View Single Post
Old 02-20-19, 09:13 PM
  #18  
LV2TNDM
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Northern CA
Posts: 731

Bikes: Cannondale tandems: '92 Road, '97 Mtn. Mongoose 10.9 Ti, Kelly Deluxe, Tommaso Chorus, Cdale MT2000, Schwinn Deluxe Cruiser, Torker Unicycle, among others.

Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 275 Post(s)
Liked 201 Times in 127 Posts
Originally Posted by sch
LV2TNDM: The Teledyne was bought as a frame in 1975 IIRC ($365!! with Ti BB axle), built up as a race bike and ridden for 3 yrs sporadically, then hung up til 1998
when I removed the '70s era DT shifters/5spd freewheel/tubular wheels and rebuilt it as a 9spd brifter/clincher wheels set up. It was ridden from 1998 to late 2015, about 23000 miles overall.
I discovered a longitudinal crack about 4" long on the underside of the R side chain tube and
felt it best to retire the frame. The fork was OK til I had the bike tip over in the back of the van while in a fork tip gripper on a board
and the fork tip broke off. Replaced the fork with a CF. Still have the tip and Ti fork. Probably the frame could be welded and repaired (fork and chain tube)
but finding a Ti welder is not straight forward, so the frame is hanging in the basement stripped. All the '70s era
parts are long gone. A friend bought a Teledyne at the same time I did in 1975 and his frame cracked at the seat tube/BB junction within months.
Mine is relatively unusual in its longevity, still has the original decals.
So actually, I had the bike rideable for 40 yrs but rode it regularly about 20 of those. FWIW frame weight of the Teledyne was the same as the frame weight of my
Lightspeed which is now at ~26000 miles.
Well, that's amazing. Somehow you dodged a major bullet with the fork, from what I understand. Were you aware of the recall?

And that the downtube survived for as long as it did is also amazing. Pretty cool story and thanks so much for sharing.

I'd hang onto the fork, regardless of the broken fork tip. Having the original frame & fork makes it a collector's item in my book. If you do part with it, be sure it goes to the right home.

Thanks again for the great additional information.

PS I'm still enjoying my 1998 Mongoose Ti hardtail. Still rides great, no creaks, no issues. This nice frame has outlasted at least ten iterations of full suspension model designs in its lifetime and is still going strong. Sure, it's old, but still fully functional and still a blast to ride. I'll eventually pick up some carbon full suspension whiz-bang machine, but until then, I'm perfectly happy on the ti.
LV2TNDM is offline