I've always liked the look of internal cable/hose routing, and since my Haro's downtube is wide open at the bottom already, I'd only need to make a hole at the top near the headtube... Yes, I know it might weaken the frame, and if it breaks there's probably zero chance of Haro honoring any warranty. On the plus side, I eliminated my front shifter cable about a year ago when I went 1x9, so I've only got one hose and one cable to deal with.

Well, the bike's over 5 years old now, and it's got its fair share of scratches and dings. So I figured it was time. After a few minutes with a drill, file, and Dremel, I had one itsy-bitsy hole in my frame. And the Dremel only got away from me once, leaving an only slightly visible scar on the frame. I used the same hole for the brake hose and the RD shifter cable. Of course, I had to cut and rebleed my rear brake hose but it needed a bleed anyway.

I'll also need to consider how to deal with a dropper-post cable. I have a KS i950 that needs service, but what I'd really like is one of the bottom-entry models (like the RS Reverb Stealth) since my seat tube is open at the bottom.

Anyway, here's the result:


Views from the right:






And from the left:








Shifter cable exiting the bottom end of the down tube:






Brake hose exiting the bottom end of the down tube




Next up:

Well, now that I've done this, all those cable-stays seem kinda silly and superflous, right? So I might need to find someone with some ninja grinder skilz... Plus I've got some nasty cable rub in a few spots that could use some sanding/grinding/polishing. And all of that is probably beyond my technical capabilities. But the idea would be to strip down the frame, remove the cable stays, do whatever grinding, sanding, sandblasting, polishing etc. it needs, then... hmmm, either a nice powder-coat job, or maybe just leave it bare aluminum or add a clear-coat. And that all adds the additional question of whether to do the rear triangle too, or leave it alone (it's a fairly new warranty replacement, with a gloss black powder coat).

Any frame-finishing gurus out there?

whether it was intentional or not, good job on drilling the hole in the 'strongest' part of the frame, where the gusset takes (or i should say 'prevents') most of the structural abuse/flex.
as much as i'm against drilling holes into bike frames, i'm willing to bet this lasts a while and doesnt expand into a crack....unless you start doing backflips and shit.

_________________
'the notorious North County Sancho'

Im an old Haro rider, x3 and Zeon like yours, great frane riding platform but broke my rear triangle above Corona on Diablo, was pissed but moved on to bigger better things, good to see someone riding ine though.

Where on your rear triangle did it break? I'm on my third one now. First two broke at the weld where the "seat tube" meets the bottom bracket. Both were replaced under warranty by Haro. This last one is reinforced with an extra layer of tubing at that spot (i.e. double butted). I guess they recognized it as a design flaw and made the correction. I'm pretty sure they stopped making this model a few years ago (mine's an '08).

Thanks - yep, that's one of the reasons I chose that spot. I'd expect the weakest/most vulnerable place would be right where the down tube is welded to the head tube, so I made sure I stayed well away from there.