US-based Cane Creek is best known for its headsets, but it was notably missing options for when those pesky cables and hoses are hidden from view. The company has now launched its Hidden Cable Routing (HCR) system, which includes new headsets, stems, and aluminium spacers.
While I'm yet to try out the new system, it appears to address a small but important wish of mine. Along with looking nice and being fairly priced, it sure warrants further discussion.
Being a late entrant has benefits
Headset cable routing is nothing new, and despite our repeated requests, it sure isn’t leaving. Almost every performance-leaning bike brand now has a model with the cables hidden from view, and there are a mind-bending number of headsets to suit.
While the likes of Chris King and Wolf Tooth had entered the headset routed game in recent years (to suit Enve’s In-Route system), Cane Creek remained the obvious name missing.
According to the American company, a key design goal was to make ownership easier. Here, the HCR system hides the cables/hoses within the spacers and stem, but doesn't enclose them. Like some other systems, such as those from Trek and Specialized (on select bikes), this should allow for stem swaps or spacer adjustments without the headache of disconnecting and cutting brake hoses.
Unlike many of the headsets in bikes today, there are no plastic components in Cane Creek’s system. Even the headset spacers are one-piece machined aluminium, with a slot for the cables to go in and out. This will be music to the ears of anyone who has fought with often flimsy puzzle-like two-piece plastic spacers.
The matching HCR stem design is notably traditional in shape, and the company claims it intentionally “steers clear of the aero-inspired stems that have been offered until now.”
Aero it isn't, but at 160 grams for the 90 mm forged and machined aluminium HCR stem, it is lighter than most, and Cane Creek claims it is the lightest cable-hiding stem on the market (not counting regular lightweight stems that can run cables through them on certain bikes).
A personal wish, answered
The market is now flooded with bikes that feature cables running through junky plastic headsets. That’s not to say all internal headset cable routing is junk, but there are certainly an increasing number of examples in gravel and mountain bikes where the headset has become the weak point of the bike.
Back in May 2025, I raised the issue on the Geek Warning podcast that there was a notable lack of nice aftermarket headset options for bikes combining headset cable routing with a regular stem and round spacers. Cane Creek has answered.
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