Iron Horse

Good evening!
I was given a Cannondale C 300 frame and forks in extra large size that I would like to make into a commuter with some mild off road capability. I need it to also be able to pull a child trailer for two. Eventually I would like it to be able to use one of those pedal half bikes that attaches to your seatpost. I have done nothing to this bike other that to research what it was originally. I am also not quite sure what the stem shifters were supposed to be for, unless the original shifters were broken. The second two items are going to be easy, the part I am not sure about is, I would like to make this a 1 x 10 bike. Will this work? According to what I have found this bike has a 24 speed drive train. That much gearing I really don't need, and I would like to try this set-up, but as the frame is aluminum, I need to know if this is possible before I spend money on parts I can't use.

This is what I have.

This is what it looked like, new.
Thank you all in advance!

mrv 

example wheelset: https://www.velocityusa.com/product/...brake-wheelset
atb hub details: https://www.velocityusa.com/product/hubs/atb-rear-hub
- based on that, I would say yes, you can run 10 cogs on a 135mm rear hub for rim brakes.
Can you go 1X ?
You'll need to do a bit of leg work (Sheldon Brown, perhaps?) regarding the bottom bracket and crank and chainline: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainline.html

Just this summer I built up a new GUNNAR Crosshairs as 2x9. I am having just a spot of trouble with I cross chain the little chain ring and smaller cogs - the chain gets picked up by the big ring, kind of automatically. While I should not be cross-chaining, I think I should be able to get away with it....
Anyway, I'll be running those Sheldon Brown Chainline numbers on my already built up bike.
Looks like a nice project. Hopefully can find everything on the cheap.
Let me know if you'd like me to check my box o'crap for any parts - like a set of flat bars or something.
ciao.

Darth Lefty 

Do the stem and seat post come out, does the headset work, anything stripped, is it all ok?

It’s going to be completely conventional. It’ll have no trouble doing the things you want. But with almost no parts it’s really tough to beat a turnkey bike of similar vintage from the local classifieds etc. which are $100 or so.

The 10x11-42 drivetrain is no problem but you give up one bottom and two top ratios vs a triple system. The high end probably won’t be a problem on this bike, you might miss the low one for towing. 11x11-46 might do you better.

Iron Horse

Thank you for that, Getting the chainline correct may be a challenge (knowing what I need, and where to find the "correct" items). I've never custom built a external geared bike before.

You asked if I could do 1X. That was my plan. Forgive me if my terminology is incorrect, I thought that's what 1x10 meant? One in front, 10 in the back.

As for the other parts, thank you graciously for the offer. I haven't talked to the future owner yet to find out all the small details he wants. As of right now, I just know what he is interested in for the bikes intended purpose. Once I get the hard part done, I will get back with him on specifics, and we can go from there.

Thank you again.

Iron Horse

Everything that is still on the bike still works to the best of my abilities to test it. I haven't checked all the threads yet, If I have to, I can always chase them with my dies (I hope).

I am not so worried about spending money on this, as it will be a gift, and as I am building it, I won't have to worry about overhauling everything after buying a complete bike to verify things are done the way I like them.

Can you explain the 11-42 please? To my limited experience with derailleur geared bikes, the 11-42 tells me the gear range for the rear. Correct? Is the 10x the number of gears? So if I interpreted that correct, you are saying that an 11 speed will fit on this bike?
Wouldn't it be more cost effective to simply widen the range of the 10 speed cassette?
Now, if I have totally read that wrong, you may have to get crayons and a Big Chief tablet to walk my way through. Sorry for my ignorance.

Thank you for your help.

Darth Lefty 

The Shimano M7000, M8000, SRAM NX and SX, and other compatible cassettes all go on the same free hub as 8-9-10 speed Shimano. So no problemo.

Only Deore M6000 is 10 speed with an 11-42 cassette. I haven’t priced it out but it doesn’t seem like a great deal compared to SLX

zacster

I took a Trek 7000 full bike from about the same era, maybe even a little older, and put on a mix of Deore and XT 10sp components, v-brakes, built my own dynamo wheels and a few other bits. It cost me $500, plus another $100 for a dynamo light. It did not include bars, headset, saddle, nor crank. Would it be worth it to you to spend that much on an old bike? It was to me, but mostly because it was a winter project. I scoured the 'net to find the parts at rock bottom prices, mostly new but some used, and made sure that the shipping was included in everything, otherwise that just starts to add up. 12 individual items and I paid $17 total in shipping. (I have a spreadsheet where I tracked it all, that's why I can quote these numbers.) I still ride this bike 5 years later and never have any problems with it, except I did need to eventually replace the big ring on the crank as the chain was skipping.

The big regret with this build is that I didn't put 29er wheels on it with disc brakes. That would've included having to replace the frame and neither my bike nor yours will take them. If I were to do this again I'd start with a bare modern carbon frame and go from there. That would end up costing thousands though.

Ultimately I ended up with a 3x10 bike that shifts flawlessly with a light tough on the shifters, and v-brakes that'll stop on a dime without ever feeling like they'll throw me. Oh, Gatorskins on the wheels which are not in my $500 number above as I used the original tires for a bit but had to replace them quickly.

Really, consider what this will cost in total before you jump in.