Here's my brake cable guide touchup method. Try it if it sounds good to you..
I have three brake cable guides on the top tube of my 83 California Masi. ( The bare derailler cables go under the bottom bracket as expected for this bike. I wondered about this arrangement too when I first saw it.)
When I replaced the rear brake cable housing I touch up all three guides for looks and to avoid rust (none yet).I use a matching Testors yellow enamel (do not use there acrylics) paint filled marker for this.All the Hobby stores sell these. I use this only for the guides-the match is near perfect or looks so on the vertical guides as they stand up. But this is not for the rest of the body; just the guides. It leaves no brush stroke marks and the felt tip gets inside the coils of the guides beautifully.Forget the clear coat -it's shiny and matches-you will do this again some day.Testors rule, and I called the company on this, is "all the coats you want within 3 hours". Then you must wait 48-72 hrs for a full cure and the three hour rule starts over if you want to do any more. If there is paint residue on the cable housing when you feed it back through the guides, don't be alarmed,it's a tight fit. (Hopefully you have not coated the inner surface of the guide coils to heavily). Just use Oopps, rinse with water (smells awfull). After 72 hours I went for my ride.
Now I don't know if the original bike paint is Imron or Dupont PPG or what? (If you know please let me know.I am curious)-But it sure has held up well after so many years.
I do like seeing the brake cable housing on my top tube- just seems more honest and charming than hiding cables in the tube as if they didn't exist. You can see what's going on- I mean the simple mechanics are obvious..Oh yes the amount of loop in the back ocurred to me before seeing these posts. I saw pics illustrating proper loop size on the net once. Big loop- prettier IMHO but I went for the moderate and efficient. I do like lots of cable above my bars-I can raise them all I want. Has anyone seen those old cable clips that were popular in the 70's to tie your cables together in front of the handlebars and thereby avoid road hypnosis?
Mark Cutufelli in Laurel, MD
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