How to build a bike - Part 5: Steer and cables

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

Now this part sounds easy and on paper it is. This explains why this caused my the most pain in the ass while building my bike... Never get confident about your bike-building skills when you've had the most difficult part.

Well, installing the steer is actually really easy. Simply connect it to the stem and tighten the bolts firmly.

The same holds for the installation of the brakes. Simply connect them to the frame using a hex-key after you've greased the bolt a bit.

Next step is to install the shifters and brakes. Pull back the rubberish material a bit and you should find a bolt which tightens the shifters to the steer. A simple trick to install both shifters in exactly the same position I found here: Use a ruler and align it to the bottom of the steer. Now align the tip of the brake to the ruler and tighten it to the steer.

Now install the cable adjusters to the frame. With these you can adjust the gear cables a bit. In most cases the adjusters go in using a thread.

Now comes the decisively easy part of installing the cables. Under the bottom bracket the cables need to be guided through a guider (any suggestions for a better name for this thing?). Some frames will have it integrated, in my case I needed to install a plastic thing. Please double check the orientation of this little puppy, since it caused me a lot of trouble after having it installed a bit wrong.

Now connect the cables to the brakes and cut the outer cables to the appropriate length. I bought 3 meters of outer cable and this was actually just slightly to short. Better cut them a bit too long then a bit too short, like I did. It the only thing I'm not really happy about with my bike now; the cables are a bit too short.

In order to smooth things up even more, it might be a good idea to grease the outer cables. I did this by applying some silicone spray inside, like shown in the picture.

If you're not sure how the cables need to be routed exactly and where to put the outer cables, just take a look at some pictures of other bikes (like the ones shown here). I should have done that a bit more: it would have saved me hours rerouting cables I thought to have misplaced and rerouting them once again after I discovered I actually did it first time right....

It also might be a good idea to spend a bit of money on a cable cutting tool. With this tool you can cut your cables easy and straight, without damaging them completely and having to spend hours fixing the ends again. Connect the ends of the cables to the derailleurs and shifters, but do not cut the ends yet. You can do this as a last step, when everything is working fine.

Use some tape to fix the outer cables to the steer. That's it. Time to make the cables actually do something in the next part...