OhioState

First, let me apologize for maybe asking a question which seems absolutely ridiculous and self explanatory to many of you.

I just bought my first road bike, and was wondering if there is any way to place a replaceable derailleur hanger on a frame that was made in 1988? To be more specific the bike is a Cannondale SR500. It seems that only newer bikes have this abiity, but I could be wrong. I have tried looking online for hours for any information relating to this, and did not find anything.

Thank you for any input.

DLM

I don't know of any easy way to do this. There are "emergency" replacement hangers like this: https://derailleurhanger.com/emergency.htm
They will get you home, but may mess up your shifting because they move the derailleur out. I've also seen people do some grinding on a damaged frame in order to fit a normal replacement hanger. But this is destructive to the existing frame so you would only do it if the frame was not repairable.

Torchy McFlux

Yes, it's possible. I visited a frame repair site awhile ago where they had pics of a broken rear dropout modification that allowed the use of a bolt-on hanger. Can't remember which shop offhand - sorry. But it is possible.
If there's nothing wrong with your current one though, just use it the way it is.

operator

Wheels manufacturing, north shore billet and others make aftermarket replacement derailleur hangers - a lot of them. If you have the old hanger you have a good chance of finding a replacement one. If your shop has access to at least Orange - hit that first. Worst case scenario is you get someone to CNC machine you one of the hangers. It's just AL right.

dedhed

That should be a hanger integral with the dropout and isn't replaceable per se. Unless there is something wrong with it I wouldn't worry about it.
A frame builder could probably replace the drop out with one that does have a removable hanger. the old drop out can be machined and modified to accept a replaceable hanger.

https://www.yellowjersey.org/rlfix.html