There is enough slack in the cables to pop the stem off, and I can get at the steerer …
… but there’s zero chance I’m cutting a steerer without it being clamped into a vice and on a nice flat surface.
And the cables go through the headset. On the inside. I’d also assumed they’d be on the outside, in an oversized head tube, but no.
There’s like this spider arm thing that slots into the headset, then the cables go into the headset - through the middle. So you need to remove the cables somehow to replace the headset
But I hear ya! I could take off the cables where they attach to the calliper, remove the compression bung, unscrew the derailleur cable and whip that out (easiest job ever!) then unthread the internally routed brake hoses to the bars.
Leaving the bar tape intact.
Anyways … I’ve whacked a load of grease in and it is still rough AF, but doesn’t creak. Chimney looks ridiculous.
I don’t own one. Not sure I can even call myself a man at this point
Sorry, @joex, I have a go at you for not doing your own bike stuff, but now I’m in the same boat.
This has pissed me right off. Buying SO MANY tools just for a simple task is beyond the pale. (Pail?)
I built a Cervelo R5SL up in a matter of hours.
I strip down my winter bike (rim brakes, semi-internal routing) every other year for new cables, bearing grease etc.
I built a “FrankenBike” from parts I had lying around and a £49 frame I’d picked up.
My TT bike internal routing frightened me, but the bike shop drilled it out and it’s just all outer cables (but inside) with stoppers now. So that’s easy, too!
Disc brakes are the work of the devil for diy maintenance. And internal routing looks ace, but just adds HOURS onto the simplest of tasks.
It’s fun to learn, but the tool specificity is a downer. I gave up after getting bottom bracket tools but before a crown race press. I could see bike were going the way of cars, ensuring a market by preventing people maintaining their own kit
@Poet I’ve also got some carbon gravel bars waiting to go on my groad bike but like you I can’t be arsed with rerouting the hoses, installing new SRAM nipples, and bleeding. And I have all the kit to do it and I’ve done it before, but it’s a 2 hour job for me as a slow DIY spanner. At least with SRAM AXS there’s only two hoses and no gear cables or wires.
Also, I personally wouldn’t use a pipe cutter on a carbon steerer. I’ve used a small pipe cutter on carbon fibre arrow shafts and it caused splintering of the carbon at the cut. It wasn’t clean at all. Perhaps a steerer might be different who knows.
And you can cut a steerer without removing the forks if you’re very very careful…
I’ve none of the kit. And this is a one time job
Well, cutting is.
Headset looks like a 20 month job (had the bike since Nov 2022) … I just can’t bring myself to be doing this job that often. It’s deffo a 2hr job for me, too.
Right, I’m gonna give this a go, because I’ve ripped the bar tape when I came off on the ice. And I’m just being cheap keeping it on
So, what tools and spares do I actually need?
I’m going to remove the bars and hoses from the front end to replace the headset and cut the steerer.
Bar tape
Electrical tape
New shifter cable(s)
Mineral oil
Bleed kit
BH90 olives and barbs
Tool for the olives and barbs (?)
8mm spanner’s
4-5mm Allen keys
Scissors
Wire cutters
Cable nipples
Headset
Patience
I’m unfamiliar with Shimano hydraulics. If it were SRAM I’d need a hose cutter too as their hose olives/barbs are one time use. SRAM hose fittings also use special SRAM grease, but Shimano ? SRAM barbs screw in so no tools required
Plus:
Steerer cutting jig
New 32 tpi blade in hacksaw
Vice or black and decker workmate
Fine nail file (to clean any mess around steerer cut)
Shifter cable ends if they don’t come with the shifter cable set, or reuse the old ones
Paper towels to mop up mineral oil
Brake caliper bleed blocks
Remember to remove brake pads before faffing with hoses and bleeding. IPA is useful for cleaning mineral oil dribbles.
Beer???
And thanks. Got the rest of that kit list, too.
And, what a farting going on!!!
Absolutely ridiculous.
WAIT WAIT!!!
So the barbs are one time use and you need a hose cutter … but what if the hose is then too short? You need new hoses, too???
What an absolute farce!!!
And the mineral oil rots rubber, so the syringes are only (recommended for? one time use!!!
If you want to pull the hoses right out, up through the forks and headset then you’ll have to cut off the barbs/olives and slide off the caliper connecting nut in my humble experience. This will leave the hose ~7mm shorter. Hopefully there’s enough slack? If you’re dropping your stem then this will give you extra hose slack anyway?
But I will (will I?) disconnect the ends at the shifter … so I don’t think I’ll need to slide any cables through the frame
This video seems to suggest I can disconnect top end first
… To be fair, watching that video, I might get away with not bleeding the brakes at all, if I manage to not lose any fluid or introduce any air to the system. Hmm …
Apart from the gear shifter, which is simple.
And yes, there’s extra slack in the hoses for me.
But that’s not my point, for people who just want to change a headset, they’ve got to install new hoses too!
Unless Shimano ones just pop/pull out?
Maybe it’s line those quick-links…not really one time use at all, are they?
I wish I’d have taken a photo. But I was so pissed off at the time, I threw it back together and stormed out - lunch time over in a flash.
Hoses aren’t internally routed through bars, or stem; that’s the next upgrade.
But they do enter the frame via the steerer tube.
Which isn’t oversized with the cables on the front “void” so all of the cables are routed through the middle of the headset, with a spider holding them in place.
One then goes through the fork to the front brake.
The other two around the back of the steerer and through the downtube to the gears (1X setup)and rear brake.
? SRAM barbs screw in so no tools required 
