Changing to new aerobars

[gluestick]

Just a little quick background first. My bike, a Cannondale Slice (which I had fitted) came with "s" bend aero bars and I decided I wanted to give the "ski" bend shape a try. My fitter happened to have a pair of carbon ones, which I purchased and had installed on my bike by the shop. Now nearly 500 miles later I am thinking I preferred the feel and fit of the "s" bends and would like to switch back. I am moderately handy and try to do most of the work on my bike (I was a ski/snowboard tech for 5 years and am not shy about getting greasy). Most of the time things go well, and when they don't I am not shy about bringing it to the shop and spending some quality time with the wrenches while they show me what I should have done (I really tweaked one of my derailleurs once, but learned a lot in the process).



I have been searching around but can't seem to find any good direction/tutorials online about how to switch these around. Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer me some advice? I am hoping to gently peel off the wraps as they are still relatively new and already know where to position the aerobars on the bullhorns, I'm just a little wishy washy on how the cables connect to the Dura Ace shifters. I don't have much experience messing with derailleur cables and don't even quite know where to start, but I imagine it can't be all that hard. I am wondering if I will need to pull the cable all the way back through the housing and then refeed it in after reinstalling the shifters?

There is enough slack in the cables back at the derailleurs that I don't think I will come up short. I am the kind of guy who will go down to the shop afterwards and show off my handy work to the guys and try to get a little redemption on past mishaps (and then get suckered into spending my money anyways on a new jersey or something).



Thanks in advance.

[Bill]

Hmm I will try to search around tonite.

[Joe_W]

Wow! Nice ride you got!
I assume that the shifter cable is routed inside the aero bars and both sets of bar ends have the same diameter (22. something mm) so that you can just swap them out. So here is what I would do:

• remove crimped on end from the shifter cables of front and rear dérailleur (the little things that keep the cable from fraying), then remove inner cable from housing and shifters
• remove shifters (either now or after next step)
• maybe remove the housing from the bar ends and then remove bar ends (or the other way round, you'll see what will come off first and easiest)
• install shifters in new bar ends + housing that is threaded through the bar ends + thread the inner cable through the whole caboodle
• install new bar ends
• thread the cable through the rest of the housing
• dial in the shifters (this is the most complicated step, but you said you know how to do that)
  

If you have carbon parts be sure to use a torque wrench and torque them to spec! Working on carbon without a torque wrench and over tightening the clamps will lead to material failure and bodily harm (handle bar breakage is instant doom!).

[gluestick]

(05-13-2011, 04:12 AM)Joe_W Wrote:  Wow! Nice ride you got!
I assume that the shifter cable is routed inside the aero bars and both sets of bar ends have the same diameter (22. something mm) so that you can just swap them out. So here is what I would do:

• remove crimped on end from the shifter cables of front and rear dérailleur (the little things that keep the cable from fraying), then remove inner cable from housing and shifters
• remove shifters (either now or after next step)
• maybe remove the housing from the bar ends and then remove bar ends (or the other way round, you'll see what will come off first and easiest)
• install shifters in new bar ends + housing that is threaded through the bar ends + thread the inner cable through the whole caboodle
• install new bar ends
• thread the cable through the rest of the housing
• dial in the shifters (this is the most complicated step, but you said you know how to do that)
  

If you have carbon parts be sure to use a torque wrench and torque them to spec! Working on carbon without a torque wrench and over tightening the clamps will lead to material failure and bodily harm (handle bar breakage is instant doom!).

Thanks for the response. I ended up just bringing it to the shop as I got real busy at work and only currently have time to ride the bike, and not enough to work on it as well.

"Wow! Nice ride you got!"
-Thanks! I got back into bikes through triathlon, and my bike last year was a steel Motobecane from '83. She was a blast to ride and taught me some humility, but I am really happy with the new steed.

[Bill]

My apologies I didn't get back to you. Thanks for jumping on this Joe. BTW hello and haven't seen ya in a while. Glad to see you around.
Also glad you got your problem fixed gluestick.

[Joe_W]

'k bringing it to the shop is always an alternative (which I don't usually do unless I don't want to buy special tools that I'll most likely only use once)... still: I know the time issue. So: glad it worked out! I'll have to get a Tri bike too at some point in time, though they are expensive (well, the wheels I want are: a disc in the rear and a Zipp 808 in the front = twice of what I spent on my current road bike). See you on the road (or in transition somewhere).

[ off topic]
@Bill: yeah, new job kept me busy (well, still is keeping me busy). So I'll be less active than a year ago, but I'll try to post every now and then. Oh, and good luck with your new workshop!
[ /off topic]