make a cannondale bad boy ultra
 

I have read its possible to fit 700 wheels on a cannondale F400 / F500 to effectively turn it into a bad boy

can anyone confirm if this is possible

and is there an advantage over just buying a bad boy in first place ?

I think it could be a cheaper option, and think the end result will be lighter - anyone ?

My main commuter rig is an f500. I have trimed it down to a 1x9 and put 100psi, 26x1" tires on it. It rides as smooth as my road-specific bikes now. Personally, I would not get all caught up in switching to 700C. I used to be, but it turns out it really doesn't make that much difference.

Cheaper, probably. Lighter, I cant tell. By the time I put racks, bags, lights and the rest of the gear on it; mine aint light.

In 2004 I built my own version of the Bad Boy. I used an aluminum MTB frame [this was a generic "test" frame for the bike catalog I worked for] , 700c wheels, disc hubs, and a Surly disc-only fork. The bottom bracket was a little high, but not enough to make things screwy. It was set up as a 1x9 and used 700 x 35 tires with plenty of clearance. A guy I worked with made me an offer for it and bought it for his Dad. I should have never sold that bike. I'd say that the only real change is bottom bracket height. You could probably get a cheaper Alu frame that would fit the tires and come out with a great bike for less money (IMHO).

I have an '07 Caffeine F3, which is the same frame as the '07 Bad Boy Ultra. It can indeed take 700C wheels and tires - I put a set from my road bike on it to test fit, and it's fine with 700x25 tires on it. There's not a huge amount of clearance to the bottom of the fork crown - I'm sure you could do 700x28, but 700x35 probably wouldn't.

Unfortunately my road bike wheelset doesn't have discs, so I can't ride it like that. One of these days I'm going to lace up a 700C wheelset on disc hubs for it.

When I bought the Caffeine, I'd actually been looking at the Bad Boy Disc. A leftover '07 Caffeine was only $100 more than the Bad Boy, and gave me a much more capable mountain bike than I'd have had if I'd gotten the Bad Boy Disc and added a 26" wheelset and MTB tires. I also liked the blue color of the Caffeine better than the flat black of the Bad Boy. The only downside is that it's rather expensive to buy a 700C disc wheelset for the Caffeine - there aren't many to choose from, and they all seem to be rather high end. That's why I'll end up lacing my own.

Depends on the fork. The Bad Boy Ultra has the Headshok fork. It'll take 700cc wheels with 28mm tires. Don't know if the standard fork has enough clearance. BBU's used to be F600's with black paint and 700's,although in the last year of two they've also changed the gearing to a touring triple up front. As for weight,I've weighed both my '05 BBU and '06 F600,and they were within a couple ounces of each other. The F600 was a little heavier,prolly because of the bigger knobby tires.

If 700c won't fit, there is always 650b.

edit: granted of course you have disc brakes.

thanks all - I have now seen a possible donor cannondale f900 with lockable shock and coda disc brakes -


any reason why this would not work for fitting 700 wheels

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2012/img1838cyo5.jpg
Its actual 96' Cannondale F500 MTB with headshock, however I convereted it with 700c wheels as Commute/ or Urban bike like bad-boy ultra. My bike will convert into singled-speed, and front disc brake when I get headshock fork with mount brake pretty soon!