1997 F700 - Full Restoration

JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
I'm no youngster, but spent many of my younger years working in the cruise industry on ships that tended to visit Alaska in the summer months and allowed me to go biking over some great trails.

My first venture into mountain biking was around 1996 when I purchased my first mountain bike, a Cannondale F700 which I gradually improved with XT components, Mavic Rims, suspension seat post etc and spent many a great day exploring Alaska. Unfortunately in around 1999 this got stolen while being shipped back to England and I never saw it again. Luckily it was insured and along with all the invoices for my upgraded components and a letter from the bike dealership that i purchased it from, the insurance company paid me what I believed the bike to be worth, allowing me to purchase a 1999 Cannondale F2000, one of the first disc braked mountain bikes on the market. I continued riding this for about four years, but never really enjoyed it as much as my old F700, even though it was a better bike.

So my last ride on a decent bike was back in around 2005 Ish.

This leads me to Now....... I often browse ebay to see if there are any nice Vintage Cannondale's up for sale and a few weeks ago ago I spotted a well looked after and low mileage F700, same color as my old steed that was stolen all those years ago, it looked in quite good condition bearing in mind it's a 1997 model, 23 years old (But still looking good).

Now it's been nearly 20 years since mountain biking was my main hobby, and as you can guess, I'm not up to date on the latest components, so I'm on a learning curve all over again. My hobby is restoring classic 70's cars, in-fact anything mechanical, I have a pretty good workshop, so I'm looking forward to doing a total rebuild.......... and it gives me something to do during the COVID lockdown, luckily I can get most of what I need online.

The good news is the frame is in very good condition, no corrosion at all, just a few scratches here and there.

I could easily spend an afternoon and a few $$ and have the bike up and running in a day, she needs a new front wheel and hub, the hub is cracked, and the rims (Front & Rear) are a little tired, but I've decided to do a full rebuild and upgrade most of the components from LX, to the later T610 group set. I won't be doing any extreme rides, mainly trail riding and river bank rides, so don't need anything too hard core, but wanted quality items all round. The Headshok needs some attention, it still locks out but I can tell it's not working quite as it should, so this will be coming apart. I would like to keep the costs sensible, but still have quality components, but I got led astray by Ebay and I've already spent a bomb..... LOL.

So..... This is what the bike looked like, I only paid £200 (Pounds Sterling) for the bike, and it'll probably be my last Mountain Bike, so what the hell i decided to treat myself and totally rebuild her to as new, if not better than new.

The Build Begins......

This is how I received her......











I'll keep you updated
 
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JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
Day 2 : The Strip Down...............

Ordered a few components so I have them ready and not having to wait for them when I'm ready to start putting her back together.

Having spent the last two days browsing the web, I decided that the Deore T610 components will do what I need, without spending a bomb, so based my rebuild on those components.

Deore T610 Levers (Black)
Deore T610 Front & Rear V Brakes (Black)
Shimano XT M8140 Flat MTB Pedals (Small)
Shimano Deore Crankset FC-M610 42/32/24 T + HG-XSM-BB51 Bottom Bracket
Shimano Deore RD-M610 SGS Rear Derailleur - Long Cage
Shimano Deore FD-M610 Front Derailleur
Shimano Deore T610 Hubs, front and rear and having these laced into some nice rims.

Tires I'm undecided at the moment, don't want knobblies as I'm more likely to spend time on the roads/trails and fancy something to suit that type of riding.

So here's the Strip Down.....(In no particular order)





I didn't have a Castle Tool to remove the Damper and Spring from the DD60 Headshok, so used some ingenuity and modified a 22mm Socket. Took me about an hour of hacksawing and filing, but worked a treat with no damage to the damper. As expected the Elestometer had totally disintegrated and was the cause of the Headshock not working correctly. The Damper was in good condition and only needed a change of oil and bleeding, it looks as if could have been replaced at some time. But now it's working properly. The spring cleaned up nicely, but I have ordered a new "Blue" spring and Elestometer, ironically I had to order these from the USA and proved really difficult to find, but after a few hours on the internet I located both.

