# Rebuild of an old Cannondale rigid frame



## dh1 (Aug 28, 2004)

I just found this forum and am pretty jacked about it.

I need some help as I am rebuilding my old bike for my wife to ride. Our kids are finally getting old enough and I just got my son a new youth sized Marin.

To the point, I have this old Cannondale getup that I am rebuilding. Not even sure when I got it, but I just convinced my local bike shop to give me a decal set for it. It was about 5 years ago that I stripped the frame. Just this summer I finally got the frame and fork powder coated and I don't remember where all the decals go  . Would like it to look as close to original as possible.

So....does anyone know where I can find some pics of old (late 80's early 90's) dales to use as a guide? 

You can see the decals are not quite the original vintage, but this is the best Cannondale could send me. PS: they mailed the white decals and a black set to me for FREE! I am going to stick a set to my younger son's Daimondback BMX just to confuse people.
TIA
David


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## NAHTNOJ (Jan 12, 2004)

I'd guess that is about a 91 or so?

Is it a Beast of the East?


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## jestep (Jul 23, 2004)

Try this one. Pretty much all the cannondale bikes have the same layout. Im sure there are exceptions, and Im not sure about this exact model.

Came from this page if you want to see some more:
https://www.opal.info.pl/opal/almamater/kluby/ArapahoBikePage/Zdjecia/Cannondale/

Definately a beautiful bike, be sure to post some pictures when you're done with it.


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## dh1 (Aug 28, 2004)

*Not exactly sure, I bought the bike*



NAHTNOJ said:


> I'd guess that is about a 91 or so?
> 
> Is it a Beast of the East?


Not exactly sure of the model name/designation, but it sounds right. The model year sounds about right too, I was going to say 90. I bought the bike from one of my fraternity brothers about a year or two after he got. He sold it to me as the first suspension bikes began to come out and he upgraded sometime around 92 or 93. When I got it, the only decals that were on it were a few "Cannondale" decals here and there. Just don't remember where, other than the really large CANNONDALE decal on the down tube.

Cheers
David


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## bob24250 (Mar 9, 2004)

*Incorrect decals*

The decal set they sent you isn't correct for that year bike. I have a '91 SE1000...basically the same except it is a softtail. The large cannondale logo went down the down tube, but was individual letters. The original logo was not the "C" but a design similiar to a mountain with cannondale written under it. The fork should have a decal that says Pepperoni down the side, and the chain stays have "Made in the USA" decals on them.

But since you got a free set of decals who cares. Put them on and have some fun.


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*That's not a Pepperoni fork though*



bob24250 said:


> The decal set they sent you isn't correct for that year bike. I have a '91 SE1000...basically the same except it is a softtail. The large cannondale logo went down the down tube, but was individual letters. The original logo was not the "C" but a design similiar to a mountain with cannondale written under it. The fork should have a decal that says Pepperoni down the side, and the chain stays have "Made in the USA" decals on them.
> 
> But since you got a free set of decals who cares. Put them on and have some fun.


And he said that all Cannondale had for him was current decals and that he just wanted to put them in the appropriate places.


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## bob24250 (Mar 9, 2004)

How can you tell it is not a pepperoni...it looks the same as mine and I have one. If he would like, he could get closer to the original decals by purchasing individual letters, since that is the way they came on the bike. The only thing he could not duplicate would be the fork stickers and the logo.


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*Pretty Clearly a Steel Fork*



bob24250 said:


> How can you tell it is not a pepperoni...it looks the same as mine and I have one. If he would like, he could get closer to the original decals by purchasing individual letters, since that is the way they came on the bike. The only thing he could not duplicate would be the fork stickers and the logo.


The Pepperoni is much thicker in the legs, doesnt have eyelets, well it does but they are part of the big beefy dropout and are hard to see. Also Pepperoni Forks were only 1 1/4" until the late 90's and that is a 1" headset.


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## bob24250 (Mar 9, 2004)

Shayne said:


> The Pepperoni is much thicker in the legs, doesnt have eyelets, well it does but they are part of the big beefy dropout and are hard to see. Also Pepperoni Forks were only 1 1/4" until the late 90's and that is a 1" headset.


It looks identical to my pepperoni fork and mine is a 1" headset too. It has the eyelets and doesn't have big beefy dropouts. I will take a pic tonight and post it.


