Category: Cannondale ST600

This one should be fairly quick to service, but you never know for sure until you’re done.  First will be to remove the wheels, take the tires and tubes off, and take the hubs apart.  Some cleaning, fresh grease, and some adjustment should take care of them.  The rear wheel needs to be trued, and I’ll check the front wheel before installing new tubes and tires.  I probably should service the freewheel while I’m at it.

While the wheels are off, I removed the brake calipers (they’re going to be replaced with new dual-pivot units), stem and handlebars, then the front fork.  The headset has rubber seals for the upper and lower bearings, a nice touch.  I already know the headset is out of adjustment but I don’t know if it was ridden that way.  After cleaning up the fork and crown races, it does look like it was ridden with a loose headset.  I’m going to try and salvage the headset.  If it can’t be adjusted properly or won’t hold an adjustment, then I’ll have to replace it.

The rear rack, seatpost and saddle have been removed.  next are the FD and RD, then the cranks come off.  Hopefully I have the right tool to remove the BB, but I don’t know just yet.

This bike was treated very well by it’s original owner, kept indoors and not left to rot outside as so many bikes unfortunately are.  Because of that, there isn’t any corrosion to worry about.  Mainly the consumables like grease, tires/tubes, and brake/shift cables will be replaced.  I will probably just clean up the chain and use it, it doesn’t look like it has seen too many miles.

Replacing the consumables should be fairly straightforward and since the bike is in very good shape I’m not expecting any surprises along the way.  You never know, but the odds are ever in my favor.

I’m going to upgrade the brakes and levers to more modern ones, as the braking is just so-so.  The calipers will be swapped out for Tektro R539 dual-pivot units front and rear, and the levers will be swapped for TSP RRL drilled alloy levers.  Other than that, my plan is to service the rest of the bike and leave it pretty much as-is.

I haven’t decided whether or not to replace the saddle – saddles are a personal thing and every butt is different.

I have a nice Acorn handlebar bag that would fit nicely with this bike, so I plan to use it.  It came with a Blackburn rear rack but I haven’t decided if it will stay or not.

It does somehow seem odd to refer to a Cannondale as a vintage bike, but since this one is 29 years old, I think it qualifies.