Cannondale Series 3.0 Broken Back Wheel...Help?
 

Hi guys,

I recently bought a Cannondale Series 3.0 road bike. It's one of the early 90s models. Anyway, someone tightened the rear spokes too much and the rim started to come apart, so I need a new rear wheel. I measured the drop-out spacing and it looks to be 126mm (the broken wheel has a 6 speed cassette)...

Can I put a 130mm wheel in there? Or do I need to try to find a 126mm wheel? Any idea where to buy and what kind of price I should look for?

Thanks so much for the help...

—Zack

Shouldn't be a problem. I just replaced 7 cassette 26" wheel with a 5 cassette 26" that was lying around and it fits/works fine although the v-brakes had to be adjusted with the tighter fit.

And I also did that with a 27" wheel,replaced it with a 700c ($50 at LBS) which was a tad wider and had to bend/pull the fork a bit to get it to drop.

craiglist, pawnshops, LBS, REI, nashbar, ebay etc...

Steel frames can safely be respaced, for other materials you'll have to settle for pulling the dropouts apart to get a wider wheel in. There's usually a stack of spacers(or one chunky one) on the left side of the hub. This can be replaced with a thinner one and the wheel redished if you really want a narrower wheel.
But an early 90s with a 6-speed rear? I'd have thought that they'd already been phased out from new bikes by then.

And tightening the spokes until the rim comes apart? doesn't make sense.

AFAIK there's no such thing as a 5-speed cassette.

Find a 126 spaced wheel. If you force a larger one in it will put stress on the hub axle and bearings.

I forgot to mention that the it's an aluminum frame. So I've heard that forcing something in is a bad idea... Anyone know where I can find a 126mm rear wheel? Craigslist doesn't seem to have many rear wheels period, let alone 126mm...

Yeah I think it's an early 90s. Could be late 80s, not sure exactly. I bought the bike in June and noticed that the wheel was getting out of true a few weeks ago. All the sudden the wheel got much worse (aggressively rubbing against the brakes) so I took it in to my local bike shop. Mechanic said that the spokes were tightened too much so that the rim started to crack in spots. The cracks are clearly visible and there's one spoke that almost ripped itself out it looks like.

This mechanic seemed to think there was no other explanation...

3.0 frame would be late 80's. The 2.8 would be around 1990. I have a 3.0 MTB. It came with Suntour XC-M components and a 7 speed freewheel. Have your LBS rebuild using your existing hub with a new rim and spokes.

Ah, so that's what you meant with the rim coming apart!

Well, that makes perfect sense, and cracks around the spoke holes are indeed a common result of overtensioning. There are a couple of other ways for rims to come apart as well, which haven't got anything to do with overtightened spokes.

But they're also a result of riding on rough surfaces, hardened rims and overly stiff frames with no compliance.