These are the kind of ugly pics that you don’t want to see much of on C&V. As if I needed another bike project, I’ve drug another homeless orphan home. Thankfully the wife hasn’t noticed yet. Pretty awful condition, but thinking not that bad really. I couldn’t exactly ID the bike for some reason. The serial# is ’85 according to the vintage Cannondale site, but I couldn’t match the color to the ’85 or ’86. This must have been a hell of a nice bike in it’s day.

Drivetrain- Suntour Cyclone
Brakes- Dia Compe Royal Compe II calipers w/Aero Compe levers
Wheelset- what I think are Miche hubs with Mavic MA2 700C (Don’t think original)

I think the drivetrain components can be restored to good order; but, I’ve not dealt with corroded aluminum tubing before. This frame is a prime candidate for my first powder coating.

This is my first Cannondale after all these years of admiration. I respect this bike brand and will attempt to restore this bike.

Wow - that thing has been seriously neglected, but has great potential.

This appears to be an '85 SR300 with the Miche hubs. - A historically important 1st year bike: Tell this to your wife - I'm sure she will fully understand and appreciate it then.

I have the same frame in red, as a Franken-rain bike (it now has fenders). Modern Campy 10-speed, with old NR front derailleur and old crappy "5-speed" crank. Shifts great !

Talk to rcdoctor about PCing Cannondales. He has done dozens. IIRC, he prefers to chemically strip them as opposed to bead blasting the old paint away. I imagine it has to do with thinness of the tubing in places. Can't wait to see the results.

If you would like, send me the freewheel for rehabbing. Looks to be a real challenge! Is it a Suntour or a Shimano?



Here's a picture of the Suntour Alpha I completed last week.



After it was cleaned and ready for grease and assembly.

I've seen worse.....
Good luck and have fun. I've been looking for a C'dale to add to the fleet (an '88 Black Lighting would be nice.....)
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I will look up rcdoctor. I thought I'd take one more daytime photo before stripping. I'm stumped on what model it is. The serial # begins with CC, which would have the frame built in 85; however, I don't see a light blue with Cyclone in the 85, 86, or 87 catalogs. Unfortunatly, the stem is extremely stuck. I turned it upside down and am soaking it with WD40, I don't have Liquid Wrench at the moment. The threads on the crank are also stripped so I can't get my crank puller to bite. I'm going to have to take it somewhere to have it tapped.

That bike reminds me of my 86 schwinn Prelude, which has Cyclone and DiaCompe gear on it. Of course, your cannondale needs alot of TLC... should be a great bike when complete!! Good Luck with your project!!

andy

Wow, that Cannondale has been SERIOUSLY abused!

My advice: Strip it down to the bare frame, have it powder coated by someone who knows what they are doing, then rebuild with good period (or semi-period, as I refer to them) components like Shimano 600 (6400 series) in 7 or 8 speed format. You'll have a bike that will last for decades and that you can pass down to your grandkids. BTW, the PC guy I use (Len McCreary at Figure LLC in Manassas Park, VA) first chemically strips, then blasts with aluminum oxide to give the surface a little tooth for the PC to grab onto.

With a nice set of Alex 130mm wheels, a 7 or 8 speed HG rear and a 640X crankset, that bike would make you DREAM of riding!

Give me a shout at rccardr@cox.net of you need any help.

I knew rccardr not "rcdoctor" (my bad) would help you out.

I'd still like to take a crack at that challenging looking freewheel!

Congrats on the find. I too would love to have a Cannondale in my size some day. Been intrigued by them since their intro.
From the pics, the frame doesn't look that bad to me. Maybe just rubbing and polishing compound is all it needs. The components...well that's a different story. An OA bath should fix the rusted hardware. Good luck with the stem and crank. Hope you have success!

I don't think the freewheel is Shimano. I'll take a close-up later today and see if you still want the challenge. The components rust doesn't concern me. As has been suggested, I've had great results cleaning then OA bath. The frame is another issue, you can see a bit of the bubbling under the paint in the last pic around the head tube welds. I didn't realize that aluminum could corrode under paint like that. I'd say the bumps cover 10-20% of the bike. The paint will have to be completely removed IMO. I'm taking the warning from others that the paint should be removed chemically. I'll have to do some research, because I have never done this before.

Bad is when has filled with water and frozen to the point of bursting the tubes.

Removing the paint is best done with "aircraft remover" (no kidding, available at auto part store) with second choice being a very skilled blaster using plastic media or walnut shells. You will want to plug the BB shell/headtube/seattube and vent holes or sand will likely end up on your new paint. Once it is blasted, wet sand it with 400 paper and locate the corroded areas and see how bad it is. 6061 has some corrosion resistance, not great but OK.

You have your work cut out for you. I'm not sure I would have even tried. Good Luck and I look forward to some picks in the future.

If your serious about trying a rebuild, here's what your up against. I once knew someone who got off on rebuilding carburetors, god love 'em. My Park tool FR-1 & FR-5 don't fir this freewheel. It has Miche skewers so assumed Miche hubs, freewheel? The grooves are very narrowly spaced. PM me if you have any ideas of the tool to remove and i'll send it to you.

I'm excited about the challenge. The components are soaking in OA right now. What to do with the frame is the conundrum.

Regina freewheel ?
I was going to post a picture of the remover, but both cameras have dead batteries.

Sounds like a FR-4. I remember when I bought it the guy made it sound like he hadn't sold one in a while

The best I can figure from the vintage Cannondale catalog site, it is an 86 SR400; a middle of the road yet nice road bike for the day. The rims on that one aren't the same, but the hubs may be. The one in the catalog had a Rigida freewheel as I recall. I'm not sure the wheelset is worth buying a unique freewheel tool for. But, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe a local shop will take it off for you .... Or just leave it on, dribble some 10w-30 oil in it, give it some spins, and be done with it.
Depends on your plan for the bike. You could upgrade to modern parts like I did above, or pick up a set of wheels in better shape if yours are too far gone.

If you manage to remove the freewheel I'd be willing to give it a shot at a full restoration. If it is a Regina, and you have need of an almost new 6 speed, let me know. I have a spare I'm not going to use. IIRC, it is a 13-23(?) but won't be certain until I dig it out of the FW box.

I have to amend my comment above about what type of freewheel the spec said it would have come with. Rigida was the rims (although, this one has MA-2). I looked at the Park Tool site and believe that you are correct in the FR-4 tool. This freewheel appears to need an Atom/Reginia 20 spline tool. I don't think it's worth buying one just for this one-time use. Unless someone wants to send me one so I can remove it and send it to you. I'll probably look for another wheelset. I'm exploring PC options at the moment.

I'm pretty sure I have a FR-4 or equivalent. If nothing better pops up I'd be happy to loan it to you.

its not often we see a cdale in this condition have the time put in for a restore. i look forward to the outcome.

I was distracted by some other projects, but wanted to add a progress update to this thread. I was seriously considering a PC, but never could pull the trigger and decided to try my first paint removal. I went to the local hardware store and found this stuff. It was a little more expensive, but I liked that it is safer than others being citrus based. I’m rather surprised by the results, this photo of the frame was taken about 3 hours after I brushed on the product.

I'm starting to wonder if I might be able to paint it myself; rattle can, brush-on, whatever. I know people have done it, I'm not sure it's for first time rank amateurs though.