Hi from Mississauga, Ontario Canada

[Randy Piscione]

Just wanted to say hello. I've had my Cannondale since around 1990. It was a year old when I bought it at Maple Cyclery, and had been set up for trials riding, which was perfect for me since I rode motorcycle trials for some time. It's been a great bike, very east coast woods bike-ish. I'll post a pic if I ever figure out how.

I picked up a used Cannondale tandem today, still need to take some pics and figure out a year and model number. Frame has fittings for disk brakes but there are calipers fitted to it now. Might consider a disk on the front someday.

Will post pics if anyone is interested or has an idea of how to find out more info on it. It was used for a film shoot at some point, and tape was applied over all of the decals. Unfortunately removing the tape also removed most of the decals. Argh!

I've wanted to tandem for a long time, last time I rode one was probably 30 years ago. Took a mountain tandem for a spin, offroad. And the guy who owned it was blind. It was a fun but interesting day.

 

[black lightning 1987]

Hi Randy. I'd be interested to see both bikes. Just click on "Upload a File" to add pictures.

 

[Randy Piscione]

Okay, great, thanks! I've uploaded a shot of the single bike to the gallery but here it is again. I purchased it in May, 1989 and it was a year old when I bought it. From what I've been able to find out, the tandem is from after 2007 but I'm not sure how much after.

 

[black lightning 1987]

Is the MTB a solid color? Looks to be two in the photo but it's probably the sunlight. I think it might be an SM500, metallic charcoal. Is that a roller cam rear brake?

I'm pretty sure that the tandem is a 2009 Street Tandem 1. Too bad about the decals. They are normally under clear and wouldn't have come off, but are apparently on the top of the matte BBQ black paint.

 

[Randy Piscione]

Thanks for the info! The MTB is sold gloss metallic, charcoal sounds right. Now that you mentioned SM500, I seem to recall it being a 1988 SM600, but I could easily be wrong.

It was the personal bike of the owner of the dealership and he had added some extra bits to it, and then I also made a few changes over the years. The rear is a roller cam, and the front had Pederson Self-Energising brakes originally, which were busted in a crash. Those usually were not recommended as front brakes but they were great for trials sections. There are four chainrings on the front, one is an extra low for trials sections.

If the trails are technical, I can keep up with a friend who has a $7000, carbon-framed, brand new bike. He loses me on rough downhills (no suspension) and uphills and straights (getting old). Now that I'm in my 60s, I'd like to get a slightly upswept handlebar but everything is quite a bit larger now and I hate to start changing everything.

That's exactly what I thought about the decals on the tandem, it's as if they were never clear-coated. I'm new at taking care of a tandem, and I suppose this was built to a price point because the group seems fairly basic quality. Front is Shimano Alivio, rear is Sram X5. Serial number looks like J038877 but I need to take another look because that doesn't seem to be valid.

Frame seems nice 'though. Overall, it should be okay for my wife and I, but I'd better be careful if I decide to take it offroad. Biggest issue I have right now is finding a stoker handlebar for my wife. We're both around 5'-10", and with both seats at the correct height for us, the stoker bar is probably 4" or 5" too low for her.

 

[Randy Piscione]

And a shot of the serial number on the tandem, which I can't seem to find a match to.

 

[black lightning 1987]

The U on the bar code corresponds to 2009 production.

 

[black lightning 1987]

I didn't go back and look at the 1988 catalog, as I was assuming your bike was a 1989. It does look to be a 1988 SM600. Does it have a 24" rear wheel? XCD 6000 was the original group. It looks like you have the derailleurs but perhaps not the crank. I have a box full of NOS XC self energizing cantis somewhere. If I ever get my 3.0 frame repainted, my intention was to try them on front and rear. I've never tried them, always wondered how grabby they are.

 

[Randy Piscione]

"The U on the bar code corresponds to 2009 production." Great, thanks! I couldn't find that anywhere, but that's why a forum is so handy.

