Dynamo wiring inspiration

[mattsccm]

It's that time of year when we realise our lights are dodgy.
Just fitted my first dynamo (well, since about 1975) , a Sp hub with B&M light. Much to my surprise they both went together perfectly despite being second hand. I joined cables with those soldered heat shrink joins that came from a pop up add on Face Book. Brilliant!
Getting to the point of this thread, just how do people run a wire from a hub to a light that's in front of the stem? It is currently tapped and cable tied up the fork leg, via the cables and to the light. Perfectly functional, perfectly unsightly. Carbon, very tapered, fork just to make life hard.
Let me see all your pretty, ingenious cable runs.

[Brucey]

My advice; don't sweat it. What you have works and you can easily adjust/move/repair it if needs be.

Practicality is worth a lot more than looks when it comes to these things; no one is looking at your wiring when you are riding in the winter clart/gloom. You could spend ages running wires up inside fork legs and steerer etc only to find that the blessed things rattle when you are going down the road and drive you berserk; it wouldn't be the first time.....

cheers

[mattsccm]

The usual Brucey correct answer. So disappointing.
I am thinking about running it up a mudguard stay or up the rear of the fork and fairing it in with tape. Looks are everything!

[Jdsk]

I don't like doing it, and I'm never very happy with the outcome. But then I forget about it.

Jonathan

[Brucey]

there are of course all manner of faffy ways of wiring your lights.

For example you could run inside the fork blade, inside the steerer, and then inside the stem. But this would usually involve drilling holes in things that were not designed to have holes drilled in them.

Also note that original ESGE (and therefore some later SKS) chromoplastic mudguards were originally designed to be used as dynamo lamp conductors; each of the three 'stripes' in the mudguard is potentially a separate conductor (which is why the rivets are set in the centreline not side by side). However the connections to the conductor are in practice very susceptible to corrosion and the result is usually that you end up building a hopeless, unreliable wiring system.

You can use full length heat shrink to mount wires to mudguard stays (or brake cables), but this is most usually of more value to rear lights than fronts. Ditto sourcing thin-walled tube and using that instead of solid material in the mudguard stays.

In general the more connections there are, the less reliable it will be. In addition the less accessible the wiring is, the worse it will be when doing any repairs.

cheers

[alexnharvey]

Mine are just wrapped around the fork in a loose spiral and cable tied near the crown to secure them. Even if the cable tie slips the wrap means it won't go into the wheel.

[andrew_s]

Three cable ties, 3 - 4 cm above the dropout, mid-blade, and just below the fork crown, with the cable inside rear at the bottom and middle, and rear at the top, whence direct to the fork crown mounted light.

It's relatively unobtrusive, once you've got past the stage of looking for it.

I'd avoid internal routing, to the point of not using it even if the fork came with suitable entry and exit ports. Maybe if there was an internal pipe connecting the two, but not otherwise.

[PH]

Let me see all your pretty, ingenious cable runs.

No one else seems to want to show theirs! There's nothing ingenious about mine, the cable is mostly out of sight on the inner side on the fork leg, a couple of cable ties top and bottom (Colour coded of course ) and a wrap or three of helicopter tape in between. This is to the fork crown light. It's getting above that, for example a top tube cable run to the rear light. that can become ugly and also vulnerable, following a brake or shifter cable/hose can help.
How much it matters is entirely up to you, it's not something I fret about, but making it tidy enough for my own satisfaction isn't a big or frequent job.

[WOT]

Gorilla Tape in clear or Black is my choice.

Apply as necessary and forget.

[[XAP]Bob]

Tapered carbon?

Just get a giant heat shrink and embrace the plastic...

[simonineaston]

The human brain is brilliant for exactly this sort of thing - my advice is: wrap the wire round the fork leg, in a spiral, like everybody else does. Next, spend some time being resentful that you have not been able to achieve the level of ingenuity you demand of yourself and angry at how ugly the results of your labours are. Wait, say, 10 days to a fortnight and then realise that you have forgotten all about your dynamo wires and have instead, picked up on something completely different to be angry and resentful about - works for me, every time!

[MartinC]

The human brain is brilliant for exactly this sort of thing - my advice is: wrap the wire round the fork leg, in a spiral, like everybody else does. Next, spend some time being resentful that you have not been able to achieve the level of ingenuity you demand of yourself and angry at how ugly the results of your labours are. Wait, say, 10 days to a fortnight and then realise that you have forgotten all about your dynamo wires and have instead, picked up on something completely different to be angry and resentful about - works for me, every time!

Yes. I've done this many times. I've also resisted putting a dynamo rear light on for the same reason until I've given in and done it. Within a week it's forgotten and the bike is preferred for it's fully available permanent lighting. Mind you if someone ever comes up with an elegant, reliable and easy solution I'll be first in the queue and will always read posts like this just in case.

[simonineaston]

Funnily enough, I dabbled with this very notion only the other week, when I put together my latest ride and went so far as to take the Dremel to the pre-existing vent holes, already present on the more substantial of the two front forks, my cycle being fitted with leading-link suspension. I found that although the co-axial cable I'd bought especially for this job would enter into the lower of the two holes, I bottled it when it came to fishing around with a loop of monofilament in order to retrieve the wire and pull it out of the top, exit 'ole...

[martinn]

These are my two current wiring loops, one is much neater than the other, a combination of cable ties and cable tidies