JohnnyD
Well-Known Member
You forgot to say that it works AND looks great doing it.
1990 SM400
- Thread starter FPrue1304
- Start date
JohnnyD
Well-Known Member
Nice and light.. unlike modern MTB
Minor update: I found 26 inch alloy rims which are TL compatible (yes it is true) and build another 26 inch wheelset with Novatec hubs (the old ones go to another Cannondale 3.0 frame which I am setting up as a commuter bike). The tubeless tires are really nice (2.25 inch wide). You can ride at 1.5 bar and it is amazingly smooth on rough terrain. The bike as it is is pretty fine now, and I cannot think of further improvements.
Yes! What makes the 3.0 frame quite pleasant for fast gravel-riding is the low and long geometry, which makes riding with a drop down bar very road-like. Add the road-width of the bottom-bracket to this. At the same time the wide tires provide lots of traction and with tubeless I am running lower pressures without sacrificing speed (the width does sacrifice speed, though!). Rather, on rough terrain I can go faster because the bike is not rattling my teeth loose. And this with a weight of roughly 9 kg.
I can directly compare with my Cannondale Slate gravel bike. The Slate does not have this aggressive geometry and a Lefty suspension fork, so you find the steering bar higher and more to the back.
I can directly compare with my Cannondale Slate gravel bike. The Slate does not have this aggressive geometry and a Lefty suspension fork, so you find the steering bar higher and more to the back.
This is the byproduct I made from leftover parts after building the gravel bike which is the subject of this thread. This "leftover" frame which I obtained in 1990 as my first mountain bike (SM 400 - the topic of the thread). I rebuild the frame with old parts (handlebar and stem, brakes). The installed 1x12 SRAM was originally planned for the gravel bike before I decided to go electric with AXS on that. The 46 chainring and the SRAM Red cranks are surpluses which do not hurt here. I still have the old 3x7 group but cannot find the shifters and the cranks were beyond saving. 1x is so much more convenient... 
The wheels ran on the gravel bike for a couple of hundred miles so I know these are broken in.
Even though I have a couple of original cable holders for the top tube (and a few replicas from this site), as an experiment I used some cable holders from Aliexpress which worked excellently and cover the little holes in the tube.
The paint on the bike is a really bad job, it was my practicing sample for the gravel bike. But the color actually is Dodge Viper Red which is very close to the original red that came with the SAECO frames. Both bikes look great in real (color-wise). As the gravel bike was powder coated it failed to match the exact tone.
And this concludes my little gravel bike project which dragged on for a couple of years. In the middle I found a 18 inch frame from the same year by sheer luck (much better size for me) and then decided to build a gravel bike on that basis, using my existing pepperoni fork which I converted to ahead-set for a better gravel set-up. The surplus bike has a basic steel fork as it came on the SM 400.
The wheels ran on the gravel bike for a couple of hundred miles so I know these are broken in.Even though I have a couple of original cable holders for the top tube (and a few replicas from this site), as an experiment I used some cable holders from Aliexpress which worked excellently and cover the little holes in the tube.
The paint on the bike is a really bad job, it was my practicing sample for the gravel bike. But the color actually is Dodge Viper Red which is very close to the original red that came with the SAECO frames. Both bikes look great in real (color-wise). As the gravel bike was powder coated it failed to match the exact tone.
And this concludes my little gravel bike project which dragged on for a couple of years. In the middle I found a 18 inch frame from the same year by sheer luck (much better size for me) and then decided to build a gravel bike on that basis, using my existing pepperoni fork which I converted to ahead-set for a better gravel set-up. The surplus bike has a basic steel fork as it came on the SM 400.
JohnnyD
Well-Known Member
I've said it before and will say it again. The 3.0 series frames in red are just stunning looking bikes to me. I am not biased in any way either.This is the byproduct I made from leftover parts after building the gravel bike which is the subject of this thread. This "leftover" frame which I obtained in 1990 as my first mountain bike (SM 400 - the topic of the thread). I rebuild the frame with old parts (handlebar and stem, brakes). The installed 1x12 SRAM was originally planned for the gravel bike before I decided to go electric with AXS on that. The 46 chainring and the SRAM Red cranks are surpluses which do not hurt here. I still have the old 3x7 group but cannot find the shifters and the cranks were beyond saving. 1x is so much more convenient...
Even though I have a couple of original cable holders for the top tube (and a few replicas from this site), as an experiment I used some cable holders from Aliexpress which worked excellently and cover the little holes in the tube.
The paint on the bike is a really bad job, it was my practicing sample for the gravel bike. But the color actually is Dodge Viper Red which is very close to the original red that came with the SAECO frames. Both bikes look great in real (color-wise). As the gravel bike was powder coated it failed to match the exact tone.
And this concludes my little gravel bike project which dragged on for a couple of years. In the middle I found a 18 inch frame from the same year by sheer luck (much better size for me) and then decided to build a gravel bike on that basis, using my existing pepperoni fork which I converted to ahead-set for a better gravel set-up. The surplus bike has a basic steel fork as it came on the SM 400.
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