1996 Cannondale Silk Road SR400

[jimo746]

Time to start on this 'Dale project bike, unsure of the year? Edit: Date code on BB shows its a 1996 model.
It has a DD15 headshock to give a bit of comfort up front, it seems to work ok although there's a creaky spring in there somewhere, so a strip down and check might be a good idea.

The frame is in pretty good shape, save for a few areas of bubbling paint which seems to be the curse of Aluminium Cannondales.
Components are a mish mash of 105, Tiagra, 600, RSX, and Sora hubs on Mavic MA3 rims, combined with the cheapest looking tyres I've seen in a long time.
But amazingly everything seems to work together..

First job is a clean and de-gunge, and replace the bar tape and saddle...

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Took the headshock apart this afternoon.
The decal on the forks states "DD15 Headshock" which has a Hydraulic damping cartridge... What I found though was an SR Headshock, so just elastomer/spring.
As expected, the elastomers had compressed and become rock hard. Fortunately I had a couple of spare "Firm" Pace RC-35AB fork elastomers that were the same diameter, and with a few cuts of a Stanley knife I was able to fashion some replacement elastomers.
The roller bearings felt smooth so I left those alone for now.
A quick test and everything seems fine



Photo of the headshock with old elastomers (I forgot to take a photo of the replacements :facepalm.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

I changed the bar tape and saddle, and also fitted some tyres from a spare set of wheels, and set off on a ride this afternoon.
The Headshok did its thing, the only time I noticed it was a bit of bobbing from the front end when climbing out of the saddle, it's only 15mm of travel in any case, enough to soften the worst of the country roads (and the farm track I ended up having to go down :facepalm.

 

[mk one]

Never seen one of these before, and dont think i have seen another road bike with front suspension either. Are there others?

 

[Chris D]

Re:

I ain't sure anyone else built in forks like Cannondale but Rock Shox had there Ruby girl which appeared on road bike around the mid-late '90's? It was a fad for the one day cobbled classics ie Paris-Robaiux. Only lasted a couple of years.

 

[jimo746]

Never seen one of these before, and dont think i have seen another road bike with front suspension either. Are there others?

These were made from around 1994-2001 I believe, there have been loads of road bikes modified with suspension for the Paris-Roubaix and other cobbled Classics, eg the Rockshox Ruby fork, or the mental 1994 Bianchi full-suspension bike that Johan Museeuw rode (and broke).

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Spent a bit of time on the 'Dale today, fitted a 105 (1055) chainset and 8-speed brifters.

Out of curiosity I weighed the RSX 3x7 brifters to compare, and they weighed the same as the 105's, they look identical (just a different finish), so the only difference is you get an extra click with the 105 brifters
I replaced the cables whilst I was doing the above, might as well.

Now I had an 8-speed shifter I needed an 8-speed cassette, the rear hub is an 8-speed Sora, just with a 7-speed cassette and a spacer.
On checking the cassette it was worse than I thought, it was an 11-18 :shock: so a quick rummage turned up a 21T cog and a spacer, so I now have an 11-21 8-speed cassette

The brakes are still RSX, but seem to work just fine. I suppose for completeness I should look for some 105 calipers, but going by the brifters the only difference will be in the finish, so I'm in no hurry to change them.

I'll snap a few pics when I get out on it this weekend.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Can anyone tell me why there are these 2 bolts on the fork dropouts?
I assume they are like "lawyer tabs" and could be removed if required? (I think I'll just leave them there tbh).
Or are they for mudguard/ front rack??

 

[jimo746]

Re:

So at the moment this bike is almost fully period correct, with the original Coda components and Shimano 105 1055 groupset, the only oddball is some Mavic Ksyrium wheels circa 2005.

As I seem to like the frame I plan to retro-mod it with a modern groupset and parts, basically keep the 90's frame and kit it out with new components (if I want to ride Retro I still have a Giant CFR with DA 7400).

So I've been shopping online and bits are starting to arrive

I'll update the thread with progress, but expect 2x11 and much carbon

 

[xxnick1975]

Re:

What a cool bike, looks nice now but think a modern groupset will really suit it and tidy the front end cables up. Great job