The Project 'Dale is alive and home!!

This evening was an exciting time.... my Project 'Dale is complete!! The last time I posted about my 1993 Cannondale M700, my brother and I had just finished reassembling it. I took it for a spin around the Fort Collins Bike Co-op, but there were a few things we had to iron out before it was ready for hitting the road (and trails).

The issue that was apparent were the brakes. Whenever I hit the brakes, the shoes would squeal quite horribly. I knew how to fix that: just tweak the angle of the shoes to the rim's surface.

The second preventative measure (especially for an uberclydesdale) was to check the tension of all of the spokes on both wheels. My brother had just ordered a Park TM-1 spoke tension measuring tool, so he volunteered to check and correct the spoke tensions after the tool arrived.

The final issue was something that ended up being the most expensive part of the job: shifting. If you read my previous posts about this M700, this bike was assembled from a bare frame, using quality used parts. As anyone who's worked on a quality bike will tell you, an older quality part is always preferable to a crappy new part.

Anyways, the bike had a lot of shifting issues. We initially thought it was a worn cassette stack, but after some careful testing, it was determined that the Deore XT chain rings were worn. A quick Google search confirmed the fact that the high end chain rings are made from a softer material, and that many racers will replace them once a year. Replacement chainrings were in order. My research showed that a lot of people swore by the chainrings made by RaceFace. I ordered up a set that matched the crankset.

So this afternoon I got the chainrings installed and checked the shifting. It seemed to be working perfect. I took it for a quick test ride around the back of the co-op. It works perfectly now! The only thing that was now amiss was the fact that I didn't check the tire pressure... whoops! :)

Now that the Project 'Dale is alive and kicking, I tossed her on my car rack and was eager to get her home. I am looking forward to riding it around Laramie and the trails that surround this city!

--UberCyldesdale