human33

Hi,

i found an nice looking C'dale Adventure 800 with rigid alu fork that on the pics look much like todays touring/gravel bikes. Since i own 89 ST400 sport touring Cdale and love it, but would like to have something with canti brakes/wider tyres, am wondering regarding that hybrid frameset quality?

Anyone that has experience or know did Cdale was great in that field frame building as they was with 80,s series?

Cannondale adventure 800

Thankyou in advance!

DorkDisk

For Made-in-USA Cannondale frames only:

IMO they got better (lighter and more compliant) throughout the years, ending with the Optimo. This one is likely to be lighter and nicer riding than the one you currently own. This is going off of having owned a 89 3.0 series BITD and currently owning a 95 2.8 series and a 99 CAAD 4 series (all high end at their time). Craftmanship was always never a concern with Cannondale.

The one you posted seems very caad3/4 like but with decals from 05-07ish. The Alcoa tubing is also from post 2000(2002?). Headtube shows non vintage traits, so Im gonna guess 05-07. Hybrid frames did not always go to high end, but topped out one tier lower on some years. Their tier designations stopped by this time so frame weight can be used to see where it ranked.

Its odd to see a Cannondale with continuous housing (on the bottom no less)-this leads me to believe that it may have been originally specced with Magura hydraulics. Fitting cantilevers to this frame and fork will require hangers. Yours might be a Europe only model

This is all off the top of my head; you can find old Cannondale catalogs here

human33

Thanks,

i found it on 2005eu catalog..Magura H11 brakes.
Do you really think it should be a nicer ride than ST400? This alu fork is my concern. Just brought vintage Giant 1995 ATX 8700 escaper for my kid (child chair) purpose coastal riding. 26" Alu fork....It is stiff as hell. Of course it is different geometry but still.

Best regards

DorkDisk

My experience says yes, but mine are all the same type and all top of the line for their production year when the learning curve was steep. A touring bike usually has longer chainstays which make for more comfort; in the end it will still be an Al frame - never supple and springy like steel but always with great power transfer and light weight for cheap.

Al forks with no bend can be an issue, on mine (with bend) I just run fatter tires and crabon bars but YMMV