M800 Comp – ‘Beast of the East’
I bought this bike in the late 90’s. It brought me to and from school and university, not to mention the odd spin in the mountains (I dreamed of Marzocchi forks). A loyal bike it was until, in 2006 I stripped all the parts and kept the frame only, whereupon it sat in my parents house for 13 years. A friend really got me going on this project when he was clearing out his garage. He knew I had this old frame and asked me if I wanted a few bits.
The frame is an 18” CAAD2 (Cannondale Advanced Aluminium Design). It was TIG welded 6000 series, made by Alcoa. Apparently the particular grade of Aluminium has the trade name Alcalyte and is derived from an aerospace grade aluminium. The frame was manufactured in February 1996 according to the serial number beneath the bottom bracket. I found a handy chart to check the date of manufacture available here.
I am not sure if Europe got the exact spec of the US, but the original specification from the catalogue is as follows. Catalogue specifications here.
- Frame: Cannondale CAAD2 – BEAST of the EAST
- Fork: Cannondale P-Bone
- Wheelset: Sun 32 spoke with Shimano Acera hubs
- Crankset: CODA 300M, 22/32/44 teeth
- Bottom Bracket: Shimano BB-UN51
- Rear mech: Shimano LX 7 speed
- Front mech: Shimano Alivio
- Shift Levers: Grip Shift SRT-600
- Rear cassette: Shimano IG
- Seatpost: Kalloy SP-263, 27.2 mm diameter
- Saddle: CODA 900
- Handlebar: CODA Performance
- Handlebar Stem: CODA
- Headset: 1 1/8inch threadless Dia-Compe Aheadset
- Pedals: Wellgo LU-949 w/clips & straps
- Weight 11.1 kg
When I purchased the bike second hand in the late 90’s it had been upgraded with XT v-brakes/levers, XT rear mech plus Azonic bars, 32 spoke Mavic rims and a Selle Italia saddle. In later years I upgraded the Crankset to Shimano LX (threaded bottom bracket).
The colour of the bike is ‘Speed Yellow’ as made by Dupont. The rear stays are quite worn exposing bare aluminium. Various chips can be seen on the frame along with the odd dent. Some cable wear has occurred in places but all in all it is in remarkable condition as it rapidly approaches 30 years of age. There were some small areas of white rust (aluminium oxide) to be found, interestingly mainly on the front fork. I did consider having the frame sand blasted and repainted but felt the character of the bike was still there and it was more authentic to leave it, not to mention the cost. The painted decals are all mostly visible and wearing well. Here is a photo of the original colour on an M900 from the catalogue and the paint specification.
I chose to modernise the bike from its original specification mainly in the drivetrain and wheelset but also wanted to use CODA parts where practical to maintain some originality. My friend gave me absolutely gorgeous 26″ Crossmax wheels along with the XTR brakes/levers.
Other parts were all picked up on EBay and consumables either online or from bits and pieces. The only work I didn’t do myself was fitting the Hollowtech bottom bracket and fitting the new headset. It took quite a while to gather the parts together but scouring EBay was quite good fun. Inspired by the XTR brakes, I wanted to keep the spec high, but without breaking the bank. I stumbled across a lot on EBay with the crankset, front/rear mech, cassette, chain and shifters. The price was much more reasonable than buying each individually; hence the mix of parts LX, XT & XTR. I was glad to move away from grip-shift as I never liked it in truth back in the day.
Old parts bought were all stripped back, degreased, lubricated and re-assembled. Doing a total strip down of the Shimano gear really showed me how well engineered these parts were. True Japanese engineering; built to last and over spec’d, but not madly so.
Mostly the restoration went smoothly but one part which proved a bit tricky was the front/rear derailleur cable routing under the bottom bracket. I lacked the old cable guide but managed to find a random Shimano one online that looked what I remembered the original to be. With a friends help heat gun was used to slightly melt the part and screw it into place, moulding it to the form of the frame. Because the bottom bracket was now Hollowtech and not threaded, the screw supplied to mount the guide proved too long and had to be ground down.
Is there anything remaining to be done? I would like to replace the slightly corroded M6 stem bolts and perhaps fit riser bars for a bit more comfort. When I bought the bike it had Azonic riser bars on it which fit my geometry a bit better. I could repaint the frame but honestly it looks great as it is, showing off some of its wear and tear from prior decades. I could upgrade the seatpost, stem and bars to be black I suppose to keep with the wasp aesthetic but I like the hark back to the original style of the bike.
I would like to rebuild another frame. Not sure what yet. Do I need another bike? Absolutely not. But why not? I do love the Cannondale frame styling of the 90’s. Made in the USA, highest quality grade of aluminium, hand welded, high paint spec; a real quality product. Maybe a Cipollini tribute, that would be ace. There is a guy in Australia who has some staggering Cipo bikes: an original Cipollini CAAD 3 TT and a CAAD 4 replica.
While I was researching/exploring online, I found a few other beautiful projects using either identical or very similar frames; 1996 M900, 1996 M800 & 1996 M800 BotE.
Below is the updated specification of the bike, plus some bonus images of the components/bike in its finished state. Thanks for stopping by. Any questions let me know.
- Stem: period CODA
- Handlebar: period CODA
- Headset: 1 1/8inch threadless nothing special
- Brake levers: XTR BL-M950
- Brakes: XTR BR-M951
- Gear shifters: LX SL-M571
- Front derailleur: Shimano LX top swing FD-M580A
- Rear derailleur: Shimano XTR M-952
- Cassette: Shimano 9 speed (11/34) – CS-M760
- Crankset: Shimano XT FC-M760 175mm (44/32/22) (Middleburn rings)
- Bottom Bracket: Shimano Hollowtech bog standard
- Pedals: Coda 900M SPD Clipless (team Volvo Cannondale)
- Saddle: fi’zi:k Anatares
- Seatpost: 27.2mm x 400mm aluminium/steel
- Wheelset: 26” Mavic Crossmax S6000 UST tubeless
- Tyres: Schwable Nobby Nic 26” x 2.1”
- Weight: Does it matter 😉