I'm thinking about wrapping a small plastic cable housing guide tube under the bar wrap that the housing can run inside. So whenever I need to change housing or do maintenence, I don't have to re-wrap the bar, and the housing can just slide out of the guide tubing. Is this a thing? Am I being crazy?
I can think of one trade-off: too flexible and it will crush when you remove the cable, too rigid and it won't bend or will crack. But you can get spiral cable wrap which will solve that problem. Polyethylene might be the best material as it has low friction. Or if you don't mind the weight you could use stainless steel coil, something like what's already in your cable housing.
Maybe not crazy, but somewhat illogical. Neither bar wrap nor cables and their housings have infinite lives. A well-maintained bike would have both components inspected yearly for wear and/or replacement; especially since both are the least expensive maintenance items on a modern bike. We're talking 20-30 dollars for each... In addition; removal of the bar tape allows for a necessary inspection of the wear on the bars themselves from the sweat of your hands and rolling down from the arms.
Our sweat will corrode and weaken the structure of all handlebar types/materials. That's something you definitely don't want to find out when it's too late. Seen it happen and caused dangerous crashes very often with injuries.
I agree, its simply part of the annual maintenance to survey the bars for corrosion and replace the housing, so unfortunately there is no way to get around that. You just have to be careful, unwrap and rewrap, or replace
Not a thing. Great effort and complexity to remedy exactly what? Handlebar tape will wear out before the housing connecting lever to housing stop will. For a home mechanic, you don't need to change the housing - at the handle bar - just because you're changing the cable (I would suggest changing the bits at the derailleur end.) I'm not worried about hidden corrosion on bars - I'd like to see a corrosion failure of an aluminum bar that occurred beneath an area of wrap and was the cause - not the result - of a crash or impact.
ed6061 wrote:I'm not worried about hidden corrosion on bars - I'd like to see a corrosion failure of an aluminum bar that occurred beneath an area of wrap and was the cause - not the result - of a crash or impact.
Watched it happen in real time. Was headed out on a charity ride a few years back and up at the pointy end of the pack when the route took a left at the base of a fast descent. One of the riders about 5th wheel leaned into the turn and was almost immediately slammed to the ground at 30+ mph. His left handlebar had snapped at the union to the hood clamp from corrosion. We all waited for the ambulance to arrive while tending to a serious concussion and broken collarbone.
Seeing that crash and the damage from it drove home just how much that corrosion affects the structural integrity of such a stressed point on a bicycle. Think of how much weight, torque, and torsional forces are acting on handlebars when you’re riding at speed; then whittle away at the structure with galvanic corrosion and those forces will overcome the weakened points that experience the most stress.
Fortunately I've never had or seen a handlebar failure. But I did have a front derailleur fail from corrosion caused by sweat. No harm done, just removed it and rode home. I also retired an aluminum frame after the paint chipped and the riveted cable guides eventually corroded out. The aluminum tubes may have been 2 mm thick but I found enough white powder to be unnerving.
