Cannondale ATB commuter + 2.8 series road bike

Boring non-update. I needed a replacement indoor trainer bike before I can re-build the 'dale. Looong ago, before I knew any better, I bought a flat-bar narrow tyre hybrid that was way too small for me. The bike was neglected, given on loan, presumably left to the elements and finally abandoned in a shed. So if nothing else, it was at least perfectly disposable donor for permanent trainer use. To my amusement I think this actually turned out pretty decent, would have probably made a perfectly fine beater as well.

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An annoying snag in the build. I'm intending to use a -17 degree stem without any spacers, and went for zipp service course sl. In hindsight it's fairly obvious, but the stem doesn't play nicely with the top part of the headset (or indeed with regular sized spacers). There's minimal lip around the steerer clamp, and the underside of the stem makes a tight bend without much radius, so the stem ends up pinching the top of the headset in one spot instead of making even contact all around. I'd have no problem filing a bevel on a spacer if I were using one, but don't want to do the same on the headset itself. So I'm trying to get a refund / exchange on the stem. I'll probably get the Ritchey C220 as a replacement.

In other news, I finally got around to disassembling and cleaning the bike. Frame has manufacturing date code "EK" which translates to November 1993, making it a 1994 model I'd imagine. Areas under the downtube bosses are a bit rough, need to mask them somehow, or just pop back the bosses.

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I got a refund for the Zipp stem but didn't have to return it, so... gonna use it at least for now. I found a stepped Cane Creek "interlok" spacer in the stash which will work with the stem. I didn't want to use spacers, but this is only about 3.5mm so I think I can live with that. Still can't get over the design of the stem though, seems so weird.

Final weight looks to be around 7.5kg with pedals and bottle cages.

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Getting there. The front derailleur cage isn't quite as sleek as the other bits, and maybe stands out a bit in isolation but whatever.

New things for me with this reincarnation:

• Electronic shifting
  
• Chain wax (the drippy kind)
  
• Road tubeless (tubes for now, though, to limit things to go wrong at once)
  

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Silver/black proportions looking good!

Zipp sprint might be a bit too bulky for this no?

Zipp sprint might be a bit too bulky for this no?

Apart from being a bit extravagant on top of everything else, it only seems to be available in 12 degrees. The alloy Zipp is pretty bulky too, with the squarish cross section, so I'm not yet sure how well it'll fit looks-wise.

Managed to do a little shakedown / fit check ride yesterday evening. Front derailleur needed some tweaking, but was really fun after that. Temporary(?) black bar tape, I'd like something a bit less boring but haven't been able to pick a colour.

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Looks like a blast to ride! Sorry if I‘ve missed this but how did you manage to get that 1 1/8 tapered(?) fork in there. Does that mean any frame designed for a 1inch fork can take modern forks?

The forks are tapered 1 1/8" to 1 1/4". The original forks have straight 1 1/4" steerer, so the top of the headtube is shimmed for the 1 1/8" headset.

Thanks for the explanation! It makes sense with the headtube that’s made for 1 1/4 forks. For a moment I thought there might be some kind of hack or magic involved and almost regretted selling my SR with the 1inch forks.

The infamous negative shim 🙂

It’s been a long day 😬

Looks fun!

Matching Ritchey stem and pink tape surely?

It genuinely is. Feels silly fast after riding solely with 45mm+ tyres for I don't know how long, two years at least? First ride was downright scary at times :-)

Yeah, should have gone for the Ritchey, but I'm actually pretty happy with how the Zipp looks on the bike. Might still swap later, I tried to leave enough steerer. Pink would be good, but it's kind of reserved for my other blue bike. I've been thinking either turquoise/teal or purple, possibly even ironic camo. The current bar tape is too thick anyway, and the hoods could possibly use a bit more (BD)HU, so rewrap is imminent.

I'm not totally sold on purple either, but it's fine. Mainly though I couldn't resist another photo opportunity in the garden 😛

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😩

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Ha, yeah, this is something I'm actively experimenting with. The rationale is that wrapping bars is a pita, and ignoring the lever clamp area simplifies the process ever so slightly. Not sure how I feel about it either tbh.

Just put one of the small pieces of tape there before you wrap over them. Works the best in my experience.

Of course, I just have this vague yet minuscule 👁 dislike for using those things. It's really not a problem, just trying out a minor variation.

I was looking at coloured anodized seatposts yesterday, just for laughs obvs. Decent quality options seem pretty scarce, and I'm not keen on trying KCNC clamp on carbon rails (also doesn't come in purple :)

I'm a fan of this wrapping method, I always do it this way
I just do it because I think it is cool tho, like when you have a really nice suit and deliberately wear it wrong to imply you dgaf
This bike is cool🙃

I like your explanation better 🙂

And thanks!

The bike is cool for sure, no argument there. By doing it deliberately, you indicate that you dgaf and therefore undermine what you're trying to achieve.

There's no reasonable argument for not taping that bit correctly. There's an extra piece of tape provided in the box per side in case you need it. It's the details that make the bigger picture work, not the other way around.

I'd stick with black quality bar tape in this setup or change to a white saddle and white bartape.

One of the AXS brifters was faulty and drained a new battery in a fortnight, which killed my initial enthusiasm a bit. I only got a warranty replacement late in the summer, so ended up not doing much riding on the 2.8 last year.

This summer is looking up, I hope. I did a 150km fixie-scene-adjacent event with this setup last weekend:

There was a fair bit of gravel thrown in, too. This was some of my less fortunate route choices:

Some bits were borrowed from other bikes, so I'm not sure how permanent this will be. Kind of tempted to leave the bag support / quick release in place, or get a second one or something (I do have a Nitto R-10 knocking about). The big Super C bag is a bit overkill, though, so a slightly smaller alternative would be nice. Plus with the frame pump the bottles are hard to get out of the cages. This being lufguss I suppose the obvious answer would be Tijmen & Hulsroy, but let's see.

The groupset and the combination of black and silver parts really suit that frame. Looks like it rides very nicely, did you do the tubeless setup in the end?