I have an old canondale crit bike. I love that bike, bought it new in the 80s and its actually a crit bike. Short wheelbase, steep angles, high bottom bracket, and very stiff.
Now I mostly race bmx, but I like to race crits once in a while. I would like to up grade the bike and replace the freewheel hub with a casette hub (9 or 10 speed) and get the shifting moved up to the brake levers. The problem is the spacing. The casette hubs are wider, about 5mm I think. Does someone make a hub to retro a bike like this? A buddie of mine who owns a bike shop says not a problem, he can stretch the bike that far. If it was a steel bike I would say yea go for it, but I'm afraid the aluminum would crack.
It seems someone would make a hub to retro a frame like this. I hate to give up the frame but it would be cool to shift gears out of the saddle with both hands on the bars like those guys I race some times.

Make it a fixed gear and never shift again- problem solved!

Seriously though, I've never heard of anyone making a hub like that. You said it yourself- spacing. I think you'd need to go from 126 to 130mm for the change you're after. I, too, would feel confident cold-setting steel but I'm not sure about aluminum. That being said, I'm no metallurgist.

Try asking this same ? on the roadbike forum at www.bikeforums.net and see what you get for answers.

Good luck,
J

If you want to run an STI shifter (i'm assuming your bike is shimano?) you will be stuck with either 8, 9, or 10 speed. No one makes a hub in that configuration that is 126mm spacing, those are all 130mm. It would be a pain in the butt to spread the frame each time installing the rear wheel, but it would work. That would be safer than "cold setting", i.e., bending the rear triangle past its wield point to get the dropouts to stay in the 130mm position (not a big deal on a steel frame, as you mentioned, but i'd not want to do that to an aluminium frame). Shimano use to make a Sora level STI shifter in 7 speed, but they weren't exactly race quality. If you could find a set of those, that would work with your current hub, providing that it is 7 speed Shimano. Keep in mind, if you were to convert the rear to 9 or 10 speed, you would also need to replace the rest of the drivetrain with the matching 9 or 10 speed to have it work anywhere near worth a darn. 8 speed will work ok with the rest of your 7 speed stuff with this shifter.
http://bike.shimano.com/catalog/cycle/prod...4395181419&bmUI D=1144002172239
Honestly, an older alumminium frame is probably nearing it's last legs, and may not live long enough to be worth all the fuss. I know how you feel though, some bikes just become like an old friend, and it seems worth it to spend the dough. Most practical would be to pick up a newer road bike, and keep the Cannondale for a special occasion ride, cause you can't sell it. I wouldn't.

snif, snif.

Herbie,

I definitely recommend the 7-speed STI upgrade. It's an enormous improvement for any bike over downtube shifting ... and will breathe new life into your Cannie.

Presuming you've got a shimano setup on the thing, you might want to search on E-Bay for "Shimano RSX" ... which should yield the original Shimano RSX 7 speed shift lever. They can be found for well under a hundred bucks. You may be able to also find an NOS or nice used Dura Ace, Ultegra (600), 105 or RX-100 hub with 126 mm spacing to mount a 7 speed cassette on.

Look for a triple front lever, even if you are running double. I recently upgraded an older Trek 1200 to STI shifting ... 126 mm spacing ... all I needed was the levers ($51 used on eBay and cables and cable stops -- found an Ultegra cableset with stops for $25 on eBay.

Older stuff like that is a bit hard to find ... but, you can definitely find them.

More advice ... if you live somewhere cold ... and plan to ride the bike in the cold, give your "brifters" a good shot of WD-40 to clean out residual grease, which can really buggar up the shifting actuation. When they work ... STI shifting totally rules.

Have fun with your old bike.

Kevin O'

Here are a couple of links to completed auctions of the part you are looking for.

Exhibit A ... $66
Exhibit "A" - $66

Exhibit "B" - $38.01

I hope this helps.

Kevin O'

I had an old Cannondale wtih 126 spacing and I just shoved the 130 MM wheel right in there. It was never a problem, just a bit tight when installing the wheel. You cannot cold set an aluminum frame like you can a steel one, but the C-Dale was solid enough it never mattered.

If you ride something in a 53ish range, I have a Klein Quantum Race F and F for sale.

Thanks ya'll. I keep monkeying with it. I spend most of my time with bmx, these days, but like to do crits from time to time. This cannondale, feels closer to my bmx bikes than any thing new I have rode yet. I hav'nt seen one with the same high bb, steep ht, and short wb.
If I bought a new one I would prob get a steel frame set and go from there. Waterford will do a old crit style frame. Maybe after the next few bmx builds of my dreams.

Thanks ya'll. I keep monkeying with it. I spend most of my time with bmx, these days, but like to do crits from time to time. This cannondale, feels closer to my bmx bikes than any thing new I have rode yet. I hav'nt seen one with the same high bb, steep ht, and short wb.
If I bought a new one I would prob get a steel frame set and go from there. Waterford will do a old crit style frame. Maybe after the next few bmx builds of my dreams.

[ April 07, 2006, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: herbie d ]