Cannondale 2.8: The last generation before CAAD

I have always had a soft spot for Cannondales, particularly the alloy frame era which I lusted after as a teenager. I recently picked up one of the 2.8 frames which was the last series before the first CAAD alloy frames. These have the distinctive cantilevered rear dropouts but carry a lot of the DNA that went into the later models such as tapered tubes, beautifully smoothed over welds and great build quality.

This one is a 1991 model, the 2.8 label is a reference to the frame weight of 2.8lbs (1.27kg). I stuck it on the scales and actually it's less than that, likely because it's a tiny 50cm frame. The forks are also surprisingly light for a steel pair, actually on par with many carbon forks... Where did we go wrong?

Plans are to build it up as a bit of a resto-mod with lots of shiny parts... deep section polished rims, polished bits and pieces, only little bits of carbon and if so only 3k weave as back then you had to show it off :)

subbed. I've always liked this gen as well.

Nice. Frameset looks pretty clean. I actually also weighed my 2.8 just the other day, 56cm came in at almost exactly 1300g with headset cups.

I love these too. I had a 3.0 ‘lightning’ a few years back. But it had 126mm spacing which limited the wheel options.

The fork is aluminium though, not steel ?

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Like the sound of this. I've got low spoke shiny 30mm silver rims on my CAAD which work well but i wouldn't rule out high spoke low profile rims if your going silver. TB14's are a bit heavy IMO but i think Brevet's come in nice and light. If you're anywhere near SE26 you're welcome to try mine for a mock-up.

I've assumed it's steel as I've actually changed the headset over and the threads feel like steel, although could be wrong! Might explain why its so damn light...

Heya that sounds good, I'm in SE1 so not too far. will shoot you a PM

you could always check with a magnet

That fork does look like aluminium to me. Stick a magnet on it, like bigshape said!

Yup, just checked it. Definitely not steel! I'm somewhat surprised as the blades are quite slim but that explains the light weight...

They're definitely aluminium. I've recently bought a 1994 2.8 R800 with the Sub-One forks that I'm building up with stuff from the parts bin. Looking forward to seeing how it rides.

Did a bit of a mock up over the weekend with some parts bit stuff just to get a feel for the bike.

Although had a bit of an issue with the bottom bracket... Something went messy with the drive side threads which meant when the BB was threaded in it did not sit flat against the frame. It turned out that the BB thread on the drive side cup was messed up and it managed to cross thread the frame and also looked like it needed a chase and a face in any case... so down to the shop

There was not much meat left and it started going slightly into the weld area, although it looked like this was already the case when I got it, width still measures at 68mm in any case.

Also got around to doing a cut and polish on the frame

Frame looks great! The color really pops after the polish. :-)

About the bottom bracket: not wanting to talk badly about your lbs but they've done quite a poor job with facing and chasing. The bb shell face is not supposed to be full of chatter marks afterwards but smooth and shiny. Guess their cutter was already blunt or the tool has got a lot of play, etc.

I hope the bottom bracket went in smoothly and sits straight anyway!

Heya, yeah I had to go to several shops to get it done as no one seemed to have the tool. Didn't realise it wasn't meant to have chatter marks, in any case the BB sits a lot flatter now without any binding.

Thanks to @jono84 I popped over to his house to see what it would look like with polished wheels. Quite like the look of these! Good news as well is that the frame seems to clear 28mm tyres pretty comfortably, which is helpful seeing the frame is really stiff.

For now I've just built it up with parts bin stuff to just have it riding. On order is an old school aero seat post which I'll polish up and will likely swap around many of the parts for polished. Need to balance out the polished and black bits.

Well nice this.

Very nicely done, looks classy

Yes this is superb. Love these old 2.8s

i like this a lot.

Good news as well is that the frame seems to clear 28mm tyres

Interesting. I'll give that a whirl on mine.

Build looks great. That’s quite a parts bin you've drawn on there.

E2a: rear triangle clears 28mm tyre easily. Front fork does not.

Pimped up the seatpost with an SR Laprade

Love it 😍

always refrained from this generation frames as I have seen some seat tubes crack on the upper end

But I guess that were the earlier gens with integrated clamping mechanism

I had one. I built it up with town bars and a front rack, then I built it up as a road bike and then it cracked just above the drop out.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/248215/

Ok, an update and a few teasers. Been thinking about this and am going to make a slight change in direction. Here's a few clues

I don't just like polishing stuff... Also managed to nab a few bits

Stay tuned!