Di2 onto retro steel frame.

[EddieJT]

I'm planning on doing the above. The first obvious problem is getting the 5mm cables to pass into the frame; do redundant/empty downtube shifter bosses leave a hole that passes into the frame that a di2 cable could be threaded through?

I'd need one hole at the front near headtube, and one at the rear (1x11 setup, so no front derailleur). If I did have to resort to drilling, what locations would least compromise frame integrity?

 

[Spokesmann]

Why?

 

[EddieJT]

Why not.

 

[riddim-track]

I believe theres a forum member who fitted Di2 to a retro mountain bike a few years ago. Think it was this... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=150085

 

[EddieJT]

Re:

Brilliant link, thanks.

I'm doing a lot of hacking of the Di2 myself, so very interested in this guy's work; sequential shifting...wow.

 

[Jonny69]

Can you get an internal brake cable boss brazed or soldered onto where one of the shifter bosses normally goes? The only real issue is going to be getting the end of the cable out the other end, which will probably end up being a couple of hours of sweating, denial and swearing.

 

[mattr]

The sequential shifting is now standard on MTB (Called syncro shift IIRC) and i hear rumour that it'll be available on the road stuff early next year as an update to the software.

 

[mattr]

Can you get an internal brake cable boss brazed or soldered onto where one of the shifter bosses normally goes? The only real issue is going to be getting the end of the cable out the other end, which will probably end up being a couple of hours of sweating, denial and swearing.

Thats what i'd do, get both the bosses removed and put a internal routing port/plate/whatever they are called brazed in in place of one of them. Then depending on the geometry at the rear end you *might* already have a hole in the drop out/chainstay that can be used for the rear mech. The rest can be dropped down the seat tube.
As long as you have space in the bottom bracket shell for the cables (use the plastic sleeve for the HTII bottom bracket and you should be fine, the cables aren't that big.)

I know my drop outs have a rear facing hole in them that can be opened out to about 5mm, which is about the right size for the Di2 cable.

 

[EddieJT]

Re:

Thanks, and yes, I'm no stranger to the fun of fishing internal cables through frames.

 

[PaulSE]

SRAM eTap?