Yes, No, and… Why?
Pros:
Integrated is beautiful. No exposed cables, housing, or wires are lovely to look at. The bike looks simple, pure, and uncluttered. Fancy bar / stem combos or one piece barstems tend to have more fluid, aero-ish designs. Attaching bar bags or other gizmos to your cockpit is probably also slightly easier because housing won’t interfere with installation.
Cons:
Integrated bikes typically do not disassemble well for travel! If you plan on traveling with your bike in a box or a bag you should not consider going with an integrated bike UNLESS it is built with electronic shifting AND hydraulic brake line couplers, which we offer. Integrated bikes have almost no slack in the brake and shift lines, so taking your bars / stem off and folding them alongside the frame for travel packing simply isn’t possible with an integrated bike. We’ve set this section in bold because it is probably the PRIMARY factor to consider when deciding on integrated or non integrated bike builds.
Integrated bikes are much more difficult to build / assemble. A skilled mechanic will many times at the very least complain and take hours longer to build the bike. An unskilled mechanic will curse, yell, watch hours of youtube how-to videos, curse more, install it all wrong, and then have to disassemble it all to re-assemble it all correctly.
Integrated bikes use fussy headset uppers and specially shaped integrated spacers to keep the visuals looking good. Once you chose an integrated system (FSA for example) you need to use a FSA bar, stem, and headset together on your bike to get it all to play well together and to look good. If mixing and matching components is possible at all you could easily end up with a disjointed overall look if you mix and match different brands. Additionally, many integrated bars, stems, and headsets on the market now are designed to pair with a single brand of bikes. So you can for instance buy Giant parts for your Giant bike, or Factor parts for your Factor bike, but if you want to put Giant parts on your Factor bike you may be out of luck in terms of compatibility. Integrated systems are causing universal fit parts (like traditional bars, stems, and headsets) to be less universal, because third party brands such as Ritchey and FSA have a very difficult time making integrated parts that pair perfectly with proprietary integrated frames. At some point, someone, maybe us, should attempt to make a compatibility chart between all the systems, but that would be a LOT of work.
Integrated bikes have routing that enters the frame at the upper headset and the lines run THROUGH the upper headset bearing. This introduces a potential maintenance problem down the road: If you need to replace your upper headset bearing you’re going to need to pull the derailleur and brake lines out of your frame and back out through the bearing before taking it out or reinstalling it. Once done you will have to re-run your shift and brake lines and re-adjust shifting and re-bleed braking. That said, it is not common for a headset bearing to totally need replacing, and you may not mind having that done every 2-3 years in exchange for a super sexy looking integrated bike.
Side notes: Rodeo headsets that we ship with current frames use stainless steel headset bearings which should increase your replacement interval to “possibly never”.
Semi Integrated Routing
Pros:
Semi Integrated routing allows you to achieve a lot of the aesthetic simplicity of fully integrated by hiding MOST of the cable housing on your bike build. Some is still visible as the lines emerge from your handlebar and enter the headset upper, but Semi Integrated allows you to use ANY normal bars and stems from the aftermarket spectrum. So if you want to build a tidy bike but want to use a Redshift stem and a VentureMax bar, Semi Integrated may be the configuration you are looking for.
Cons:
Semi Integrated does have more flexibility for taking your bars and stem off for packing, but not much. There simply isn’t that much slack in the system with which to contort your bars / stem / fork when packing the bike. Hence, this system still wouldn’t be the logical choice for someone who plans on traveling extensively with their bike.
Semi integrated headsets such as the FSA headset pictured above have a potential water intrusion point always exposed to the elements. This could lead to rust in your upper headset bearing in particular.
If you need to replace your upper headset bearing because of said rust you’re going to need to pull the derailleur and brake lines out of your frame and back out through the bearing before taking it out or reinstalling it. Once done you will have to re-run your shift and brake lines and re-adjust shifting and re-bleed braking. That said, it is not common for a headset bearing to totally need replacing, and you may not mind having that done every 2-3 years in exchange for a super sexy looking integrated bike.
Side notes: Rodeo headsets that we ship with current frames use stainless steel headset bearings which should increase your replacement interval to “possibly never”. Rodeo is also designing and implementing its own semi-internal headset that will be standard on TD4 frames which will dramatically reduce the potential for water to enter the frame through the headset.
Water finds its way into most frames one way or another if you are riding somewhere wet, no matter much you try to prevent it. All of our frames have drain holes at the BB shell to allow water that finds its way into your frame to find its way back out.
Non Integrated Internal Routing
Pros:
Non Integated Internal routing is one of the best options for people who plan on traveling with their bike. Removing the bar and stem and fork and positioning them in a tiny bag such as an Airport Ninja is very do-able with non-integrated internal routing and could save you a LOT of baggage fees over the life of your bike if you plan on traveling. As mentioned our Flaanimal and TD frames of previous generations have all used non integrated internal routing with great success. Sure, there is more routing visible and the builds aren’t super tidy to look at compared to integrated, but the bikes just work, and you can bolt the widest range of parts to them. It could be argued that there is no point in messing with this routing system that has been so successful for so long.
Cons:
Non Integrated internal routing isn’t as pretty as internal.
Non integrated Internal routing MIGHT not be as “aero”.
Non integrated Internal routing is still somewhat difficult to route on some frames.
