Cannondale M700 (now SM700) ditch find

A friend of mine owns a piece of land for their horses and I was helping out with some repairs on a barn, when I found a half buried mtb in a ditch. Literally buried and waterlogged (being a ditch). One thing led to another and I ended up being gifted this frame, which had a pair of ridged forks, shifters, brakes, front mech, handlebars and a few rusty cables hanging on.

It turned out to be a cannondale M700, black with green splash flecks all over with green logos. The bottom bracket is seized solid as is the headset.

By looking at the vintage cannondale website (http://vintagecannondale.com/) I was able to date the frame to ‘93/‘94 but looking at the components on the bike, it seems certain to be a ‘94 model. The frame is loaded with STX components of the M30 vintage, curious as the catalogue only specifies the use of LX and XT was used at the time, maybe a last run off model with cheaper bits? who knows.

I’ll get some photos of it tomorrow (rather later today), and pop them up.

At this point, I feel a full ground up resto coming on... Would be a nice trail/commuter.

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I do like a good ditch find...cant wait to see pics of how grotty it actually is

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That sounds like a 91 sm700 from your description

Re: Cannondale M700 ditch find

paddlingpool":jy80z53s said:

That sounds like a 91 sm700 from your description

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Well as it goes, I was thinking that myself after this evenings dosing with the power washer!

See this Hope decal? Suspect I thought.



Removed part of it.



Digging further into the bike, it seems that the '94/5 components came from another bike. Specialized? Nasty dent in the frame here. Seems to be the only dent.



Overall pre wash condition... :shock: :facepalm:









DX brakes?







After a scrub and power wash, doesn't really look much better tbh!



Correct stem?







To be completely honest, I don't really like the chameleon paint scheme. What are your thoughts on something else? I quite like the metallic blue with silver decals.

Re: Cannondale M700 ditch find

pingu_turbo":2p19qlp7 said:

To be completely honest, I don't really like the chameleon paint scheme. What are your thoughts on something else? I quite like the metallic blue with silver decals.

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I really like the paint on these, i have the orange splatter BotE version, but kinda like the green better.

Your bike though so can be whatever colour you like, polished is always nice

Mark

The Logic forks-if not rusted beyond being usable- are definitely worth saving as well as the frame. Removing the BB seems a tough challenge, though...Overall these C'dale frames are tough as coffin nails, if you give it a second chance you would not regret it-they were built to last, and are lightweight too!
!

Thanks for the feedback.

mkone":14inds9v said:

I really like the paint on these, i have the orange splatter BotE version, but kinda like the green better.

Your bike though so can be whatever colour you like, polished is always nice

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If you can find a picture to share Mark, I’d appreciate it. I expect I shall end up refinishing the frame and forks in the same as it is now. But part of me really wants to put my own stamp on it as the paint is so far gone at this stage. Polished would be nice but higher maintenance, I’m not a fan of lacquering aluminium. One chip and it spiders like hell.

As it seems to be a 1992, was there any other colours of the SM700 done at this time?

fearfactoryüberalles":14inds9v said:

The Logic forks-if not rusted beyond being usable- are definitely worth saving as well as the frame. Removing the BB seems a tough challenge, though...Overall these C'dale frames are tough as coffin nails, if you give it a seconf chance you would not regret it-they were built to last, and are lightweight too!
!

Click to expand...

I definitely intend to give this frame and forks a second chance, with what I have going on at the moment it will be a long term project.

The Logic forks seem to be sound with a little surface rust. I expect the biggest challenge will be getting the headset and bottom bracket out of the frame. The rest can be cut off... enter angry angle grinder! Lol :twisted:

Looking around I am unsure of fitting a period LX or XT setup. What would the benefits of an XT setup over an LX? I know the original build spec does not include any XT parts but this is going to be far from original, more OEM+ period good bits.

Which brings me to this, is there anything else original on these parts? The crank seems to be a replacement, as are the shifting gear. Does the stem and bars look original? Just wondering what is worth saving.

M560 LX stuff, from about '92-to '96 - the "Black & Silver Series" are very nicely made, durable and lightweight, can be cheaply purchased too. XT stuff used "duraluminium" material (not only cast alloy) in the parts so should be stronger in racing conditions, but for normal purposes LX is as nice as it gets.

nice.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=382630

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Amazing that an expensive bike like that got dumped in a ditch. Well worthy of a sympathetic resto.