I was just installing a KS post that uses the annoying cable crimp assembly at the post end the other day and I was absolutely baffled by how much I struggled, and it wasn't even the first time I've installed this post. There is absolutely no reason that a crimp should be utilized in such a low clearance area that is inaccessable once the post in in the bike. You are forced to either bend the cable at the crimp and force the additional length into a small area with a tight radius bend that makes it difficult to even get the cable crimp stop into its seat of the actuator (which is also has a shape that is downright painful to pry open with your finger to do so) or you have to completely abandon the option of test fitting and adjusting your housing length and cut the cable to length with some serious confidence. It is completely asinine for those of us who end up making small adjustments to the housing length to get it just perfect. If I had a remote with a cable clamp I would have just clamped and superglued the crimp at the soldered end of a new cable and cut off the fixed stop at the opposite end so that length adjustments can be made at the remote end as they should be. I might tap some threads and add a clamping set screw to my remote and re-do it so that I can do it in the preferred manor.
For those of us with dropper-equipped singlespeeds who want to have as clean of cable routing as possible, it makes sense to run the dropper on the right side (or same side as the rear brake), so that these housings can be married with some heat shrink tubing and run to the same primary set of cable stops/guides or internal ports. In this case the Crank Bros lever is (maybe?) one of the only options in the more ergonomic shifter paddle style that is ambidextrous. This ambidextrous quality kinda limits maximizing the ergonomics of the paddle shape due to the requirement for symmetry, but it seems to me like a pretty good option for this case. There is also the (now discontinued) X-Fusion Bat and Yep Components JoyStick that satisfy this, but the Bat was too plastic-y for my preference and the JoyStick isn't readily available for me. I'm currently using one of [these](http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.bikerumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/03001829/KS-dropper-post-e-series-LEV-integra-new-levers-27.2-eurobike-2017Eurobike-2017-day-3-coverage-362.jpg) style ones, but I'm not really happy with the aesthetics of the cable noodle. If anyone knows of some other ambidextrous paddle-type options I'd love to hear em, I'm almost considering remove the ratchet mech and one of the levers on a trigger shifter but really don't like the bulk of that option.
Aug. 9, 2022, 8:29 a.m. - Jake Smith
I was just installing a KS post that uses the annoying cable crimp assembly at the post end the other day and I was absolutely baffled by how much I struggled, and it wasn't even the first time I've installed this post. There is absolutely no reason that a crimp should be utilized in such a low clearance area that is inaccessable once the post in in the bike. You are forced to either bend the cable at the crimp and force the additional length into a small area with a tight radius bend that makes it difficult to even get the cable crimp stop into its seat of the actuator (which is also has a shape that is downright painful to pry open with your finger to do so) or you have to completely abandon the option of test fitting and adjusting your housing length and cut the cable to length with some serious confidence. It is completely asinine for those of us who end up making small adjustments to the housing length to get it just perfect. If I had a remote with a cable clamp I would have just clamped and superglued the crimp at the soldered end of a new cable and cut off the fixed stop at the opposite end so that length adjustments can be made at the remote end as they should be. I might tap some threads and add a clamping set screw to my remote and re-do it so that I can do it in the preferred manor. For those of us with dropper-equipped singlespeeds who want to have as clean of cable routing as possible, it makes sense to run the dropper on the right side (or same side as the rear brake), so that these housings can be married with some heat shrink tubing and run to the same primary set of cable stops/guides or internal ports. In this case the Crank Bros lever is (maybe?) one of the only options in the more ergonomic shifter paddle style that is ambidextrous. This ambidextrous quality kinda limits maximizing the ergonomics of the paddle shape due to the requirement for symmetry, but it seems to me like a pretty good option for this case. There is also the (now discontinued) X-Fusion Bat and Yep Components JoyStick that satisfy this, but the Bat was too plastic-y for my preference and the JoyStick isn't readily available for me. I'm currently using one of [these](http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.bikerumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/03001829/KS-dropper-post-e-series-LEV-integra-new-levers-27.2-eurobike-2017Eurobike-2017-day-3-coverage-362.jpg) style ones, but I'm not really happy with the aesthetics of the cable noodle. If anyone knows of some other ambidextrous paddle-type options I'd love to hear em, I'm almost considering remove the ratchet mech and one of the levers on a trigger shifter but really don't like the bulk of that option.