the sci guy 

So lots of you probably saw I got myself a 2001 Cannondale R1000 CAAD4 to rebuild and have posted a few times about it in the Cult of CAAD thread - and recently inspired SoSmellyAir to go in search of a turn of the century CAAD frame as well. He was able to find himself a 2000 R4000 CAAD4 frame & fork. We've been chatting via PM helping each other out with some parts and questions, and decided to make a thread where we can share the progress of our similar builds as they go!

It should be a fun mess because the bikes look so similar - and the colorways are just barely different - so keeping track of which is which should be fun
We'll each post our own updates, obviously. Should be fun to see how they compare to each other when done!

While I'll post a bunch of update photos here, the entirety of the project photos can always be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rattle...57720188715900

So I'll start. Here's how my R1000 looked in the FB Marketplace ad I found from a lady in New Jersey (I'm in Houston, TX).


and here it is in person, after pulling it out of the box

I've got to go do some more actual work work, so I'll post some more detailed pics of the "how it came" later, and I've got some in-progress build pics too.

Can't wait for this to be done!

SoSmellyAir

For me, this all started after convincing the sci guy to spend his tax refund on a Campy Zonda wheelset despite the apparent risk that a 25 mm tire mounted on a 622 x 17C wheel may barely clear the rear brake bridge of a CAAD4. (https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...bang-buck.html)

After he determined that the wheels do fit (with a different 25 mm tire), I thought: why not do the same thing? I already have an extra pair of 622 x 17C wheels after upgrading to CF wheels on the Synapse, and those wheels are not the only unused spare parts. The more I looked into this, the more I learned about how Cannondale advanced aluminum frame development through each generation of the CAAD, which turns out to have quite a cult following. (https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...cult-caad.html) I started searching for an earlier Made in the USA model ...

... and found a 2000 CAAD4 R4000 frame with a very similar paint scheme on eBay. Here it is so far:



Progress will be slow. The only thing I know about building a bike is that the fork should be inserted in the other direction.

SoSmellyAir

Except the fork was made in France by Time. The 1" steerer does present a slight wrinkle, but at least it is not threaded!

the sci guy 

the sci guy 

OK, have a few minutes so I'll throw out some more pics.
The bike was in impressively excellent condition - the components are in such good shape it almost was like it had been ridden like 10 times and then set aside for 20 years. Despite this, my plan was to rebuild it with modern 105.








I wish I had a TIME fork, but I guess I'll settle, lol

SoSmellyAir

In my excitement at joining the Cult of CAAD, I forgot to test if the rear wheel fits; it does ...



... but just barely, and this is a Continental GP 25 mm with a few hundred miles on it too. Thankfully irony did not rear its ugly head this morning.

SoSmellyAir

Indeed. Clean those old components and sell them to others doing a period correct restoration.

This is definitely the way to go. I have ordered some 105-R7000 components too.

the sci guy 

Keeping them for now - might swap them onto my 1987 Cilo - though I'd have to spread the rear triangle from 126 to 130. Also not sure I want to disrupt the beauty of the all original shimano 600 friction shifting.

the sci guy 

Few more pics..

Once I got it all stripped down, I took the glamour shot


Then I had to start figuring out what I needed/wanted that fit the frame. The copy of the catalogue on vintagecannondale.com was very hard to read any words/numbers, and doesn't always have all the exact sizes of parts, so, time to measure.

This was before the time of zero stack headsets I believe, so external cup it was! I went with the Cane Creek 40, EC34. A solid, middle of the road quality headset.

Also picked up a shimano BBR60 bottom bracket (68mm). Decided to weigh it against the old one - quite the hefty difference.


The old/new headsets were virtually the same weight, though.


Finally, it took about 3 months, but I finally found almost everything i needed to start.


Missing from the pic is the seatpost, which I already had installed on the bike, and the stem which I was waiting to order for sizing - but I ordered a Zipp Service Course SL in 80mm length.

the sci guy 

More build stuffs -

The Campy Zondas that SoSmellyAir suggested. And I love them.


So I'm huge on aesthetics. I love colors. My bikes are a reflection of my personality and I love bright colorful things. I abhor black bikes. And part of the fun for me is to make sure as much as possible is color matched. I rebuilt the same exact bike model for my buddy, and I decided to use red for the highlights, so I didn't want to duplicate that. So I decided to go with yellow - and tried to match the colors to the yellow Cannondale decals on the frame.
Cable housing matched pretty ok


Tire color splash matched pretty good too


And the match between the housing & the tires was also pretty good


I originally ordered some Tacx Deva bottle cages in yellow - as they're some of my favorite cages, but the yellow color was not a good match. it was very dull/faded/putrid. Not close enough to work. So I had to return them.


The pictures don't really show it, but it was really bad.

Instead, I ordered some Supacaz multi-color cages from eBay.

SoSmellyAir

To be fair, someone else first suggested these wheels. I just convinced the sci guy to buy them!

Very nice! I am almost ashamed of my Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels with the blue hubs and nipples that do not match any part of the frame, and the boring black Continental tires already mounted. As for cables, I am only trying to determine whether the coated cable and housings are worth the costs given they run externally on the frame.

