Originally Posted by
richpool
I picked up this 1987 SR800 Black Lightning from the original owner. ... As well as the bar end shifters and a saddle change. He also slapped on that ****ty foam bar tape stuff. The weird thing is he changed out the aero brake levers to some Non Aero Dia Compe Gran Compes. I cant figure out why. Ill repost it when I make my changes are done.
Likely he wanted padded grips to dampen vibration to his hands, then discovered that it was a pain to route the aero brake cables under the grips - especially around the bends in the bars.
It was either 86 or 87 I think that the Cannondale R frames still had eyelets on the rear dropouts. A much more versatile bike than it should have been.