General Cycling Discussion - Advice. Opportunity to buy road bike.

Hi, everyone. I am new to this forum and this is my first post. Looks like a great way to hook up with other bikers. I look forward to chatting with you all.
I have an opportunity to purchase a 1997 Cannondale Silk Road 900 double. The gentleman who is selling it has ridden it for two seasons and it sounds like he has really maintained it well. It has a spinergy spox wheelset. I have not seen it yet but will be checking it out this afternoon. I am an avid mountain biker so I know my way around a bike, but have little (if any) experience with road bikes. I plan to put a lot of miles on the road this year so I want to get a good road bike, but since I am new to road biking I don't want to go out and buy a new bike, I would rather find a good used bike at a good price. I can't find any information or reviews on the web on this year and model of bike. He is asking $700 for the bike, sound like a good price. Any thoughts???:D

Well, looking at the Cannondale website I don't see a Silk Road, they have Road Warrior and Silk Warrior, butthat doesn't really matter. The Silk warrior 900(top line) is a road bike with a Headshok. The Road Warrior 900(not as good as Silk Warrior) Is rigid with 700x28c tires. Are you looking to be a serious roadie? Or just want to ride road? If you just want to ride then if the bike is the Silk Warrior, it might not be a bad deal. Checkout Cannondale (http://www.cannondale.com) website.

It is the Silk warrior 900. I am going to want to log some miles but I'm probably not going to be an extreme enthusiast. I will likely commute to work occasionally (20+ miles) and will ride in the evenings/weekends. Time and family will not allow for extensive hardcore road trips. I may do the STP ride this summer. I need to balance my road riding with my MTB. I have seen a couple posts against the head shock. Your opinion???

Welcome to BikeForums.

If you go here (http://search.atomz.com/search/?wholesite=in&sp-k=&sp-q=silk+road&sp-a=sp08169001&keywords=http%3A%2F%2Fforums14.consumerreview.com%2Fcrforum%3F127%40%40.ee7b55e&in=.ee7b55e&searchterm=silk+road&section=Reviews&formsubmit.x=10&formsubmit.y=7) you'll find a few reviews of 1999 Cannondale Silk Road 500 and 1000 bikes. Also 2000 Cannondale Silk Road 800. All probably very similar to the 900.

Sounds like an excellent bike and a steal at $700.

Let us know if you get it and how it rides. Pictures too. ;)

$700 is probably about 1/3 of the original price of the bike when it was new. The Silk Road 900 [that's what the model was called] was a well-specced bike with a combination of 105 and Ultegra components. It doesn't have great race geometry -- it's more of a tourer/sport bike -- and it's a bit heavy by road bike standards, but it looks like a fairly nice ride. As a transition from MTB to the road, it'd probably be pretty good, but if you take to the road in a big way, you'll probably eventually want something more agressive.

The shock is nice, but I wonder if it smooths things out any more than a good carbon fork. I'd be slightly concerned about maintaing the fork, but you're a MTB guy, so I'll leave that though to you.

See if you can bring him down in price...

There is a site dedicated to Spinergy wheel failures:

http://home.interlynx.net/~pjdu/

I've only ridden a Cannondale with a Headshok once, I loved it. Of course, this is coming from a Cannondale lover.