Thanks for the insight khuon and psyklnut

one thing that might be important to note is that the fork is NOT suspended, but could still be aftermarket. (it doesn't look conventional)

The brakes are XT (at least that's what it says on the pads)

early '90s sounds about right for this bike, I think.

and live 311... the front tire is on the right way now

EDIT:

I just called Cannondale and from what they could tell me the mysterybike was not made by them; the serial number is in the wrong format for any cannondale manufacuturing year.