My home made Castle Tool - Not Pretty, but worked a treat and cost nothing.







All cleaned up and just waiting for new spring and elestometer to arrive. Damper is fine, just needed an oil change and bleeding, working like new.

 
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JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
DAY 3 : The Frame

Wow, didn't realize how long this would take, I started off using some fine wet & dry on a DA Sander and very lightly removed all the paid on the main tubes, but was unable to get into all the tight areas, so used Nitromoors Paint Stipped to get into these areas. Cannondale paint is very stubborn and I had to apply plenty of paint stripper multiple times to ensure all of the paint in the tight areas was removed. This took a whole day, but now it's ready to go to the paint shop for a professional finish.





Yes...... The bottom bracket will be removed for painting, it was just handy to use to move the frame around when it was covered in paint stripper.

Sorry for lack of pictures during this process, filthy hands and an IPhone just don't go together.

Color - Undecided at the moment, but considering "Nardo Grey" ...... I think it's an Audi colour, and going to get them to spray the base coat, re apply the Cannondale frame stickers and then seal with lacquer.

Ordered these frame stickers, both are suitable for applying lacquer over, just see which is best quality and will suit the grey paint.


 
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JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
Day 4 : Parts starting to arrive..........

They sent the wrong pedals, so they're going back........ Damn, a lost day, but can't get frame into the spray shop for a few days, so no big deal.


 
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MikeA

MikeA

Well-Known Member
Great post, Jim. Can't wait to see it painted. You said the decals are suitable for painting over, what's the material it's made of? Where did you get them?
 
JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
Day Five :

Well today I dropped off my frame to a buddy of mine who works at a spray shop, they gave my hard work the once over and agreed that it was up to their standard of preparation for painting.

Now it's just a waiting game until it's completed, I decided on Nardo Gray, an Audi colour, and I’ll be using white cannondale decals positioned as original.

In the mean time, the parts continue to arrive and once back I'm guessing a day (I'm slow and methodical) to reassemble should see it back on the road, I would call it a retro restoration, but I've used the Deore T610 components and a few XT items to bring it up to date, but still looking original.

Now I've received most of the parts including the new wheelset fitted with Deore 610 Hubs, tyres, deraillures, new bottom bracket and front and rear cogs, XT Flat Pedals (They initially sent the wrong items), but now I’ve recurved the XT items I ordered. I think the only parts outstanding to arrive are the new blue headshok spring and the elastometer, which I had to order from the USA, so hopefully they'll be arriving early next week.

In the meantime here's some pics of the latest deliveries.












 
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black lightning 1987

black lightning 1987

Moderator
Staff member
I'm not up on current Shimano, kind of surprised to see 8 speed. Pedals look nice. I've used similar Exustar pedals but the XTs look much lighter.
 
JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
Yep, the XT pedals are really light.

The 1997 F700 had 8sp cassette as standard, so stuck with original 8sp for the rebuild, may try going up to a 44 on the front, if the deraillure can handle that, that’ll be fine for my trail/river bank riding.
 
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JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
Sorry for lack of updates, frame still away at spray shop and don’t want to rush them.

Spent the weekend refurbishing some of the components I’ll be reusing in the build (Of which there’s very few), Rocky Mountain Bars, Cannondale Stem, which after a degrease and some satin finish paint, have come up looking like new.

C3B99B85-0080-405D-8007-14F2EB683E98.jpeg
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Hopefully the frame And front forks will be back next week and then it’s just a matter of reassembly, which I’m looking forward too just as much as riding it.
 
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JimGreen

JimGreen

Active Member
I decided to go with paint as opposed to powder coating.

Unsure of how the alloy frame would have dealt with the powder coating process of being baked on at 175 degrees centigrade, and was assured the paint (Automobile) Will be fine for trail/trekking.
 
black lightning 1987

black lightning 1987

Moderator
Staff member
I didn't realize that baking temp for powder coat was that hot. I should look into the heat treatment process for 6061 and see what the critical factors are. Paint generally looks nicer anyway as far as I'm concerned, but I know some folks really like their powder coat results from places like Spectrum.
 
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