and taped to the underside of the rack. On the other bike, which has neither fully enclosed cables nor a rack, it's taped, rather badly, to the down tube, then under the bottom bracket, on top of the front section of mudguard to the brake bridge, then down the l/h seat stay and up a mudguard stay to the mudguard-mounted light. B&M do supply a lot of cable with their rear lights.

[iroiromono]

I have a SON mudguard mounted rear light. The cable for this runs inside the mudguard and is secured with gorilla tape. At the chainstays it pops into the bb shell and then runs internally to the front of the downtube where it come out and heads to the front fork and front light.

I've used the shimano di2 external cable sheathes to good effect too to secure the rear dynamo cable on other frames to the outside of a frame where internal wasn't an option. This runs on the underside of the top tube and isn't really all that visible

On my Bridgestone I've gone for the Rene Hese Tail light which is brazed to the seat tube.

[quixoticgeek]

I've used the shimano di2 external cable sheathes to good effect too to secure the rear dynamo cable on other frames to the outside of a frame where internal wasn't an option. This runs on the underside of the top tube and isn't really all that visible

ooh, I like that. I wonder how well that would interact with the frame bag mounting fittings. Maybe I can find more space for it on the downtube along with the di2 cables and the brake cable. The light is mounted on the seatstay, so currently it's top tube and seatstay routed, but I don't see why it couldn't go along the same route as the brake hose or di2 cabling...

J