Salamandrine 

BTW what's the deal with that rear rack mount thing? Is that solely a rack mount, or is there a cable stop for centerpull brakes also?

rccardr 

Never heard that story about the custom airbrushing being used to mask bowed tubes. Since so few Cannondale frames were sold individually compared to completed bikes, it may well be urban legend. I've had a few of those custom sprayed bikes float through the Lab, but they were all originally sold as complete bikes.

Undeniably, however, some Cannondale frames of the 87-88 era had top tubes or down tubes that were very slightly bowed- enough so that you might notice, but not enough to be worried about it. Never had one adrive out of alignment, but visually they made you look twice.

Lascauxcaveman 

Haven't taken a close look for bowed tubes on mine yet; I've only owned it for a couple hours. From looking at the vintage catalogs page, it looks to be an '87 SR500, all original except tires, pedals, saddle and bar tape.

Those custom graphics are fairly cheesy, just puffy little squiggles and dots airbrushed on looking very much like an afterthought. This one is too small for me, but it should clean up well for flip or parting out. It was another one of those "too cheap to pass on" deals. Stem and seat post are cooperating fully.

1987SR500c
1987SR500b
1987SR500a

RiddleOfSteel

My '86 R400 frame bows in both the TT and seat stays. My '85 ST400 does just a touch. I think my former '89 SR800 was dead straight in all tubes, IIRC. The bowing never worries me either--there's enough tubing there and it's just a part of cycling history. Frames are dynamite!

Trakhak

Not urban legend, although I understand the skepticism. As I said, the Cannondale rep himself carefully explained the problem with the heat treating and the rationale behind custom painting the bikes as a kind of "it's not a bug, it's a feature" solution.

And, by the way, the frames in question were sold as complete bikes; not sure where you got the idea that they were sold as framesets.

rccardr 

Well, there you have it, learn something new every day!

StarBiker

If I road that around the Baltimore suburbs I would be roasted alive. In the city nobody would care.

devinfan

Well I absolutely love the way it looks. Different strokes I guess. New white bar tape and you're good to go! That's a cool bike.

Salamandrine 

RE bowed tubes: FWIW it's not a matter of poor QC and not checking tubes before building the frames. Frames made for 6061 aluminum have to be heat treated to get their strength back after welding. This means baking them at 980F for an hour. That's nearing the melting point of aluminum, and so of course the tubes will have a tendency to wiggle around. Obviously at some point Cannondale managed to improve their jigs and/or process enough to prevent this.

velocentrik

This post is complete BS.

Cannondales of this era completely changed the paradigm in terms of quality and frame straightness.

tiredhands 

I don't care - I think that goofy airbrushing is just about the coolest thing ever.

RiddleOfSteel

Indeed. I have it right up there with late-'80s to early-'90s bonkers paint colors, graphics, and marble/splatter/whatever paint jobs.

Trakhak

No and yes, in that order.

sloar 

Its starting to grow on me, should be finished by the weekend. Waiting on new hoods, I went with silver cages and light gray cables and bar tape.

Grand Bois

My mother bought me a shirt that color when I was about twelve. She said that the color is called heliotrope. I intentionally spilled paint on it. I wasn't a bad kid, but there was no way I was going to wear that shirt to school.

That being said, I'd really like to try a Cannondale. I've never ridden an aluminum-framed bike.

It's funny how I remember things that happened 57 years ago, but I have trouble remembering last week.

rccardr 

Fun fact: while that color is indeed called Heliotrope, that is also the name for something-like a flower- that follows the sun.

Shirts of that color look particularly classy when paired with olive colored slacks. Or black.

RiddleOfSteel

The old ST's are special, and come with a steel fork. For the most part, you get the benefits of long wheelbase stability; tire size accommodation to 32mm with (close-ish) fender clearance; and all the rack, fender, and bottle cage mounts you could want; with a lighter chassis, while giving up zero rigidity/flex and no ride quality. My '85 ST does not give, but with 32s and a great saddle, it reacts and rides wonderfully.

Lascauxcaveman 

In the larger sizes, they are truly unique. I can't think of any bike that comes close in the combination of stiff/light/durable/smooth as my 63cm ST. I guess there are carbon bikes that likely meet 3/4 of those criteria, but they probably won't be on the road 30 years from now, like my 1990 ST will almost certainly be. I'm hoping to have a tall grandchild that will take it off my hands someday.

Oh, and for the record, mine is running 35mm tires w/fenders.

The one I posted above in post #19 seems crazy stiff and harsh by comparison, as did the 56cm ST500 I acquired and flipped this spring. I'm not completely done with old lugged steel bikes, it seems.

Whit51 

Solar, looks like all three of your top tube cable guides are intact---not always the case with vintage C'dales, and a pain to repair due to scarcity of these strange plastic guides.

sloar 

They were all there, the middle one was broke off the frame though. A little epoxy was used to put it back on.

noglider 

They say that as we get older, our memory is the second thing to go. But to be serious, it's distressing me, probably too much. It has become a problem at work, and my self-consciousness is heightened because I'm the oldest person at work. My boss is 17 years younger than I am. I don't want to be the guy who says "The way we did it in the olden days was ..." all day long.

You really should try a Cannondale. I don't have one, but I do like them. I remember when they first came out. I stopped into a bike shop and told the owner I was a bike mechanic. As a result, he trusted me and told me to take his showroom Cannondale out for a test. I loved it. It was stiff where you want it and not too harsh. Some people find the early Cannondales to be too harsh, but it's a matter of taste.

RiddleOfSteel

You lucky ducks with your later Canti-equipped ST's! It seems Cannondale got hip to the tire capacity potential of those bikes and did that, opening up the forks and stays. Not having side pull calipers and their inherent internal narrowness helps immensely. For now, my ST is heavier on the 'S' and it is splendid.

I just put together (again) my '86 SR400 with full 6400 pieces (dark grey anodized Wolber GTX rims, too), black stem and bars, and carbon/black seat post and saddle. A bit of a midnight edition, but with very polished 7400 Dura-Ace chainrings. It's as if all of a sudden, steel (except for the fork in this case) doesn't matter. And I am the RiddleofSteel! Really nice steel is really nice, and I am not selling any of it, but this vintage Cannondale aluminum is where it's at if you want all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of a race frame (of this era).

Perhaps these frames are like heavy duty trucks. With no weight (a light rider) they are bouncy and harsh etc. But with a good bit of weight in the bed (a rider that's 180-200+ lbs), they ride real good and perform well. Though I've had an '89 56cm SR700 (full aluminum frame and fork) that rode beautifully--just like my 66cm SR800 of the same year. Anyway, whatever, tall Cannondales rock and are worthy of good parts being hung on them.

sloar 

Waiting on new tires, then I'll decide how I want to finish it. I'm thinking about rebuilding the wheels and a nice Brooks.

noglider 

I actually like the way it looks.