1990 Cannondale SM400

[jonnymcenroe]

Latest project is in!

My first Cannondale exciting times!

I'm the second owner...

A lady and her mum shared use of this when they lived in London in the 90's.
(Anyone who worked at Evans in 1990 wanna explain the sticker situation?! Spent a good 10 minutes scraping those off today!)
And it's sat relatively unused for the last 20 odd years.



I'm unkeen to throw money into this one, however...

I will be in the market for a pair of canti brake levers in black a 7spd mech to replace this SiS unit and some black alloy bars (anyone?)
I'm thinking suntour or sachs rear mech.

Replacing the cantilever brakes with some black m732s or lovely silver deerhead ones (thoughts?)
These and some deore XT thumbies would be the only shimano

Notes.

Almost original machine
(front wheel replaced with a fetching anodised one of the era with a CST tyre)
Perhaps the saddle is a replacement and the rear mech is shimano.
Farmer John is intact!
Frame design is totally bonkers.
Size specific tubing did not matter to these guys.
I'm chipping paint off with every turn.
These frames look like a melted bar of chocolate.

Steel bars and original grips must go who wants 'em?!

edit* me, as it turns out the sweep and size of the bars are ace as are the grips, I didn't ever think i'd be going anywhere near 1990 or before and this bike is taking me into this uncharted territory and I knida like it!

Unicrown forks with 1" steerers and double eyelets are the new boxxers.

Black plastic dia-compe brakes are nice to look at terrifying in use, back one has a fair bit squeal, loose bolt in there someplace and there's some aztec grey pads (long time no see!)

A shifter has gone missing at some stage and a replacement thumb shifter handles the indexing
I think a tutorial on how to use the acushift express plus XCM is required

First impressions last and I love it.
(cheers Mario! Thank you Claire!)

 

[24pouces]

Re:

Very cool bike !
You got the same frame than the SM2000 or Omega . Tou can upgrade it
For information, it’s a SM400, not a M400. The S disappeared in 1992

 

[jonnymcenroe]

Re: Re:

Very cool bike !
You got the same frame than the SM2000 or Omega . Tou can upgrade it
For information, it’s a SM400, not a M400. The S disappeared in 1992

Merci mec! I didn't know that. My knowledge on Cannondale is limited, expanded now thanks to yourself!

Wow really, so... all the bikes that year shared the same 3.0 series frame?
And they just specced them differently?

The catalog shows this however I thought the sm800 had a different geometry and that the sm1000 and sm2000 had somehow improved or refined versions of it. If it's true then that is cool.

This looks like the beast of the east geometry due to the small frame size and the resulting sloping top tube.

I'd love to upgrade the fork to the ritchey or pepperoni however this bike is staying as original as possible I think!

 

[24pouces]

Re:

Yes, all the 1990 Mountain bike used the same 3.0 frame. The SM800 keeps the Beast of the East geometry with high BB and Sloping top tube. The "competition series" (SM700, 800, 1000 and 2000) got a smaller fork rake. Ritchey for SM700 to 1000 and the first edition Pepperoni (which was only called Cannondale Aluminum). The top of line and limited edition Omega used the Pepperoni too

 

[jonnymcenroe]

Re:

Shakedown ride today.



Extremely squirrley riding on difficult terrain, dual descending with a pal...

Big grin.

 

[aardvarkash10]

Re:

"Extremely squirrley riding on difficult terrain, "

I have the 1988 version in a larger frame size. They are squirreley on any terrain! A fun ride though, and a great platform for a lightweight singlespeed build.

 

[mk one]

nice, regret selling my 800.

 

[jonnymcenroe]

Re: Re:

"Extremely squirrley riding on difficult terrain, "

I have the 1988 version in a larger frame size. They are squirreley on any terrain! A fun ride though, and a great platform for a lightweight singlespeed build.

We almost collided, was so close to eating it

Seems to be absolutely lovely. Must resist the urge to overly modify this one however!

My most vintage bike next to the '91 explosif

Would love to see your '88 and @ 24Pouces would love to see some images of your Omega, your build thread has lost the files.

 

[jonnymcenroe]

nice, regret selling my 800.

Argh, no regrets there unless you are building a museum!

 

[ibbz]

very nice - I bought my wife a M800 and I love it more than she does and I ride it more than she does