Cannondale not what it seems
 

My brother has just stripped back the paint on an old Cannondale road frame. Extremely thin tubing - the seatstay was cracked around the dropout.

Lo and behold, under the paint was evidence of a previous manufacturer's name - Burnett.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

The provenance of the frame is that it came from a professional mountainbike racer who used to race Cannondale.

I don't know what that means, but I've never heard anything that suggests they weren't made by Cannondale, if that's what you are implying.

I'm not implying, I'm stating that when the Cannondale paint and logo was removed, underneath was the remains of the logo Burnett.

The frame number does not match usual Cannondale practice. The frame definitely came from Cannondale sources.

The frame is now bare metal, but the traces of both names survive in the form of a slightly different colour of alloy.

So who or what was Burnett?

No idea, but it is standard practice to use your prefered brand and just paint on the manufacturer's name who sponsors you. No idea about practices in this field, but it happens all the time with stuff like golf. So whether B went over C of vice versa, don't know.

The Burnett was under the Cannondale.

The frame is identical looking to Cannondale frames of the era, just very light and paper thin.

We're puzzled. Will try to photograph the traces of the logos.

Try getting an answer from Cannondale, its probably a long shot but so what, its sort of interesting. I bet if it has a cracked tube they are gonna say its not a true Cannondale, "Burnett made it."

Or maybe its just a homemade frame by some guy Burnett and someone painted it, stuck some Cannondale decals on it, and fabricated the story of the pro mountain bike racer. Sounds like a job for Perry Mason. Ozzy's version of "Perry Mason" rips and shreds. Oh, I forgot this is a bike forum, sorry. Later.

Pro racer you say?

Could very well be he resprayed his favorite ride stuck on some decals and then sold the bikes that the sponsor gave him.

Would a bike racer do such a thing :eek: Oh, hell yes. They gotta eat too. There's guys who who get 4 sets of kit and then wear the same jersey and shorts all season and sell the spares at the end of the year.

I think if you check my previous posts, you'll find I don't fabricate anything but bikes - definitely not stories :)

The bike racer in question is away bike racing, but we'll be asking him when he gets back. I seriously doubt he would bother going to the trouble of painting a road bike, he's a downhill racer - afaik it was given to him some time ago by the Cannondale factory or distributor.

The frame is identical in all detail to normal Cannondale frames of that time which is why we are puzzled. If it looked different it would be kinda obvious to us.

I'l try to get some photos. I don't know if the slightly different shade of alloy where the name was will show.

I'm interested in knowing the answer purely for historical reasons. The frame has no value now - we've already butchered it by making track ends for it and welding them on. Then there was the slight problem of the hole my brother ground into it when using a power sander to remove the brake bosses. That's how we knew the tubing is tissue paper thin :eek: We've welded it up since then.

Datako, I wasn't trying to imply you fabricated your story, I was only saying that you or someone could have purchased a used bike that someone tried to pawn off as something of more value than it really was, it is only one possibility of many. I trust you man, good luck with it.

I had a Cannondale M300 - recreational model, not serious racing - that appeared by serial # and style to be a 1999, yet the paint job, decals and front badge were all 2000. I would imagine it is not uncommon to use leftover unsold inventory (although this was made in May 99) and slap the next year's model decals, paint, etc. on it - especially for a rec model. I contacted Cannondale, and while they have been very helpful to me for years, they really would not fess up to even doing this simple switchover. One response said "It's a 2000." Then when I countered with the other info they simply stated "It's a 99", with no real explaination for it.

I realize this is an entirely different situation than yours... but my point is.... I would definitely contact them to see how they respond. With all the corporate and manufacturing changes with Cannondale these last few years, I am also curious to know if there are any BFers who may have ever worked for Cannondale....especially "back in the day"... who are familiar with framebuilding history.

I am not a "conspiracy theorist" type person... I do understand the whole "global economy" situation that necessitates the mass production of bikes (and other things) in order for some companies to survive. However, I do think it is the right of the consumer to know the origin of anything we purchase - and I strongly believe in not only our rights but our obligations as consumers to press manufacturers (of anthing - not just bikes) for this information. After all, where would they be without us?

Good luck... I'm anxious to hear if you get any answers.

Remember the "Huffy's" that Lemond and team were riding...and all of them custom handbuilt jobs.

No worries. We got it directly from the racer as a present (he's a neighbour). When he gets back from the World Championships we'll ask him what he knows about it.

The quality of the welds and the general fabrication of the frame suggests it has been very carefully hand made rather than it being an inferior product, but maybe all Cannondale road bikes are like this :)

I'm not so much interested in Cannondale's part in this as wondering who or what was Burnett. I haven't been able to find any reference to Burnett on the web. Burnett looks like a quality frame builder and yet there is nothing out there that I have been able to find. Or maybe it was a sub-brand of Cannondale's.

Tried to photograph the traces of the name but couldn't get a satisfactory photo.

I have a theory*- it was a bike made for a sponsored team that used a "Burnett" logo (I'm sure the Cannondale logo was still displayed too) and it was returned to Cannondale at the end of a season- maybe the sponsorship ended, who knows- and they just repainted it to give to one of their MTB racers for training the next year.

*By theory I mean it's a total guess! Sure would be interesting to find out the truth though.