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*1993 Pepperoni Fork*



bob24250 said:


> It looks identical to my pepperoni fork and mine is a 1" headset too. It has the eyelets and doesn't have big beefy dropouts. I will take a pic tonight and post it.


 Here's one of my old Cannondale forks. I think the Pepperoni fork debuted in 1992 but perhaps it was 1993. Even with the steel 1 1/4" steerer from a 20" frame the fork is still 739g (1.63lbs).


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*Here's a Pic of a frame of roughly the same vintage*

The old, old cannondales didnt even have decals on the downtube

Although your's has the cantilevered rear droupout so it is a 3.0 style frame so it would have the downtube decals, model number if any on the toptube just in front of the seat tube and Cannondale going diagonally upward on the left side of a triangle made of parallel lines. (I'll post a pic of that later)


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*Here's the older headtube decals*

The first one is the original Cannondale headtube logo which is a picture of their first factory.

Second pic is the logo used from around 1990ish to 1997ish.

Just FYI
I know you have decals already


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## bob24250 (Mar 9, 2004)

Shayne said:


> Here's one of my old Cannondale forks. I think the Pepperoni fork debuted in 1992 but perhaps it was 1993. Even with the steel 1 1/4" steerer from a 20" frame the fork is still 739g (1.63lbs).


I have the same fork on my '91 SE-1000, only mine is a 1" headset. It was made in Sept/Oct of '90. Mine is a European model though, so it came with full Shimano instead of Suntour. And that could explain the differences too. The whole bike is heavy as Hell.

I have the original logo that you posted and have the "Cannondale" on the downtube. The third and 4 digit of the seriel # will tell when it was made and model year.

This pic is from Cannondale and the only difference is mine did not come with any top tube decals.


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## dh1 (Aug 28, 2004)

bob24250 said:


> I have the same fork on my '91 SE-1000, only mine is a 1" headset. It was made in Sept/Oct of '90. Mine is a European model though, so it came with full Shimano instead of Suntour. And that could explain the differences too. The whole bike is heavy as Hell.
> 
> I have the original logo that you posted and have the "Cannondale" on the downtube. The third and 4 digit of the seriel # will tell when it was made and model year.
> 
> This pic is from Cannondale and the only difference is mine did not come with any top tube decals.


Thanks for the feedback! Other than your rear suspension, our bikes look similar. I wish I had written the serial # down before I had the frame powdercoated. I can only make our some of the number, the rest got filled with powder. I am sure I have it written down in some of my old renters insurance papers from school if my wife hasn't already tossed that stuff.

This powdercoating stuff is HARD as hell to get off! You can tell from the pics that the headset I have is black (not original either). Let's just put it this way, when I paid the powder coater I think he ran straight to the party store to get a case of budweiser. I asked him to mask off the headset and cantilever mounts. He did neither. I pulled off the headest and put in a new black one but the cantilever mounts I didn't want to remove as I was afraid the finish would get screwed up on the frame. It took me 30 minutes to sand the powder coating off the mounts on the forks alone.

Thanks
David


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

bob24250 said:


> It looks identical to my pepperoni fork and mine is a 1" headset too. It has the eyelets and doesn't have big beefy dropouts. I will take a pic tonight and post it.


That fork is definitely not a Pepperoni. They came out in 91 and they were 1". I worked at a shop then and remember them. We had the SE 2000 I think here that was black and green and was all Shimano XT with Pepperoni and a Flex Stem. Very flexy rear ends on those! Although they were defintely faster through rough stuff than a hardtail.

Pepperoni's came in all three sizes. 1", 1 1/8", and 1 1/4" apparently. The 90 Cdales came with Ritchey Logic forks. Well, the nicer ones did anyway.


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## midtnSS (Apr 26, 2004)

*My red 92*

My 92 Beast had red frame with black decals, the striped triangle head tube decal, M700 decal at seat end of top tube, and a Beast of the East sticker on seat tube. 1 1/4" threaded aluminum steerer Pepperoni fork, Force 40 brakes, built up from a frame with LX and Ritchey group, Nuke Proof cabon hubs on 231s, Zmax WCS. 21 lbs with big cushy seat of MTB bliss. I'm in the market if anyone knows of one.


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## lucifer (Sep 27, 2004)

FWIW I'm pretty sure my m1000 had a 1" pepperoni. And god was that fork murder on the wrists. It was so bad I leaped at the opportunity to replace it with a future shock...


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