My First Ever Build - Cannondale Winter Bike

I am fairly new to cycling. While I had a new bike built I was riding a friends Cannondale that he eventually gave to me. Last spring I started riding my new Enigma but not before I noticed creak from the Dale's BB.

A couple of weeks ago I stripped it down for a check / refurb before the winter and found a large fatigue crack. As a result I decided the whole frame must be nearing the end of its useful life and so stripped everything off it and sent it to be recycled.

10 days or so ago I bought this:

I wanted to put Dura Ace downtube shifters on it but as I can't figure out how just yet I have fitted it with some 105 Brifters on some Cinelli Eubios bars. I also put some Tiagra cranks on it that were lying around and an Ultegra 10 speed casette.

The seat and post are off my old Dale.

I then picked up a pair of Dura Ace 7800 mechs which look like they have hardly been used and, although not fitted yet, I have now got a Dura Ace crank set for it and DA 7800 brake calipers.

Today a box has arrived at work with a selle italia saddle for it.

Hopefully I will have a first ride on it soon. Might have to put some guards on it for winter club rides and I will have to keep searching for a pair of 3 spoke synergy wheels!

I could get hooked on this building thing - I've already got a head full of ideas and it is much cheaper and quicker than messing about with old racing cars.

If I squint I can just about make out a CAD2 Saeco? It looks nice.

As it's nice, do it some justice -

1) take good photos - clean your phone camera lens, point camera at the side of the bike that's in the light, not the shadow
2) upload hi-res versions
3) embed them

thx :)

Also - was your friend the original owner of the cracked 'dale? He might have got CSG to amnesty it.

Thanks Howard,

I was trying to embed them but failed. I clicked on the image logo in the dialogue box as I was writing the tread but when I posted it it didn't work!

I then tried putting the image adresses in but that just resulted in the post above. Then I had to do some work.

Sorry I know this all probably tedious for you old hands.

I thought I would put some progress shots up rather than just a "tadah finished" type pic (especially having read the section guidance notes) and that it would also let others point out any mistakes I was making before I got finished.

PS the old bike was a multi owner much abused hack,

Edited to add that I managed to edit the first post to embed the pictures after Howard posted - was not trying to make his post look out of context.

Ace - nice one. I was going to link to the 'how to embed images' thread but in true LFGSS style I couldn't find it.

It's looking very tidy. Good to see the Time threaded fork, too. Are those wheels Heliums? Good luck with finding some Spinergys - they'd look rad.

And that saddle...incredible :)

sweet

Finished - well enough for a test ride. All works well - need to fine tune the fit but should be able to take her on the Club ride at the weekend.

Will put the Dura Ace cranks on when they arrive and perhaps swap out those Hope Skewers as they don't look quite right but overall I'm very happy with my new winter bike - accelerates, handles and stops.

PS - Howard wheels are Elite 3 Zeros from Superstar components - cheap cheerful and light only downside is they wear out fairly quickly - on the other hand so do most things in winter.

Too nice for a winter bike. I did a similar thing with a CAAD7 then ended up riding it more than the summer bike...in the summer.

I've just had first proper ride on it soo stiff and responsive and light direct handling. Called into my LBS - caused quite a stir- the mechanic may even have been a little aroused particularly over the gold Cinelli bar plugs.

Well I thought I was finished then I got some more bits - Dura Ace skewers, a Dura Ace seat post - never seen one before - like a Look carbon aero one but in aluminium with a really nice single bolt clamp and a little alan screw at the front that is used to set the fore and aft level and, best of all some Spinergy wheels with Dura Ace hubs. Still not quite finished - the blue Michelins will have to go and I'll probably ride mostly on the ThreeZeros but nice to have the Spinergys to give the period look when I want it.

Sorry if this is tedious but as this is my first "baby" so to speak I'm a bit boring and obsessed by it.

Must get a proper digital camera instead of crappy iPhone,,,,

Rad.

It looks cool, I'd retro-grade the shifters so they match though- 7800 maybe?

What I really want to do is put Dura Ace indexing 10 speed shifters on the down tube but its not easy. I have the shifters but I will have to custom make some sort of through the frame mount on my mill - can't weld because I don't want to screw up all that original paint and signage. If I spot a set of affordable 7800 brifters I'll swap them over. It didn't start out as a retro build - its meant to be my winter training bike. Suspect I might have to get something else for that job now.

Period correct would be what for this, 7700? Earlier?

Not sure - all the other bits and pieces are 7800. As I said I didn't set out to recreate or restore just to build up a winter bike that looked cool - I think I might have forgotten the first part of the brief in the process.

That's perfectly natural.

Embrace it.

that seat is the sickest thing ive ever seen!!!!

Liking this. Straight fork is particularly nice.
Been having thoughts about finding a slightly later Saeco Cannondale frameset to compliment my old CAAD3 Volvo MTB.

Sorry if I'm miss-reading this, but the cable guides on the downtube should be mounted to standard DT shifter bosses. It should be a case of just unscrewing them and mounting the shifters instead?

(If this isnt the case/is obvious, feel free to tell me to >>>>>>)

What I really want to do is put Dura Ace indexing 10 speed shifters on the down tube but its not easy. I have the shifters but I will have to custom make some sort of through the frame mount on my mill - can't weld because I don't want to screw up all that original paint and signage.

That's what I thought but it didn't quite work like that. The cable guides are mounted on a through the frame threaded rod but it is different to the ones with my Dura Ace indexed 10speed DT shifters. Now that it is built I am over the moon with it - it is a glorious ride and very fast. Easy to find data online for dating - mine is February 1998 which seems recent but I think that is because I am getting old!

Are you about to start building the one in the photo up or is that an old image?