I want to fit a dropper on my Planet X tempest..

@jamesoz

i found this hack from you from a few years ago..

I’m going to make my usual suggestion. Assuming a cable dropper, thread it though a bottle boss. No need to drill anything. Use a thin outer, shave the plastic off the first couple of cm of the outer. Feed it through a boss with a cable to stop it kinking. Might need a bit of grease to help it along.

can you elaborate a bit on this please. Surely you’d need to split the cable outer either side of the hole, in which case surely you need some kind of cable stop either side of the hole as well? Also..Does a thing piece of inner stop the cable abrading the frame?

Would enable me to run a brand X cx dropper if I can figure out how to do it correctly!

the other option is to try to drill the frame, but I’m not sure that’s a wise option

I've drilled two now. One was a Scott where I looped under the BB and then in the back of the seattube.
The newer one I've gone into the downtube roughly where you'd expect to see a cable holder, then it runs in the space around the BB and up inside the seattube.
Both work, as long as there's space. Might be worth taking the seat post out and BB and having a play with some outer.
See my topics started as there are some other ideas of routeing as well.

Have you ever drilled into titanium?

Harder than a whores heart.

Have you ever drilled into titanium?
Harder than a whores heart.

I've never drilled any of the aforementioned 😁

Anyway op, good luck. Make sure you video it and keep a fire extinguisher handy. #sparky

A standard gear cable outer will ‘just’ pass through a bottle boss. If you trim the first couple of cm of the plastic outer a bit, and taper it, you should be able to pass the outer through the boss in one.
Grease will help.

From memory I pushed the outer through and used a coat hanger bent into a hook to pull the outer up whilst feeding it into the frame.

Pull through the desired amount and cut off the tapered end, job done.

Even on a skinny tubed steel bike the curve of the outer wasn’t too tight.

From memory I removed a fair bit of the plastic from the outer to get it started.

No abrading as the full outer is present. It’s important when feeding the outer into the frame to have a gear cable inside to stop it kinking.

Try it on a frame before buying the post.

So the shaving of the outer is only to help thread the cable outer initally? Didn’t realise a full cable would get through a bottle boss hole . Will give it a go!

So the shaving of the outer is only to help thread the cable outer initally?

Exactly, once you get it started, you can slowly ease the outer through. It’s not easy and you will have a loop exiting the boss, if that bothers you? I used the lower seat tube boss and it wasn’t too far to the down tube.

Or you could just fit an external cable dropper post.

Ffs..I am an utter moron..

In a moment of inspiration I realised that the rear brake cable was routed internally. As I don’t have a front mech I could reroute the brake cable on the outer cable guides, then thread an internal dropper cable down the down tube, round the bb, and up the seattube.

so I bought a internal dropper and spent hrs working out how to reduce the travel so it would fit my bike, and paid the lbs 20 quid to reroute and bleed my brake cable

feeling smug I removed the bb only to discover the obvious, it’s impossible to thread the cable from seattube to down tube as the bb shell only has tiny holes in it, which you can get a cable through but the bend is far too tight for a gear cable

so I’ve wasted a ton of time, money rerouting a brake from where it’s meant to be (internally) to where it’s not meant to be (externally). And to make things worse I inserted the post into the frame so it’s now scuffed and can’t be returned 

I am an idiot..

(although in my defense the lbs, when told of my cable routing plan, did confirm that it would work)

Just drill out the rivnut and use the hole. No ti drilling just the rivnut 

Magura Vyron dropper, no cables needed

It might be too tight for a cable dropper by a reverb doesn't mind tight cable routing.

How about something like Nokon cables? They can allow for tight turns.

Brake outer for sharp turns

You have my sympathies, this sounds like the sort of thing I would do. Riv nut removal sounds like a good idea.

I drilled my brand new Titus Goldrush to take a PNW dropper post - wanted the most drop on a 27.2 post so cable was the only option. No harder than drilling an alloy frame despite what the internet says.

I run the cable down the down tube, under the bb then through the chainstay brace. It enters the seat tube at the back above the bb. Neat, tidy and cheap solution. Has been thoroughly abused for a few years now and still going strong.