I told myself I wouldn't start yet another Black Lightning love fest thread, as I'm sure the bowels of the forums hold so many already. Sorry...I apologize for this, but I can't stay off of this bike.

I was out of town on vacation, and rather than be relaxed, I found myself digging around on craigslist in the area. Having been a runner for a couple years, I wanted to drag a bike into the mix. Last bikes I rode were in grade school days...except for the Specialized hybrid I just purchased a month and a half ago to roll around on (and that I'm selling now). That hybrid, and a couple short spins on a few road bikes gave me the itch to get my hands on a road bike. Probably typical.

Anyway, there I am on vacation with the family and I run across a Cannondale Black Lightning on Craigslist....like many others have. Photos weren't very large or clear and luckily the forums here helped me gain some knowledge related to this bike. I nearly passed it up, but kept thinking about it for a couple of days and decided to try to catch the owner on my way out of town in a crazy move to buy this thing. This would be my first road bike. (I've just enjoyed reading oldsCOOL's thread about vintage Cannondale crit frame bikes...funny to end up with this bike as my first road bike.)

Without the entire story, which is interesting - to me, anyway - I drive an hour and a half out of the route home to go see this thing. The owner (who might even be a forum member here, actually) turned out to be an incredibly nice fellow with a number of great bikes and maintained this one very well. For the purists, no, it's not all original. I know, there goes all my cred.

Frame looked like it had never been ridden, as if off the shop floor new yesterday. He had converted the DTs to RSX ...brifters and RD...different cassette/gears. The seat post and saddle are non-original, as are the stem, handlebars, tape, and chain.

That said, he also provided the original cassette/gears and the original sprint RD as well as the DT hardware, all of which looks to have hardly ever been used. Crazy.

I believe the Wolber rims are original, perhaps, y'all would know best....the hubs say Sansin. (Take it easy, I'm still learning)

I will post up better pics for any BL lovers/haters.

While I won't make any purist friends as I don't plan to convert this to an original setup, I do plan to make the first order of business the URGENT replacement of the short stem that came with the bike. It's a nice quill stem, but super short for me. I will say, I'd do ridiculous things for a Black Lightning correct stem, which was longer anyway, and surely looked hip with the script along the side. Anyone ever see those pop up? No? I suppose I'll have to go with nitto or something of similar variety, yes? Going to change that bar tape also, back to black for sure.

Everything seems to have been incredibly well-maintained. I hope to keep this up. It laughs at me as a weak engine - wants to go. Period. Now I understand what some of these terms mean when you guys refer to handling. This thing responds to even a slight squint of a single eye lid. Hello criterium series.

1988. January, in fact. Checked the serial number. 56cm.

Seeing a few of you who've squeezed in newer/modern wheelsets into the 126mm OLD on these BL's makes me want to try that, to keep the Wolbers preserved.

Then again...heck, I'll just ride them into dust. Screw it.