I have an early (83-85) cannondale ST500 that I got last year as my first road bike. The bottom bracket recently self-destructed and I'm wondering what an appropriate replacement part would be - size, manufacturer, etc. The bike has mostly original parts from what I can tell, looking at old catalogs on the web, including the original crankset which takes a square taper, so I'd probably like to keep that... other desire would be to keep price fairly low, since I don't ride really far or fast (yet).

A perhaps tangentially related question - I have been having a problem where the chain will fall between the largest and middle chainrings (44 and 48 Suginos, also original I think, as are the shift components). Is this fixable, or should I be looking for a new crankset at the same time as the BB?

I will hopefully do all the install myself - I'm not terribly familiar with bike maintenance, but am a mechanical engineer and have co-workers who ride a lot and have tools.

Thanks in advance
-Nick

PS - new to the site but have found it very helpful so far.