Cannondale Conundrum....

[Mid life Kona]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some help and guidance again... As my 99 Explosif build is slowly edging towards completion, and will soon be a great useable trail bike, what better way to celebrate than to build another bike.. :facepalm:

I was lucky enough to buy the Cannondale frame pictured for peanuts, and it is one of the cleanest frames for its age I've seen. The condition is perfect, with a couple of very minor cosmetic Mark's letting it down. The colour is Pearl Blue on the sides and Black over the top and bottom the tubes. But, other than being a Cannondale, and made in the USA, I don't know what frame it is. I've used an online dating code and it's possibly a May 95 frame.

It came fitted with heavy, old, rusty and seized Suntour XCR forks. I didn't see it as an issue as I had a pair of Black project 2 forks that I was going to use for now, until I could find the right forks as my intention with it was to build a rigid bike on sticks for commuting. However, my dilemma is that the frame has a 1" headstock and I've never had a bike that isn't 1 1/8", and I'm clueless what to do, or what is available

Are there good, straight legged forks with a 1" steerer and a decent headset available or have I bought a bit of a Lemon? I'd like to fit some proper Cannondale forks, (P Bone?) but nothing with a curved leg. Does anyone have any ideas, or have a gained something to hang in the garage?

And I apologise for the upside down image, I tried saving it and rotating it on my tablet, and it still flipped it again.

 

[k-rod]

Re:

Howdy.

Tons of 1" stuff floating around out there, but it can be tricky to find ...

Nice frame.

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Are you sure the head tube is 1 inch? It could have reducer cups fitted. I'm no expert but I've not come across a cannondale with a 1 inch head tube before.

 

[hamster]

EXotic do a nice carbon straight leg fork with 1" steerer in a range of lengths. Should be ideal, I really rate mine.
https://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=12&&q=fork_selector&

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

Re: Re:

Are you sure the head tube is 1 inch? It could have reducer cups fitted. I'm no expert but I've not come across a cannondale with a 1 inch head tube before.

*deleted this because I was talking crap!*

See below.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

It looks like low-end cannondales in 1995 did come with a 1" headset - the M200 was the same colour as yours, and appeared to not have a replaceable gear hanger.

 

[velomaniac]

Re:

Many of the M series, 200, 300, 400 and ppssibly even 800 were 1" steerer back in 90's. The non replaceable rear hanger is not a sign of low end, all of the older aluminium frames by many manufacturers had built in hangers. Only after it was realised how difficult it was to fix a busted alloy hanger were replaceable ones invented.
The bike pictured might might be a M400 as the colour is similar to a bike a friend of mine owns.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

the only reason I mentioned the hanger is that *most* cannondale MTBs in the 1995 catalogue had replaceable hangers, but there are a few pics on the web of the 95 M200, (which wasn't in the US catalogue) which was the same colour, and didn't have the replaceable hanger.

1995 is totally credible as it has the right decals, colour, and the rear doesn't have the seat stays intercepting the chainstays ahead of the dropouts. So *if* it is a 95, looks like it might be low end.

 

[legrandefromage]

Annoyingly 1 inch ahead, just to make things really awkward

 

[sinnerman]

Re:

1",

Get yourself a nice 1" rock shox or pace if you fancy suspension.

Plenty of manufacturers were also using the Project two fork, (with out the project two decals) as it was made by spinner and made avaliable to all.