I picked up a set of Dirty Dog’s Skull Cable Guides at Sea Otter this year and immediately put them to good use reigning in the rear hydraulic brake cable.  Prior to this, it was twist ties and a lot of sloppy slack.
Why not use cable guides that mount into the existing wire cable guides?  Good question, and I have a good answer for ya after the break…
As you can see from this photo, the stock cable guides on my Fuel are sloped to look good, but they wouldn’t work for aftermarket hydraulic cable guides that need to screw into flat-faced guides.  The Skull guides are a great alternative because they can be mounted anywhere.
Not only do they add some flair to my ride, but they’re simple to install and so far have held on flawlessly.  The other benefit, as you can see below, is that they hold the cable OFF the frame, and the zip tie goes UNDER the cable, so there’s no compression on the housing.  This keeps things working the way they should with no added friction or crimping, and the housing won’t rub against the frame and mar the paint.
The Skull guide rests on small foamy stickers, too, so it won’t scratch the paint either.  They also help hold it in place to make installation easier.  Sure, the zip tie might get the paint a little, but it would do that without the Skull, too, so overall this is a cleaner option than just zipping the cable directly to the frame.
They’re cheap, just $12 for a set of two with all mounting hardware, and you can get them in Bone (shown), Black or Red.
