Cable Tubes

The Bowden cables used on all front drum brakes of Harley-Davidson motorcycles had one drawback: their length of just over one and a half meters. Due to their flexibility, the cable housings do not always provide the necessary resistance to the inner cable. As a result, pulling force is often lost on the way from the lever to the brake drum: the longer the cable, the higher the loss. On telescopic forks (K and Sportster from 1952, Hydra Glide from 1948), the lower section of the cable housing along the fork slider was replaced by a rigid tube. This tube minimizes losses caused by the flexible cable housing. Even though riders often omit this tube and simply route the housing all the way to the brake drum, keeping it is not just a matter of originality.