xiaoman1 

Your bike looks incredible!!!!!
I like my Black Lightning but the finish of the welds is just "so so"......not "sleek and smooth like those in the add, definitely handcrafted.


Best, Ben

rccardr 

I've not found the paint to be an issue at all, unless it's been otherwise neglected or abused. Had several SR and ST frames that polished up quite nicely and were not at all prone to chipping.

You are not stuck with 126 OLD. I've inserted a 130 OLD wheel into many a Cannondale frame with no ill effects, even years and year and thousands of miles later. See pic of an ST that's got, oh, maybe 6,000 miles on it over the last five years:

So, there's that.

Lemond1985

My '88 was painted with DuPont Imron, IIRC. Good stuff.

ADR70

nice work !

ridelikeaturtle

My '87 has "RS" and "BS" stamped on the outside of the left rear dropout. Not easy to see, but it's there, using the flashlight on my camera you can make them out.

So these are the initials of the frame welders?

jdawginsc 

Cannondale paint from 1986-1990 was something to behold. I have 4 small chips on the frame proper. None have spread. Since 1987...Probably have polished/waxed it 5 times in its lifetime.

Chr0m0ly 

You might find you can fit a 28 in the front, if not the rear, that would help with the ride.

velojym

The back wheel in the first pic is a 130, though it did take a slight bit of spreading to fit. Not enough to fatigue the alloy, but just enough to have wondered whether there'd be a problem. My B'stone 200 took a 130 and shifts fine, indexed, with 7 speeds. Of course, gas pipe and Cannondale Al are completely different animals, but we'll see.

Charliekeet

My '85 SR's paint is shall we say, NOT, something to behold. It's the red, and I have decided that it's just too far gone to keep touching it up (badly). I'm gonna strip it and enjoy the welds!

To the OP, I flat-barred mine and love it. I have 28s on it, and they just just fit. Schwalbe Duramos.

Bianchi84

I think so... my '85 SM600 has "TC"

70sSanO

As noted above you can try to stuff a 130mm wheel into 126mm Cannondale dropouts. Over the years there have been any number of posts on this both pro and con. Biggest determining factor is the actual dropout measurement. I've tried a 130mm in an 126mm steel frame and ended up spreading it. 130mm wheel tends to throw the dropouts out of square. Can't say what happens to a Cannondale.

But there is a quick and fairly easy way to modify your 105 hub to work. There was an old thread by miamijim that talked about thickness of hub washers and locknuts and going thinner to reduce the OLD of a 130mm hub to 126mm to run 10 speeds. I have the thinner stuff to use, but haven't gone there yet.

While I haven't tried the following, I "think" it will work. The DS washer between the cone and the locknut is around 1.2mm thick. Who needs it? I mean it will probably be a pain to separate the cone and locknut down the road; and you may never really need to do that since all cone adjustments are made on the NDS. Just cinch it down tight, take off 1.5mm to 2mm off the NDS and you are within a 1mm or so. The only caveats will be a possible slight re-dishing of the wheel and the amount of relief between the chain and the dropout with the washer removed and in the first cog position. The relief between the chain and dropout is my only concern, but I've run some pretty tight tolerances.

Don't hang the frame.

John

sloar 

I read somewhere that the reason they airbrushed the graphics was because some of the tubing that year had some flaws. Evidently they weren’t perfectly round, so the graphics hid it. Not sure if it’s true.