Mystery Cannondale Fork Now with photo!

[JSO]

Was traveling with my family in Georgetown and was about to ascend the famous Exorcist steps when I ducked into a nearby Bike shop.

As always I whisked past the salesman and headed directly to the shop in the back and struck up a conversation about my vintage collecting niche. I asked him if he had anything cool that he would like to sell and he pulled what I thought was a Manitou 1 from a bin and handed it to me.

Normally I would've passed but it was a 1 inch with a nice long steerer and looked to be in good shape with one exception...someone had covered the entire lowers with shiny silver duct tape.

S0.... about an hour later we walked into a restaurant and I decided to take a look at the fork. Before I knew it I had removed the entire left side of its protective tape. Underneath in almost pristine condition was a candy apple red anodized fork leg with the familiar triangular
Cannondale logo from the early nineties in gold. Whoever covered this fork in the protective tape was obviously trying to achieve a "look" by transforming it to silver. But in the process they completely protected the bright red finish!



Looks like the lowers are switched left to right

Anyone remember this fork?
I don't recall.
Can you provide a catalog scan or any info?

Sorry no pics...but picture an Anti Gravity or Manitou in red.

 

[Rampage]

Fork legs have been rotated while the brace was off.
Remove brace, rotate legs 180 degrees, refit brace.

 

[Thias]

Manitou comp, I would suggest.

 

[JSO]

Re:

Any C-Dale folks out there that have any info on this fork? Looking for Catalog scans Model and year they offered? Looking more for the rationale of why they rebadged it? Was it a stopgap while finalizing the Headshok? Did they have a bunch of 1" headtube frames left over? If it was offered on a higher end frame? (If so I may look into building up)

Very puzzling...I have Googled till my fingers bled.

 

[Thias]

This is not a cannondale fork. As I wrote above, its a Manitou comp (Or parts of it. Because the lower ends look like they have som adjuster knobs, that the comp does not have.) Rebadged by someone. Not by cannondale, I would think.

Cannondale started to sell their headshok system around 91/92. But this fork of yours has a 94 or later Manitou style. The 92 Manitou models had a much skinnier brake bridge, for example.

 

[JSO]

Re:

Thanks Thias-Yes I am aware that it is likely Manitou (Although numerous small differences)
However, this was factory rebadged-not homemade.
Again...looking for any Cannondale aficionado's that can shed some light.

 

[Antstark]

Re:

They are not cannondale..they are manitou 2 legs (on the wrong way round) with a manitou magnum brace.

viewtopic.php?t=68964

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=364025

 

[Thias]

Antstark is correct. Not a "comp", as I suspected.

Why would cannondale rebadge a '95 manitou, when they had their very own suspension system well established?

But then again - I once had a scott pan american frame that was labeled "wheeler". It was from an former race driver. He was sponsored by wheeler but wanted to race on his scott frame. So he had to rebadge it. I hear that this was common practice bitd.

There is the site http://vintagecannondale.com . They have all the catalogues. No sign of your fork there that I could find.