Has anyone drilled holes in a steel frame so that the rear brake cable can be passed through the frame (for a singlespeed, obviously)? How did it go? I had a go but the holes aren't big (oval) enough (the cable is turning tight corners), and found it tricky to make them bigger. Maybe there's a "proper" way to do this?

by a road frame with holes already init?!

I suspect that there are braze-ons that make a just-the-right-size hole and reinforce the tube at the appropriate points.

It's a cheap road frame that I'm converting to singlespeed. There are no braze-ons, the brake cable was held on by little plastic holders on the top tube that looked crap.

What you are on about is internal cable routing and is installed a build time on the bike, can be quite complicated from whta I understand.

Anything is possible though with a bit of ingenuity and if you are prepaired to risk the frame you could give it a go. How best to go about threading the cable through once the holes are drilled (they would haveto be elogated to make sure there will be no sharp turns.) I don't know, maybe use a spoke bent at the end to grap the end of the cable outer when it passes the 2nd hole?

I would personally just use soem cable ties, but like I said if the frame is not important give it ago. Can but try.

drill lots of little holes and then file them to an oval to pass the cable in. you can get braze on outers that will give the correct size hole and give the tube some added strength around the hole. Proper jobs often use a length of stainless tube brazed inside the frame so you just thread the cable through the stainless tube., if you are just rattling round inside the main tube, bend the end of the brake cable inner at an angle so you can rotate it to poke out the hole at the other end of the tube to get the cable through.

http://tinyurl.com/35ysby

More elegant than plastic cable ties, although maybe not quite as good as making the cable vanish altogether. Hope you get it sorted out.