1992 Cannondale M1000: Another old mountain bike rebuild...

It's no secret that I love old Cannondales.

Yesterday, I picked up a 1992 M1000 mountain bike off of Craigslist. It's pretty ratty, but it was fairly cheap, just the right size and was more or less exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a light, fat tube, Pepperoni forked and Force 40 braked hardtail that I could throw some slick tires onto and ride on the street and paved bike trails with the family. I used to have a 1993 Cannondale M800 Beast of the East, but it was too big for me and the geometry of that frame was a little twitchy for the pavement.

The initial plan is to clean it all up, lube everything and swap on an new/old set of Avocet tires that were gathering dust in my basement. After a few assessment laps around the neighborhood, I'll figure out the next step. This was a fairly high end bike when it was new, but it has Suntour components on it and I'm pretty sure I'm going to junk it all.

Suggestions welcomed.

I guess your idea of "ratty" is different from mine!

Nice find!

I have the same oldschool cannondale situation in my garage and have been trying to decide if I should rebuild it or scrap it. The goods for mine are perfect size, love the rigids, and love the oldschool big tube goodness.

The resto plan could be to gut all components, rebuild everything, lace up a new rear hub assembly in rear, go to skinny slicks, and then a strip and polish of the whole frame.

Problem being this ends up being sub $500 in cost. This is basically exactly what a much nicer 5 year old used bike could be bought for that I can ride immediately. Did I mention that I have taken on a stupid amount of projects recently of which not a one is finished?

Oh and just for a teaser Google images share this with me

1988RedT2 wrote: I guess your idea of "ratty" is different from mine! Nice find!

That was the good side.

These are the components that I'm working with / thinking of replacing:

http://www.vintagecannondale.com/year/1992/1992.pdf#page=15&zoom=auto,-49,1115

In reply to Woody:

Okay, I agree that side does look a bit ratty on closer inspection!

At first, I thought that the gray was peeling powder coat, but it's actually some kind of graphic or decal. I hope to clean it up a bit tomorrow.

Those were pretty nice bikes in their day and that is a pretty high end component group for Sun Tour. I wouldn't change it out if it works well but, I see the M2000 was spec'd with Deore XT which would be my choice if I decided to swap it.

I've got a 1991 Marin Team, a nice bike in its day. I hated riding it offroad, but wanted something that could handle rough roads and city streets better than my 1980 Spanish Columbus tubing Razesa.

I found a cheap set of 26x2.5 cruiser tires. Got a threadless adapter, put a negative rise stem on it, a pair of high-rise cruiser bars and now it looks pretty mean.

In reply to PHeller:

The Avocets that I have are only 26x1.9. I'd like to go wider but I already have these and I've always thought that it was a cool looking pattern for a street hybrid. I don't think they make them anymore.

Here they are before I removed them from one of my other bikes:

I've had my Bianchi mountain bike since ~1993. It doesn't even seem old to me , but I suppose it is.

Gah!!! Force 40!!!

Force 40+!!!

Double GAH!!!

<-- (runs away screaming...)

I have some old Magura rim brakes if you actually need to stop once in awhile...

Ian F wrote: Gah!!! Force 40!!! Force 40+!!! Double GAH!!! <-- (runs away screaming...) I have some old Magura rim brakes if you actually need to stop once in awhile...

^This is why the internet is wrong. Loves me some Force 40.

In reply to Woody:

Sure... Until you do a DH race on a bike equiped with them...

I probably have my old Force 40 and Force 40+ cams somewhere... Probably worth somethign to somebody interested in restoring one of these old beasts. As far as I'm concerned - eff that... I don't even want rim brakes on my next road bike.

Now to add this:

< bought my wife a disc roadie for that reason. Gravity Liberty CXD. Figure even if the bike is crappy we can move the components over to something nicer, but she has no complaints (other than the hard to use for little hands brake levers).

Ian F wrote: In reply to Woody: Sure... Until you do a DH race on a bike equiped with them... I probably have my old Force 40 and Force 40+ cams somewhere... Probably worth somethign to somebody interested in restoring one of these old beasts. As far as I'm concerned - eff that... I don't even want rim brakes on my next road bike.

Fortunately, I will never, ever be doing that.

Woody wrote: I wanted a light, fat tube, Pepperoni forked and Force 40 braked hardtail that I could throw some slick tires onto and ride on the street and paved bike trails with the family.

In reply to slefain:

I sold a Tanaka two stroke bicycle engine last year!

In reply to Woody:

If I can ever figure out a way to host and post pictures, I'll start a thread for my latest project...

I finally got to take a lap around the neighborhood today. It shifts better than I had expected, but there are a couple of gears that it has trouble staying in. It may just need to be cleaned and adjusted, but the right side shifter is missing its plastic cover, so I have a sharp metal spear sitting on top of the handlebars that needs to be addressed. I'm not sure how I'll approach this, as I don't know how well I can mix and match Shram, Shimano and Suntour parts. I suspect that the rear hub is Suntour so I have to figure out what kind of cassette and then derailleur and shifter I can use.

Unless I can find a decent, complete component group for sale somewhere, I think the plan is going to be to just completely strip it down, clean the crap out of everything and reassemble it with new cables and a replacement for the bad shifter.

If you're on Facebook, join the "Classic Mtn Bike Trading" group. Guys are always posting stuff and you can post a WTB as well. There's eBay as well, but the Group prices are generally better.

In reply to Ian F:

That's not coming up in my search.

The rear hub is a low end Shimano (front is Suntour Comp), so I'm guessing that the rear wheel has been replaced at some point, and I don't know what brand of cassette I'm dealing with yet. Hopefully, I can take it apart with my Shimano tool.

Anybody have a Suntour rubber shifter cover laying around? I'd hate to have to replace the whole shifter just because of this.