I should've corrected my original post, since I found the original manual and I had written the purchase date into it, May 1989. The serial number hints at a manufacture date of March 1988, and it does have the 24" rear wheel. I recall seeing my first Cannondales at a mountain bike race in the late 80s and really liked how the sloping top tube, fat tubes and smaller rear wheel looked. Paid $1200 for the bike at the time, which was quite a lot back then, at least for me. The derailleurs are stock, not sure what else the previous owner had changed but the bars don't look stock either. I loved the Pederson brakes. One broke when a kid ran out onto the road and I had to go down to avoid hitting him. Hitting the pavement broke one of the calipers. I'm going to change the flat bars for something with a rise, getting to an age where riding hunched over is starting to hurt.

 

[black lightning 1987]

That all checks out with a 1988 SM600. $1200 does sound like a lot. I bought a new 1989 SM800 on closeout at the LBS in 1990. I think I paid under $600 for it. Same 6 speed XCD group as your SM600.

 

[Randy Piscione]

That's $1200 CAD, can't remember what the exchange rate was in 1989. I suppose he figured with the mods and additions, it was a reasonable price. The SE brakes on the front, extra chainring on the front, different bars and some little stuff. It has certainly earned its worth over the past 30 or so years.

 

[black lightning 1987]

Here's the 1990 USA dealer price sheet. I tried looking up the exchange rate in 1989 but didn't find it. I have a knack for entering the wrong wording when searching.

 

[Randy Piscione]

Great info. If that's correct, it seems I overpaid by quite a bit. It's possible I was that stupid but I recall friends paying similar prices for Ritcheys and that sort of range back then, at least in Canada.

 

[black lightning 1987]

It's possible that there were significant import duties at the time as well. So that would have been another addition to the retail cost. On a trip to race a Can-Am car at Mosport in 1982, our transporter was thoroughly searched by Canadian customs agents. One of the crew had two or three custom made pool cues on board that he had intended to show around in the Toronto area in order to take some orders. They weren't for sale, probably were made for buyers in the USA, but were confiscated and never returned. He obviously didn't do what was necessary to comply with the laws. In retrospect it seems to me that there must have been a good sized tariff involved for goods coming from the USA, otherwise why bother with the search?

 

[Randy Piscione]

You raced Can-Am?! Nice! The only racing I've done is on a slot car track. Just built another after a 10-year break. I'm on the way from Niagara Falls to Mosport, drop by if you come through here again.

I'm surprised they confiscated those. Sometimes they would ask you to pay the duty. I think you may have come across some idiots at the time.

 

[black lightning 1987]

I'd love to go back some time but it's been years since I went to a race. Mosport was the first race track I worked at - for the 2nd Can Am race in 1981. We did both races there in 1982 but I switched to the Trans Am series in 1983. We raced at Trois-Rivieres but there was no race at Mosport that year. After that I worked in the CART series. We raced at Sanair and Toronto. I don't expect that Mosport will be upgraded to the point that IndyCar could race there, but it would be great if it happened.

 

[Randy Piscione]

Indycar would be cool, although some of those CanAm cars were very nice. Here's my track, just in case you want to race something a bit smaller.

 

[black lightning 1987]

I couldn't get your link to work.

I thought the single seat Can Am cars were great. There were a bunch of interesting one-off cars, usually built on Lola, Chevron, or March formula cars. The series was basically killed by the Indy 500. Most of the top teams, drivers, and crew members migrated to CART in the early 1980s. It was simply a matter of being able to attract bigger sponsors, who were mainly interested in Indianapolis. On equal footing without the 500, I think that the Can Am could have held its own with CART. A similar scenario played out after the IRL/CART split. IRL had the Indy 500, and that eventually choked CART to death.

 

[Randy Piscione]

Should work now.

Oval races never appealed to me, and I suppose I am getting old because cars now-a-days just look like really busy billboards. McLaren's, Porsches, Lolas and especially the Chaparrals were amazing.

 

[black lightning 1987]

As kids, we had a small 1/32 scale oval in the basement. I remember a Ford J car (GT40 variant) and a Chaparral roadster. I can't recall what else, but I know that I spent a lot of time with the Auto World catalog during grade school. I am pretty sure you could get a 1/32 slot car of Oscar Koveleski's McLaren Can Am car, but I don't think we ever bought one.

https://racer.com/2020/12/30/remembering-oscar-koveleski/

http://www.vintagemotorsport.com/2020/12/remembering-oscar-koveleski/