SoSmellyAir

It is not so much a bromance as an upcoming battle of the color coordinated vs. the color blind.

robbyville

Looking great so far, love those bottle cages! Like you I need color in my life, I have the brightest bike in our area and proud of it!

enjoy the builds looking forward to seeing the finished steeds

mstateglfr 

For what its worth, you need to consider the axle that is attached to your driveside crankarm. That is, in part, why your bottom brackets are so much different in weight- the axle is missing from the modern external BB.

SoSmellyAir

True. Based on my research a Hollowtech II bottom bracket and axle saves just over 100 g compared to a JIS square taper BB.

My 105-R7000 components (STI levers, brakes, and derailleurs) from Merlin Cycles arrived today in OEM cardboard boxes, so no photo of impressive spread like the sci guy. The STI levers came with cables, so boring black it will be, unless the sci guy has any left over after he is done, please mail me 1 ft. for the RD! It is the only part of my frame that is yellow. The Ultegra RD pulleys and Dura-Ace bottom bracket came in blue Shimano retail boxes.

the sci guy 

same! My 2016 Roubaix was a bright highlighter-ish yellow with nice blue color swaths, thst I matched cages and tape to. It was flashy and I loved it.
my other bikes (by coincidence) are both old school steel blue (both are vintage steel bikes). White cables, silver/stainless components.

the sci guy 

my levers came in the retail box with cables and housing as well but I wanted yellow shift cables so I’ll just stash the stock ones.
the brake cables are a carbon grey weave color. It looked good on my buddies bike so I’m using it on mine too.

SoSmellyAir

Fancy! My Synapse also has different shift and brake cable housing colors, but mostly because (1) it took a long time to replace the internally routed shift cables and housings after I snapped the RD cable, and (2) the brake cables were still fine.

My CAAD4 frame has more red and orange than yellow so I am not sure yellow cable housings would work. I have no time to work on it now but I go into the garage every so often just to admire the paint job, and I assume you do too! In this day and age of single color paint schemes, our CAAD4 frames look custom painted!

robbyville

understood, my vintage is a nice faded pink, and my daily ride is a Blue/slate/lemon.

Can’t wait to see these bikes built out.

the sci guy 

Your frame is actually a large portion of orange - I would try orange cables and cages maybe. Mine is just a tiny portion and is more of the yellow/gold in the same area where yours is orange. However, yellow would also be perfect because the text decals on your frame stand out a lot more against the background colors than on mine (because of the afore mentioned yellow/gold). So those little splashes of yellow in the decals would be perfectly accentuated by yellow cages and yellow cabling.

the sci guy 

As I mentioned, I did a little restore/update build on the exact same bike (model & year) that I found here in houston for a riding buddy, in a size 58 frame for him. I ended up having a tire clearance problem with the rear brake bridge. The little bulge where the brake screwed into stuck down a little bit and the tires I put on were hitting it pretty hard. We had taken off the 700x23 tires and I wanted to put on 700x28 Panaracer Pasaleas. But, it was not to be. After some research, some asking here, and talking to my bike shop buddy, I found out these older Rxxxx frames are tire size limited because of that damn brake bridge. There's plenty of clearance in the front fork, and between the chainstays, and behind the seat tube. It's just that freakin bridge. So, 700x25s it was. The issue was on the old Dura-Ace wheels that came with his bike (we sold them because they were so hard to work with), AND on the Mavic CXP Elites we got to replace them.

So, I was worried that because the Campy Zonda wheelset I ended up getting was actually a 17mm internal width and not 15, I was going to have another problem since wider IW means larger volume. So, I was super nervous when the tires I ordered showed up.
It's worth noting that I had a set of 28mm Pasaleas just sitting around and I did try to mount them to the Zondas just for the hell of it, but I just couldn't get those suckers on there - I think it's the wire bead, because I had no issues mounting the foldable tires I ordered.

I got a set of Vittoria Rubino Pros in 700x25, with the yellow stripe to match my colorway highlights I was doing. I've never had colored tires before - i bet they'll be dirty af after 2 rides.

Anyway, i mounted everything up and I was SO relieved when it cleared the brake bridge.

the sci guy 

I haven't yet dropped the $200 on Parktool's headset press, but my buddy has so I went over to his place and we put the headset in


Then I swung by a local shop and had them smack on the crown race


Right now the fork is in there with a parts bin stem on it to hold it in place. New stem is supposed to arrive today according to tracking.

In the meantime,

BB and crank installed

SoSmellyAir

the sci guy is making good progress!

I am still debating whether to attempt the headset install with (1) a $20 headset cup removal tool, (2) a $30 headset press from Amazon, and (3) a section of hard PVC pipe (for setting the crown race) as shown on YouTube, or calling LBS to get a price for knocking out the old one and installing the new one. The $30 press may be a handy tool to have in the future if I ever need to replace the BB on the Synapse. I would gladly pay an LBS (> above costs) to do all this but don't feel like leaving my frame and fork there for days. Major work deadlines at the beginning of next months so no progress so far.

mstateglfr 

pvc works fine to set a race.

$7 in threaded rod plus some metal washers ant a couple hex nuts has installed the last 15 headsets I've installed. CC40, campy, shimano, ritchey, fsa, 1" threaded, 1 1/8" threadless...all go on just fine.

the sci guy 

FYI I bought this to press in my cups fully and it worked pretty well. Granted mine were prety much fully in, I just needed to snug them, but I was impressed with how well it fit into the cups and felt pretty sturdy.
https://www.amazon.com/BlueSunshine-...NrPXRydWU&th=1