Cannondale M800 (Light Project)

[stephan]

New Project starting for over Christmas.

1994 Cannondale M800 (Beast of the East)

I bought one of those new back in 1994 after a car crash, this was to get me back on my feet again after a fractured femur that occurred during the crash.

I sold the bike in 1996 for around £350 - I paid around £750/£800 new for it in a end of season sale at Dales Cycles in Glasgow (My best mate Billy drove me through that day to Glasgow - cheers man), they had the full M range back then and the M800 in Viper Red just blew me away at the time. I have waited a long time for one to come up for sale in this condition, which is fantastic for the year.

There are a couple of scratches but nothing really much, so I have ordered some: Touch Up Paint For Dodge Viper Red AU106LRN, AU106RN, AY95LRN, LRN, PRN, RN and some 2000 grit paper and will get some blending solution. First I need to strip the bike completely.

I have a new wheel set with Black XT Hubs and alloy finished Ambrosio Rims with DT Swiss Stainless Spokes to put on this build.

I will be looking for a 27.2 Ritchey Seat Post with the offset in the Alloy finish but it looks like they are hard to get the now, I have found one place in the UK.

The Nickel Stem needs polished and I have tried a test area with Tin Foil and Dr.Beckmann's Rescue for Finer Metal polish which seems to be working, this will take a few hours to do though.

Am not changing much else as I want to keep this as standard as possible, new seat, cables, grips and tyres and possibly a new BB. (Cassette and new 7 speed Chain also) - get rid of the bar ends.

I think this M800 will compliment my 1998/9 Viper Red SAECO well.

Will try and keep this post updated. thanks for viewing.

 

[Vesatoro]

Love the -94 Cannondales with the evo headsets.

 

[stephan]

Love the -94 Cannondales with the evo headsets.

I always thought they were a straight 1 1/4" through top and bottom, I assume they are the "EVO" style headset but 1 1/4 top and bottom but not tapered to 1 1/8 at the top? Do you have any resource/info if you can still buy new ones? Looking at it a straight 1 1/4 top and bottom Chris King (Cups) would be far to "tall" for the steerer tube. (unless I removed a spacer or two)

 

[Vesatoro]

1-1/4” all the way, no tapers. I don’t think there is anyone making new ones.

 

[stephan]

1-1/4” all the way, no tapers. I don’t think there is anyone making new ones.

Thanks for your help Vesatoro, the Dia-Compe one on it is in very good condition, clean and service should sort it out, possibly get the bearing code if they are not loose bearings and order the top and bottom bearings for it. (fitting a standard 1 1/4 Chris King or alike and removing spacers is going to take that special look away)

 

[Vesatoro]

Caged bearings they are.

 

[stephan]

Caged bearings they are.

Hopefully I can find new cages and balls for the set, either that loose the cages and fit the appropriate size of loose bearings, unsure on this method though as they probably fitted cages for a reason? However in my youth building bikes I always threw away the cages (1970's this was) and just fitted loose bearings, though the diameter/size of the bearing to the cup I guess has to be correct. (I will see what they are like when I get it stripped)

 

[stephan]

Well that looks like a good start, the bottle colour is a good match if you look close to the bottom left hand side of the bottle and the frame. The rest of the bottle and frame are distorted with my back light, we will see. The codes for the Viper Red are in the first post of this thread. (However it was around £9.00 for that small bottle, you wont be painting a whole frame with it, codes are at the top if you need to mix a lot)

I will provide some pictures of the small scratches before and after shots once painted in due course. What I did read though is that those USA Cannondale frames were baked in a hot oven once painted, also UV light over the years discolour paint, will need to look out the ex-girlfriends Turbo £80 Hair Dryer to "Bake" me touchup's

 

[stephan]

Caged bearings they are.

Hi Vesatoro, I note you have a "Cannondale M800 BotE -92 "the Beas/tess" - Do you know the BB size for this bike in mm (ie) spindle length and thread size? I am yet to strip the bike but looking about at prices for a "new" BB probably a Shimano BB-UN71 (I think the UN71 is the XT BB)

(Any suggestions welcome)

The one I have is a M800 93/94 but am sure the BB size will be the same.

Thanks.

edit: wide range here, I guess a new cheaper one would be better than an old XT one, maybe Tange?

 

[Vesatoro]

Right bb is a 68mm BSA thread shell and 122(,5)mm spindle. Is the current one broken, or why do you need to replace? I would replace with 50-series or 70-series, not with a new cheap one. The old ones are built to last.