Cannondale Project

[Easy-X]

Whoops! Posted this in the wrong section...

As if I didn't have enough going on, I'm converting this old Cannondale F500 to rigid forks:

https://i.ibb.co/TBbpd8rt/20261001-165833.jpg

The head tube is an outlandish 2 inches in diameter so I'm dropping in some conversion bearings to reduce it down to a reasonable 1 1/8". The original Headshok fork had seized up long ago so I'm converting it to a rigid fork.

I'm thinking I might treat and respray the corrosion deliberately badly to maintain the "rat bike" aesthetic it seems to have spent it's life evolving into
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Easy-X]

Most of the parts turned up, and it was a lovely afternoon..

https://i.ibb.co/60q74NNJ/20261005-162302.jpg

Slight snag though:

https://i.ibb.co/20bWMpBx/20261005-162308.jpg

I had a word with the eBay seller of the fork and they gave me some money back to buy some adapters to drop the V-brake pegs down a bit, which was nice of them.

Still has a rear brake so err... perfectly safe to ride Even so, I only went up and down the road to test it out but wow, it's certainly agile! My old bike feels like a barge in comparison.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[stinkwheel]

I have the Surly version of those forks on my MTB. Surprising how much they soak up the bumps. Steel is real and all that.

I think they're designed for 29" rims, which will be why the brake pivots don't line up

You going to go fat tyres on it?

EDIT: Or go 29" front, 26" rear just to annoy people?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Easy-X]

Yes, Gemini pointed it out to me that steel has a bit of spring to it, makes sense - spoked wheels vs. cast and all that. The reason for using a 29" fork was to compensate for the loss of the Headshok suspension. I think it's something like 390mm for a normal fork between axle and crown and this is more like 420mm so the geometry is maintained.

29 on the front sounds a bit extreme but thinking about it, a 27.5" wheel would be enough to be disconcerting without people being immediately sure of what's going on. I think you'd call it a "mini-Mullet"

For now I'm going to fit the V-brake adapters but I was thinking of a disk brake front at some point so maybe 27.5"
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Easy-X]

The little brackets don't fit I think they're meant for raising up the posts rather than downward, my f*ck up Disk brake wheel sounding even more appealing.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter