Is an old Cannondale CAAD4 frame worth fixing up?

[bobotech]

Guy I know has a pile of scrap. In the pile is a Cannondale CAAD4 frame. There is a fork but it is totally the wrong fork, has some sort of fubared suspension fork which is odd considering the bike is a road bike.

The paint is awful. Like someone attempted to paint it several times and stripped it a little bit each time then dragged the bike though the forest of sandpaper scrapes. So it would need to be completely refinished or at least sanded down to the bare frame. And then it would need a fork.

Should I bother or just forget about it?

[HillRider]

After reading your description, the recommendation is obvious; scrap it. A thin wall aluminum frame that has been that abused isn't worth saving.

BTW, in the late 1990's Cannondale made a road bike with a suspension fork that had the suspension mechanism in the frame's oversize headtube. They called it the "HeadShok" and the bike itself the "Silk Road" but it was completely proprietary and was only made for a few years. I don't think that's what you found.

[bobotech]

After reading your description, the recommendation is obvious; scrap it. A thin wall aluminum frame that has been that abused isn't worth saving.

BTW, in the late 1990's Cannondale made a road bike with a suspension fork that had the suspension mechanism in the frame's oversize headtube. They called it the "HeadShok" and the bike itself the "Silk Road" but it was completely proprietary and was only made for a few years. I don't think that's what you found.

Yeah, i was thinking just scrap it. The fork is a normal threadless suspension fork, not something odd like what you speak of. Just seems rather sad to see a cannondale go to the great Cannondale in the sky.

[HillRider]

Just seems rather sad to see a cannondale go to the great Cannondale in the sky.

Just think of it as going to the great electric furnace at the smelting shop to be reborn as a newer, better Cannondale.