Cannondale Slate, the one that didn’t get away

I first saw one of these in, I think, 2015 in University Cycles, Boulder Colorado.

I wanted one from the moment I saw it, but then never managed to work out what size I needed and then they stopped selling them.

A little while ago I was contacted by a forum member who had one, a deal was done and I finally got to ride it last week when I was back in the UK.

I’m now back in Singapore and it’s time to make some updates and take care of some maintenance.

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I bought a PNW Rainier dropper post for this bike, largely because the OneUp wasn’t available in 27.2- having now measured saddle height and so on I think a 175mm dropper would work, but that’s for another day.

I like to keep things clean and tidy so I didn’t want a dropper lever- instead I wanted to fit a shift lever to the left hand brake lever, but without the gear selection ratchet and use it to actuate the dropper. I bought a second hand brake lever from a bike shop in Winchester- it matched which was nice.

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Pulling the shifting gubbins out was easy, putting it into the lever whilst it was still on the bike less so- I also discovered that they hydraulic fluid reservoir was leaking, so will buy a seal kit for that.

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Interestingly the shift lever stands proud of the brake lever- which suggests that SRAM made a shift lever specific to the hydraulic brake lever, which I find odd but there you go. I’ll fit a rubber spacer to position it correctly

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Routing the dropper cable meant pulling the cranks, and the bearings felt indexed so I wanted to take a closer look at those.

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Bearings are indeed beyond the end of their service life so I’ll buy some replacements.

The small zip tie that secures the hydraulic hose wasn’t tightened enough when it was installed and has rubbed grooves into the axle over time. This is probably not an issue but I’ll replace the axle if the Cannondale place here has any. I’m going there to ask about servicing the Lefty so can hopefully kill multiple birds with one stone.

Noice! I always wanted one too. My one concern has always been getting the lefty serviced so interested to see how you get on with that.

Just spoke with the chap at Hup Leong, they are setting up their suspension service centre at the moment and should be able to handle the Lefty Oliver. We shall see.

They did have Cannondale spares in stock, which is nice- they’re the Singapore distributor.

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Be prepared for a crushing lower leg replacement bill on the Lefty if it has been run dry for any length of time.

I’ve been warned about that- but no one has yet put a figure on it.

Related- if anyone spots a Slate Lefty for sale do let me know.

Be super careful when you undo and tighten the banjo. Lever body is plastic and the banjo screw will strip it easily.

Surprised you haven’t gone for axs groupset and dropper

Yeah I can vouch for this. I've done this myself, even with a torque wrench I think I just had bad luck and the soft plastic in the body just gave way... This meant an entirely new shifter.

Otherwise great project so far! I have always loved the Slate, way ahead of it's time when it was released and under appreciated.

It's the reason why I am now running mechanical and BB7s

Dropper cable run- trust me when I say you are not getting this done without taking the crankset off/axle out.

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Rear brake hose now correctly restrained. The Park Tool third hand tool is handy for getting maximum tension on zip ties before you clip the end off.

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Entire BB assembly is new; c-clips, bearings, shields and spacers, wavey washer and axle.

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Dropper now installed, shimmed the lever, all works nicely.

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I think I need another bottle cage, and a Witslingers bar bag would be handy

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Very fine gravel

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I mean, it’s ok gravel.

How's it riding?

Great, I like it a lot. I keep looking for opportunities to take it off the tarmac- which feels particularly illicit here.

For a moment I thought this was somewhere on the south coast. Then came the sand.

Lovely build thread as always.

How does the dropper activation work? Do you push the shift paddle in to release?