gorillagirl

I have Compass Loup Loup Pass extralight tires on my 82 Sequoia. Plenty of room. I advise you to follow your instincts

S28546

Not sure if this fits the "sport tourer" category as it looks touristy, but it was marketed as a randonneur, so that is sportish isn't it?

Andy_K 

Well then you're just the person I need to talk to! I just ordered the pieces for a set of 650B wheels, but I hadn't decided which bike they'd end up on yet. I've been trying to decide between the Loup Loup Pass and the Babyshoe Pass. Do you think there's room for the Babyshoes on a Sequoia? Also, what do you think of the ride with the Loup Loups?

mtnbke

Absurd.

For Cannondale Sport Touring bikes the frames were identical from the ST400 to the ST1000 with the difference being the ST800/1000 having cantis I believe. The ST800 with three water bottle cages, front and rear racks, and front and rear fenders, Brooks or Ideale saddle, with the Superbe Pro rear derailleur with the long GT cage and triple crank is a sleeping giant. It is a stronger frame than any then contemporary steel touring frame. It will survive being overloaded well beyond the point that any steel touring bike could manage before the down tube or top tube risks wrinkling. Overloading a steel touring bike ultimately lead to busting a lug, ignoring the frame flex that would make he bike almost unrideable and make steering/tracking just dangerous. Yep throw 400+ pounds of gear on a Cannondale ST frame and it won't blink. Try that with any steel touring bike and the chain stays and bottom bracket flex will have the rear tire rubbing. Steel touring bikes are like trucks with no effective payload, they can carry stuff if it doesn't weigh anything.

Yet that overloaded Cannondale ST can shed the panniers, remove the fenders and racks, fit some narrower tires at higher pressures, and then go on a competitive fast group ride. That Cannondale frame is going to be lighter, stiffer and faster than EVERY bike in vintage race bike peloton. All other things being equal, like fitness, it will sprint like a rocket, climb like a goat, and hammer like a runaway freight train on the flats compared to the Pinarellos, Merckxes, Cinellis, Olmos, and Colnagos in that vintage group. All things being equal, in terms of cyclists, and it wins every sprint, every climb, and every race in that group.

So that ST with cantilevers isn't a sport touring bike even though it is a better race bike than then contemporary steel steeds? Just because some ST 800/1000s came with actual racing components like Superbe Pro but with cantis too?

Please.

There is no difference between an ST 400 or ST 800 but price point, components, and calipers versus cantis. Yet the canti clad bike is faster than then contemporary steel race bikes, and a better stronger touring bike than anything else. But it can't be in your sport touring group? Why? It's faster and more capable of "sport" than any short reach common era vintage lightweight caliper steel race bike. In fact it's not even close.

All things equal, it would climb Alp d'huez finishing as the stage leader in 1983...then swap tires put the racks, fenders, panniers and the load back on to transition to the next stage town. If that ain't a sport tourer what is?

Brembo calipers and slotted and drilled rotors don't make a Ram truck with the same V-10 block, as in the Viper, a sports car! It's still just a truck.

So I'll offer an alternative spec:

Fits wide tires/racks (front AND rear)
Longer wheel base
Most be able to climb/sprint/accelerate like a race bike

Which means we're talking about...

huh, that leaves a handful of Kleins and Cannondale Sport Touring bikes. Bonus points if the racks, panniers, seat bags, handlebar bag, frame bags and backpack and sleeping bag are all vintage/classic Cannondale too.

Cause everything else is just everything else. There were and are not peers to the performance potential of Cannondale Sport Touring bikes. If they were Italian or Belgian they'd all be the Stradivarius bikes of C&V, and priceless.

Worthy of Campy Record 10 speed bits, just with the long cage and triple front derailleur choices

lostarchitect 

Another long, bizarre, anti-steel rant from mtnbike! I expect no less.

KonAaron Snake 

He ONLY uses aluminum for his hats.

Lazyass

Technically, except for the ST400, those are full blown touring bikes. ST stands for Super Touring, not Sport. Says so right in the Cannondale catalog. The ST400 with caliper's is sport touring (says so right in the catalog). Just saying, don't get upset.

mtnbke

Yeah…you couldn't actually be more wrong. Actually I suspect you know you're wrong, but tried to sneak in a narrow contextual example that completely runs contrary to what EVERY Cannondale frame started out as! So either you're just wrong, or as I rather suspect, you were being actually intellectually dishonest and disingenuous.

