Cannondale CAAD 8 Ultralight Touring Bike.

Exactly as the name implied, a bicycle specifically for touring.

Bike should be arriving this week, deposit paid for, got insurance from my collision to paid a small portion of it.

pics or it didn't............

Ultralight you say. Touring bike? I am all ears. Mine is light-ish only due to lack of gears.

i need a tourer

preferably canon in my dreams innyt

what colour?

I'm very very lucky that it's black and subtle as oppose to the horrible colour like the 2013 Tiagra one.

Cool. Looks good.

Did I hear you say something about it having mudgaurd eyes on the rear in another thread?

i thought the oak was the touring bike
or are you doing " different " types of touring thus justifying two tourers ?

sorry my bad that was a randonneur

whats a randonneur by the way ?

A touring bike.

Did I hear you say something about it having mudgaurd eyes on the rear in another thread?

No mudguard, wheel will be replaced with very wide Mavic A719/Hope (1,880g) (or the NoTube Alpha 340/Extralight, 1,270g, if I can afford it) fitted with Grand Bois lightweight 28c tyres (248g each).

most of the component will be changed for lighter one.

If you remember I saying how much I enjoyed the London-Morocco ride with just a saddlebag and framebag on a fixed wheel bicycle, this is where the Cannondale come in - even lighter, geared and fantastic to enjoyed the ascent/descent in the mountains of Europe with the right geometry to fit my body proportion (headtube is 25mm longer than standard, 73.5 degree seat tube with 54.5cm TT, realistically 54cm).

Oddly enough it have hidden eyelits for mudguard, but barely any room with 23c even.

most of the component will be changed for lighter one.

Will you keep the 105? Or switch it to red/force + some sort of longer throw RD?

Keeping it, if I was going to change groupset, I would have brought the Cannondale with the 2300 groupset.

105 IMHO is the perfect groupset (thought I prefer Campag), it's similar to the higher tier groupset, yet still retain a great positive feel as long I don't spend too long playing with the Ultegra/DA one...

It got a 12-28t cassette paired with a compact, that's more than enough for touring.

Change of plan - it won't be a Cannondale CAAD8.

It'll be a CAAD10 with Ultegra after realising that the CAAD8's headtube is too dang long at 155mm compare to the CAAD10's 140mm.

It's also discounted heavily too.

Can't lower the damn stem any further due to the massive headset bearing cover.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh167/edscoble/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20Edward%20Scobles%20MacBook%20Pro/IMAG0566_zps57eba0ed.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh167/edscoble/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20Edward%20Scobles%20MacBook%20Pro/IMAG0563_zps64cbf218.jpg

you need this

http://metallicpoutine.com/shop/headset-bearing-cover-caad10/

That I do.

It's quite refreshing being able to put my foot down after being used to be very high up on the Genesis.

whats a randonneur by the way ?

well played Sir

I assume that's a pretty expensive bike, even with your staff discount, and you say you're replacing most of the components with other lighter bits.

Why are you buying a complete (apparently inappropriate) bike? You could surely get something made that would actually be more suitable for whatever you had in mind and then hang the pieces on that.

Only thing that is inappropriate is the 11-25t rear cassette.

With the CAAD10, I won't need to replace a lots of item when they're already very good luckily

I get the point about wanting something light to travel with without carrying much weight but if you're planning on doing any touring on it, surely steel is better just from being able to be repaired, let alone being comfier and, probably, more resilient than thin cannondale tubing / racing components and wheels.

You must have done a bike fit, so you know your sizing and you seem pretty skilled at getting components for cheaps. Even something by current flavour of the month Steve Goff would probably be a similar price and be a better fit for the job.

Why steel? maybe it's useful if I was carrying quite a lots of item, and durable enough to carry a rack, sure, but ulimately it's not necessary.

Since I now tour entirely with bikepacking, the need for a strong frame is no longer necessary, only thing I would worry about is merely the wheels (most common damage in touring) and the gearing that get affected when you're carrying more weight.

The simplest thing is that I want to enjoy riding a bicycle, I hated to go touring and start thinking "man that road would've been so awesome on a different bike", especially in Europe when there's a lots of awesome road.

It worked extremely well when I went to Morocco with the only biggest regret is not having a freewheel over a climbing gear (which was never used), I can't see why this wouldn't work.

Can't lower the damn stem any further due to the massive headset bearing cover.

Have you tried to take it off? A guy from a Danish forum found a nice low-profile cover underneath the tall one on his C'dale (Super Six I think)