CAAD9 Restomod

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FPrue1304

Well-Known Member
I bought this beautiful CAAD9 Ultegra SL in 2009 in Switzerland and have ridden it roughly 3000 mls in Switzerland, Germany and Belgium on training rides and triathlon competitions. Everything is original, even the bar tape (but not the tires...). I am using other, more modern bikes in meantime (I have among others a beautiful, self-built Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL6 with SRAM Red AXS), but I feel the desire to lighten and update this beautiful specimen and deploy it to my family home in Germany.

i am in the middle of pulling together parts and I have found a new Cannondale "SIX" full carbon fork that turns out to weight 400 gr uncut. It is blue though and does not match. So I have sanded the fork down to bare carbon and discovered a beautiful weaving pattern similar to the original Ultra fork and have decided to repaint this fork in clear coat (I was going to do black metallic). I am in the middle of finding some nice decals for the fork and also decals for the wheels replacing these heavy Aksium wheels.

So I call this a Restomod, because it is not my ambition to stay factory original, but to use the CAAD9 as a basis for a modern performance bike. In the car industry, "Restmod" refers to restorations that make an old car technically better and more modern than from the factory.

Looking forward to working on this project in the next weeks!

 
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FPrue1304

Well-Known Member
And here are pictures of the fork. Seems to be from a Cannondale SIX, not sure about the year though. I was surprised to find this pattern, what led me to decide to use clear coat primer and finish with some decals in between.



 
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FPrue1304

Well-Known Member
Absolutely. I am confident to shed some weight.

Installed a DUB crank and then made some progress building this up with a SRAM Force 22 and some RED parts.





The Cannondale Six fork has barely room for a 25 mm tire:

 
black lightning 1987

black lightning 1987

Moderator
Staff member
It's looking good. I'm a bit surprised about the tire clearance as most of my Cannondales will fit a 28 mm tire, even tires that tend toward the larger range of 28s. I have a Six fork here, believe it's a 2009 model. I will have to compare clearance on it with the fork on my 2010 CAAD9. I don't remember what size tires are on the CAAD9, perhaps I have only mounted 23s.
 
kjop

kjop

Well-Known Member
thanks for sharing your project - looks killer!

but you need to use red decals at the fork. really love the carbon-look on it. a black color fading from the top would look nicely too :)

cannondale + sram ... good team
 
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FPrue1304

Well-Known Member
Thank you!

I like the idea of using red decals. The old Ultra fork actually has that fading from the top because only the blades are carbon.
 
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