Overhauling Blue Fleet's Cannondale Lefty DLR 100

hmm, 20 thou being appx 1/2 a mm, by introducing futher deviation/unevenness in the contact plane due to sanding - could be a problem / sloppy seconds?

I know - it's not ideal. It looks like the surface has stuff/cruft that's built up on it through, left from the heavily corroded race now removed, so hopefully I'll be bringing it back down to something near it's original spec.

Bloody brakes haven't shown up for the Kinesis yet - I blame Madison, frankly.

5***** thread Howard, I'm almost tempted to take apart my old headshok now.

Almost, but not quite.

Go on. Everyone needs a time consuming and fiddly job in their lives.

You'll need a castle tool - you can borrow mine.

The roller bearings also mean the fork performs well even under torsion. Traditional bushing forks can stiffen up going around a hard bend. Effectivly removing the small bump compliance just when you need it.

I found mine pretty sensitive to pressure. 140PSI seems to be the hot spot. Sounds high, and feels a bit stiff in the work room. But works well on the trail.

So much cool info in this thread, well done for the epic Howard.

The roller bearings also mean the fork performs well even under torsion. Traditional bushing forks can stiffen up going around a hard bend. Effectively removing the small bump compliance just when you need it.

Yes - it's noticeable going from Rebas on one bike to the 80mm headshok on my other hardtail. You can really feel it working, all the time, whereas the Rebas, despite having another 40mm of travel, feel languid when you really need them to work.

I found mine pretty sensitive to pressure. 140PSI seems to be the hot spot. Sounds high, and feels a bit stiff in the work room. But works well on the trail.

Same - feels stiff as fck and has a very quick rebound in the workroom but then feels lovely on the trail. It's a shame these forks / struts have a bit of a poor reputation in the UK - I think a lot of that stems from them being more sensitive to the zero maintenance schedule a lot of riders think they can get away with : /

Nice write up, I have a lefty but a non shocked Bad Boy.

If you need it fixed I'll bash it with a mallet for you ;)

Kidding. Have tools, can service the cartridges too.

So much cool info in this thread, well done for the epic Howard.

Ta :) There's a couple of other tear-down threads around but most lack pictures. Hopefully others may find this useful.

Thorough job. Thorough thread. Thoroughly good.

Ta. It's stalled at the moment as I have a contract on at the mo. And with the CX season coming up it could be a while before I get a chance to get the parts required and rebuild it.

Can I just say - this has been the most informative thread on Lefties I have ever read! Thanks!
Any more updates on this?
i've had to register just to post and say thanks!
Do you service Cannondale Lefties then? I have a Cannondale Flash F1 2012 I'd like to have serviced because the pop lock is not popping up anymore when I lock the fork.
Cannondale Lefty Fork Rebound Pop Lock Problem - YouTube

No more updates as I've been pretty busy with CX and work. When the CX season is over I'll finish this off.

Glad you find it interesting.

Your Lefty: ultimately these are precision kit and are better looked at by professionals such as TF tuned in the UK or Mendon in the US. Cannondale recommend a yearly full service, so unless you've only just bought the bike, I wouldn't sweat having to do that too much.

How you get it to them depends on whether it's still under warranty or not. If it is, take it to your local 'dale dealer and get them to arrange it. If it's not, you have two options - remove it yourself and post it off for service, or have your LBS do it for you. The former isn't actually that straightforward, so unless you like learning - and sometimes the hard way - I would have someone do it for you.

Where are you based?

Oh and FWIW I love those alu Flash. Lovely bikes.

Thanks!
Yep, I've decided to contact TF Tuned and they said the basic damper service is all I'll need.
I'll research on how to dismantle my fork from the bike and I'll ship it to him next year ready for Summer (altho I used the bike more during Winter this year than Summer)
I'm in the UK. Leeds

I'd like to upgrade to a carbon cannondale lefty next but they're all 29" and even a small might make it feel like a 16" for me (I'm only 5'2" and this Flash in small is perfect for me!)

I look forward to your updates on this! It's definitely been an interesting read and I appreciate you putting a complete history to the fork'd development by Cannondale as well!

Sending it to TF is a good plan. If you were in London I could shout you the tools but it can get very expensive very quickly if you mess up a damper service.

Once you've go the bike in a stand and removed the front wheel, I think the procedure for the OPI is:

1) back off the lefty clamp bolts
2) use the shimano BB tool to unscrew the bottom portion of the steerer
3) once it's screwed all the way out, screw it back in until it has used 5 threads
4) gently tap the bottom of the steerer with a rubber mallet. This pushes the stem up and out of the top bearing. You might have to use quite a bit of force - the bearing press fit is very tight. But start soft and increase force until it starts to move.
5) once the stem is clear of the bearing, unscrew the lower portion of the steerer again and remove it. I assume it comes out with the lower bearing attached to it.
6) the stem should now lift out of the headtube allowing you to remove the Lefty from the headtube.

I wondered what was happening with this.

Howard you need to apply to be the official Cannondale UK rep.

Howard
can you make drawing of lefty tool?

Looking to fabricate one? There's a pretty good diagram in one of the tech docs. Ill try to dig it out.

it will be great

Howard
maybe you can make drawing from your tool
i only need outer diameter and pins sizes

You've seen how it works, right?

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it write to me

Howard - I'm in a similar position to arttet - if you do have any measurements it would be really helpful (my e-mail is goonio at yahoo dot com)

Great thread by the way

It will cost you more to machine the tool than to buy one.

Wasn't too tricky to machine the bigger tool from aluminium tube on my lathe, castellations cut in with hacksaw and file. Surprisingly whoever serviced the fork before me kindly left their smaller castle tool attached inside so I have now managed to hoik mine apart. Can supply dims for the bigger one if anyone is interested?

I'd like to have the dimensions for both parts. Diameters and size of the tooths will do. Thanks!
Marko

Awesome thread, I've got 2 leftys a DLR 100 and an 06 Lefty Max, I must get the PBR upgrade sorted out on my Lefty Max ( this will complete a SuperV to UberV conversion that I've been slowly working on for a year or two now )

You never know, I mighty actually order the new races and sort out the inner leg one day ;)

Sadly this one can't be converted to PBR.