1995 Cannondale Super V 2000 "The Royal V"

[Vesatoro]

The last bike that was missing from my collection of Cannondales from 1993 to 1998. Bought this after a year of thinking and bargaining to 400€. One of my dream bikes from the catalogues, when I certainly couldn’t afford. Love the revolutional Super V design with the carbon fibre swingarm.

The bike is in quite a ridden, but in technically good condition. Probably ridden quite hard (scrapes and small dents) for a short time, then abandoned, as the drivetrain is still original in fairly good shape.

Probably will only do some minor changes. Maybe polished Al stem/bar and seatpost, and replace the Turbo with Vetta TT or Flite.

 

[Vesatoro]

Stem, bar, ends, seatpost and seat changed. And wheel qrs. Looks better. I might go with Flite though, and swap to CODA Competition bar.

 

[Vesatoro]

Well, got the seat changed to Flite, seatpost sanded and polished, and tires changed to proper IRC Mythos XC ones. Now it looks like it should
Really fun to ride. This is my first 1st generation Cannondale Super V, and the suspension is really different to the Raven I've ridden before. The swingarm slack is noticeable on bigger bumps, which I'm not used to. But love how rigid the swingarm and Headshok forks are, no wonder they were applauded back then over the multiple pivots and early suspension forks.

 

[d00m]

Sweet bike, one I lusted after as a teenager and still do now

 

[Brotrob]

Beautiful refurbishment and bike And again we seem to mirror our tastes in bikes @Vesatoro

You mentioned you notice slack in the rear swingarm on bigger bumps on the old high-pivor swingarms. Could you explain what you mean, especially compared to the low-pivot swingarms from 1996 onwards?

 

[Vesatoro]

Beautiful refurbishment and bike And again we seem to mirror our tastes in bikes @Vesatoro

You mentioned you notice slack in the rear swingarm on bigger bumps on the old high-pivor swingarms. Could you explain what you mean, especially compared to the low-pivot swingarms from 1996 onwards?

When the single pivot rear suspension compresses, it causes slack on the upper chain as the distance between rear axle and chainring reduces. On the lower chain the derailleur spring will take the slack, but for upper chain it means that the chainring (and pedals) starts to spin faster for a fraction of a second. And when the suspension again expands, the opposite happens, you feel more resisting force in the pedals. The nearer the single pivot is to the bottom bracket, the less slack there will be. If the pivot is cocentric to the bb axle there will be no effect at all.

 

[Brotrob]

Thank you! I also found this article on the topic of high pivot designs, interesting how fashion "returns"

 

[Vesatoro]

Yet classic, I ended up feeling the look of the bike is a bit dull. So when I found a long sought red KORE Headshok stem, I realized I have enough red bits and pieces to do a bit different kind of build. I have always been a bit doubtful about the combination of violet and red, but I decided to give it a chance. So, I decorated the bike with a red components: Mavic 517 / Middleburn wheelset, KORE stem, seat post clamp, jockey wheels, BB bolts, Panaracer Fires and front skewer with Rasta colors. There still are some blue highlights also. Some small details are still missing: appropriate rear skewer, headset bearing cover etc. I now noticed it looks almost a British royal crown, so I named the build "The Royal V" Proper photoshoot when small details are filled.