When Cannondale brought the aluminum bicycle frame to levels of production before unseen by small volume builders like Cunningham and Klein market in 1983, the aluminum bicycle frame was called from the very beginning:

(wait for it)

https://vintagecannondale.com/year/1983/1983S.pdf

Every Cannondale started as a Sport Touring bike. Its what ST means and meant. Until they changed it that is. While every original Cannondale and ST bike is still a better race bike than any vintage lightweight steel bike, even with its longer wheelbase, it will prove itself to climb better, accelerate quicker, and jump in a sprint harder. Not bad for a Sport Touring bike. A better touring bike, and a faster race bike than any…well, race bike.

Every Cannondale was a Sport Touring, from the very beginning.

Read the 1983 Catalog where they introduce "the long awaited Sport Touring" bicycle. Yes later catalogs reference other variance in language, but ST for Cannondale always meant Sport Touring. The bikes didn't change, just some of the marketing material.

https://vintagecannondale.com/year/1983/1983.pdf

Congratulations in digging through the catalogs to try to find one nuanced example running contrary to the very history, reveal, and branding of EVERY initial bike. Alternative facts are popular these days. I see you're a fan.

Piff 

Yeesh. Some people here really like bikes, but I guess some others really hate them too.

echo victor 

Well, setting aside recent debate on the matter of what constitutes "sport touring" ... I think of rando/audax/sportive frames as being very similar to sport touring frames. I think many frame designers would say the chain stay length is a good indicator, so you could go by that if you like.

I think your bike looks like a pretty cool sport touring bike.

Edit: Also, welcome to the forums!

Lazyass

Holy cow you have some serious anger management issues. Do you have hissyfits in real life when people disagree with you over a freaking bicycle? I even asked you to not get mad because I suspected you were the hypersensitive type.

Cannondale must have realized that their full on touring bikes were not sport tourers because they corrected their mistake

Now explain why they have the ST800 listed as a touring bike and, separately, the ST400 is listed as a sport touring bike? Hmmm?

mstateglfr 

What is actually absurd is such a long and angry sounding post in response to someone who simply offered up a generalization for a category of bicycles, and then happily encouraged another member to post a picture of their bike.

nlerner

The @mtnbke troll is back! Can't say we missed you.

KonAaron Snake 

You're just not willing to accept that your bikes suck and MTN knows more about what you should like.

Cougrrcj

I guess I've missed a bunch of 'MTN trolling' since I've relegated his posts to 'ignore' -- or maybe not!

Cougrrcj

To me, a 'sports-tourer' is a frame with chainsays long enough ...that allows more than one finger-width between seat tube and tire -- let's say enough for fenders and... A full-on-dedicated tourer allows three... Who is with me???

bikemig 

This was supposed to be a thread with pics but then it got a bit blown up by one of my favorite BF posters,

I have a bit of a thing going with Trek sports touring bikes. They really pushed the idea of geometry specific bikes (racing, touring, and sports touring). Plus I worked in a shop that sold a lot of Treks in the 80s so I really like the bikes. They're well made, have great paint jobs, and as easy as pie to work on. Here's a 1978 Trek 510 I picked up as found in the wild (full ishiwata 022 frameset and low temp silver brazed). I'm getting a kind of suntour vibe from this bike. I think it needs cyclone or vgt derailleurs and bar cons, a B17 saddle, plush 32c tires, and a triple:

swen0171 

I'm going to move this forward with a 1981 Trek set up as a sport tourer. Please don't yell at me...

swen0171 

Looks great. I see Cyclone too...

bikemig 

I really dig that Trek chestnut color. I'm thinking of painting the 1979 510. The paint job is pretty solid on it (the paint on the downtube is pretty scratched up--you can't see it in the pic because it's on the other side--but that's easy to fix) but I'm bored with blue and I really like that chestnut color. But then it's only original once.

PilotFishBob 

Good thread, lot of very nice bikes here. I never considered any of my bikes as sports tourers except for an '83 Trek 620 I just sold to a friend. After reading through I get it now. Here's my '75 Motobécane Grand Jubilé I rigged as a randonneur. I've posted a couple of other photos of it around, it's a recent build and I'm still enamored.

Darth Lefty 

Cannondale should do some repops on their luggage. They'd look good on pre-1983 steel sport touring bicycles.

3speedslow

Love my Cannondale handle bar bag on my 77 Le Tour II. Wish I could find a blue one now.

Re pop idea sounds great!

Salamandrine 

A very nice one indeed. The Grand Jubile could even be called the ur sport-tourer that inspired the genre.

Then again most of the old French constucteur bikes were really set up as sport tourers too. To some degree sport tourer, randonneur and audax all mean the same thing.

Anyhow, I shall enter my Mercian, classic but not vintage, as seen below. Even though this is technically a full touring bike, it is set up and used as a sport bike. All it needs to tour is for me to bolt on the rear rack and attach a handlebar bag. That makes it a sport tourer right?

ascherer 

This is a beauty!