All

Also worth mentioning is the lever doesn’t need to be through it’s entire reach to activate the post. A small and comfortable amount is enough to get her riled up!

>handlebar bag >MTB pick one.

That's one of the most frustrating things about it. There are well-executed, smart solutions out there that don't require internal routing. (Also GG comes to mind where they have a cover for the (external) cables.) But companies rather produce some new shitty stuff. It also fits that generally cable routing still seems a struggle for some brands, where you can clearly see they thought about it at the very end of the developing process and somehow slapped a half-baked solution on the (nearly finished) frame...

It’s just another fad that’ll hopefully go away

I'm willing to bet that's not too far off the truth. It probably went something like: Acros: hey Catalog Frame Company, use this stupid-ass headset to make your next frame look cool, plus then you can save money on manufacturing since you won't need to do all the tube-in-tube layups Catalog Frame Company: ka-ching! consider it done! Bike Company Exec: I've never actually worked on a bike, but that looks cool! I'll take a million of them!

Actually, "standardized" would be a good thing, because then at least you wouldn't be stuck with bike/stem/bar/fork/etc-specific replacement parts when needed. I think what you (and I) don't want is for it to be commonplace or, worse, to be the norm on MTBs. That means it will be hard to find conventional internal routing, and that will suck. I held out on internal routing for as long as possible, and will still only pick fully sleeved options (I've done the foam tube bullshit, so stupid), and ideally 1-entry/1-exit style like Specialized did for a bit wear they don't even exit...

Don't think I've ever seen a frame fail at a cable exit, plenty have failed elsewhere due to owners hamfistedness, shit ass engineering/product testing, shit ass manufacturing/qc.

Specialized had to recall their flagship road bike because their through-the-headset cable routing system was causing fork steerer tubes to fail. (https://cyclingtips.com/2021/10/specialized-tarmac-sl7-recall/) That stands out to me as an example of how this additional complexity can lead to new and unexpected modes of failure--not something I'm eager to introduce on mountain bikes. If through-the-headset routing is going to be standardized--and I am praying that it won't be, frankly, because I think it introduces numerous disadvantages for the average consumer and few real benefits--then (IMO) what we really need is a new way of connecting brake lines to levers that doesn't...

Acros should never be allowed to produce any round moving parts again. Regardless of the internal routing bs.

Because Acros decided they like it and probably give huge discounts so bike companies use their shitty headset to save money but now acros had monopoly since you can’t just go and use another companies headset

For everyone saying it won't effect the lower bearing you are now introducing an opening in the headset and allowing "more" water to make its way to the lower bearing and sit on top of it. "More" because headsets are not perfectly sealed but I would bet there is only very very small amount of water making it's way through on a standard head set.

When it's well done (aka in like 2% of the time), it can work well and looks "cleaner" seeing as all the cable are integrated and hidden, you get no cable rub on certain parts and the entry point for cables do not cause a stress point for housing. It can also make the cockpit look less "busy" in certain cases. It is a clusterfuck for mechanics though, integration is usually meant to simplify things but in this case, no.... There have been cases of cable sawing off steer tubes and such so I don't really see why it's necessary...

It works horribly on road bikes which have been doing their damn best to make it even more complex and prone to failure. Of course it’s the best thing to happen since droppers for the MTB segment…

Internal routing was also a terrible idea, but that didn't stop the industry from adopting it. Unfortunately, wide spread adoption of bad ideas seems the norm now.

iTs MoRe AeRo says a guy that looks like an overstuffed bratwurst in lycra

The debate over the pros and cons of headset cable routing has been covered pretty thoroughly on this thread, and it also doesn't exactly qualify as a "tech rumor," so I've started a new thread for those looking to discuss the relative merits of headset cable routing: https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/The-Hub,2/Tell-me-why-headset-cable-rou…