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I recently bought a BL crankset from this guy on eBay, he also has some derailleurs that may suit yours? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256349790358?itmmeta=01HTQA609WVPS6A4945ZTCRCAB&hash=item3bafa36096:g:cvMAAOSwurllgLJH

Minor update for anyone interested: I came across a bunch of items on eBay after my weekly ‘Cannondale Black Lightning’ search. This seller must have been partially parting out the exact same model as mine as he had the same Diacompe levers along with the model specific Suntour Accushift EDGE...

My interest peaking here too. I can’t actually recall why I went with a 9sp chain (and am actually on my 3rd one!) I remember doing lots of reading and getting as much info from people as I could and landing on the conclusion that I should go 9sp. I’m about to put an identical bit better...

Interesting! I had only tried mine with 9 speed chains. Perhaps I should try an 8 speed. When I tried a Shimano 9 speed HG chain I had this extremely odd scenario where sometimes when shifting to a larger cog on the freewheel the chain would shift up but not fully engage. It would grab the...

So nice! Haha yes tuning those Suntour indexes. I found it was more or less a matter of accepting the least amount of compromise with the freewheel indexing and then also accepting that it would only really stay in place for maybe 20-30 mins or so if you were lucky. Most shifts are a ‘click...

Absolutely gorgeous!

Haha it definitely is a ‘need’ Those era Saeco CAD’s and the pre CAD Black Lightnings are the only Cannondales I truly care for. Without a quill stem and a horizontal top tube I just can’t agree with the aesthetic. I’m also not an older bicycle purist at all either, just love that old classic...

Here it is before I fully 7700’d it and got a yellow/red SMP saddle for it. Also switched out the stem and bars to a BL stem and bar set I had spare haha

Totally! I originally saw that 63cm for $400 on an Australian Cannondale marketplace page and couldn’t believe it! Turns out the guy had accidentally posted it there and obviously was in the US. For now I’m stoked with my more or less catalog exact BL. With that said I did recently buy a 60cm...

Keen to see how your stems end up looking!

Any chance you ended up grabbing this? From memory he wasn’t asking too much for it and would be well worth it for the parts alone! I was keen for the frame size initially. My current BL is a 58 but I’m 194cm (6’4”) and it’s probably too small for me. I ended up getting a longer similar looking...

Also I've just come across this bike for sale on an FB group called 'AUS Cannondale Buy Sell and Swap' It's a private group so may not be easy to see, also for future viewers of this thread this will be useless. But its basically a 61cm Criterium BL which looks to have all the OG components...

Haha my paint is flaky and bubbly all over when you see it in person - I went to town with a paint sharpie as much as possible. The worn look kind of matches the whole bike though so I'm pretty happy. Upon looking at this again I see that yours is the Criterium series (unlike mine) so I think...

This looks great! Have you repainted the stem mostly? What are you planning to do with the lettering on the stem? I believe originally it would have been that same dull gold/yellow colour as the other decals. I have two stems like that, would love to bring them back to their original glory. Both...

I have the same bike! I did a full strip down and rebuild from the bearings up to the whole thing: https://community.vintagecannondale.com/threads/1988-black-lightning-resto.345/ I tried a few chains and found the KMC 9 speed to be the best

UPDATE! Ok so after much back and forth and buying and selling of bits I decided to keep it as original as possible but try and make it as new as possible. So I hunted down a NOS Suntour 7sp AP freewheel (which has a 28 which is helping on the hills! (original was 26)) Removed the Ovaltech...

Ah amazing, thanks for all that info, much appreciated! You've just made me realise that my wife's old bike which is in the attic and has only ridden about 20km since new actually has a 7 speed tourney system. I think I'll look into putting that freewheel on my Sansin/Wolber wheelset, switch...

The CAAD 4 seems to be going well. I had gotten used to the slightly clunky downtube shifting and vintage drivetrain on the BL so the 9sp Ultegra on the CAAD 4 is like a dream! So much so that I'm now considering trying to get a modern Shimano system on the BL. I'd keep all the original parts...

After thinking about it for a while I've decided to keep the BL mostly housed and pick up another bike for everyday use. For the time being I don't have an indoor storage area for bikes so I'll put the BL in the attic and keep it covered. I'd be very upset if anything ever happened to it being...

Thanks! I'll definitely keep an eye out. I think I'll just ride it as it is until it can't be brought back to life. I only ride about 20km a week so that may be sometime seeing that it seems to be working well at the moment! I can see a few NOS oval tech rings but none that are black in the...