Team Saeco Cannondale Caad4

[Cranzai_]

Hi Cannondale enthousiasts!

As a novel cyclist I recently purchased my first bike. I was able to get a nice cannondale bike with campagnolo parts as depicted below.

Although I was mainly looking for a mechanically sound bike, I got interested in this bike's story after purchase.

Early on in my quest to identifying this bike I found this website but continued looking to see if I could figure it out myself. The seller mentioned it is a R1000 frame but I rarely find any saeco edition r1000. What I did was have a look at the serial number of the frame.

I did not remove the cable guide but I did manage to gather the following from this:
The JE would indicate its a frame from may 1998 if I am not mistaken.
In the bottom right under the cable guide I suspect it says something like "CAAD4E56" where 56 would be the frame size. (If removing the cable guide is just removing that pin and putting it back in I can give that a try as well)

Here the process got complicated for me, first off were there even CAAD4 frames produced in 1998? The black carbon fork as I have also did not really appear at that time, in the 1999V1 catalog I found the r5000 team replica which most resembles my bike in terms of the frame but not the auxiliary stuff. Looking for further pictures online I also noticed that i have a yellow "Saeco" logo whereas most bikes have a white saeco logo.

Can someone help me out on this one? Any help would be much appreciated!

Bike Parts:
Campagnolo Chorus rear derailleur
Campagnolo Athena Cranks
Campagnolo Daytona front derailleur
Campagnolo Daytona rim brakes
Mavic Cosmos Rims with Michelin Lithion2
Selle San Marco saddle
Colorado saddle stem
Colorado handlebar stem
Colorado handlebar
(These colorado parst are unfindable on the internet for me?)

p.s.
this bike supposedly appeared on the GCN Tech Show "recently", in which it was dubbed "super nice". But I have been unable to find the episode as of yet.

 

[black lightning 1987]

No CAAD4 frames for the 1998 model year, so that's a 1999 model. It could have been sold as a frameset and built up with the current parts, or it could have been an R5000 on which the parts have been replaced. What model are the shifters? The mixed Campagnolo parts should all work fine together though they are from different years. Athena was in the line from the late 80s until 1999, was then replaced by Daytona for the 2000 model year. Either group is nice. I built up a NOS 1999 R4000 with a complete Daytona group late in 2000. I don't recognize the Colorado parts.

 

[Cranzai_]

Nice! So my detective work was not too bad at all.
The shifters are of the Daytona Type.
1999 would also match with the cannondale-logo i have on the bike.
Thanks a lot!

Although I realize I'm being quite nitpicky, I'm still looking to identify the type of frame.
The difference between a CAAD3 and CAAD4 is in the hourglass shaped bars attached to the rear axle on the CAAD4 (which are straight on the CAAD3) right? Additionally, what would be the difference between an R1000 and R5000? And is there any significance in the yellow Saeco logo as opposed to a white Saeco logo?

A funny thing i also noticed is this one shimano bracket with which the campag front derailleur is attached to the frame Probably not something important but I found it quite funny haha
(Possibly it was a shimano mounted bike which was replaced by campag parts)
In terms of the steering wheel pin and such, I noticed this little ring where the frame ends that still says "coda".

You've helped me a lot already for which I'm very grateful! My further questios are purely fuelled by interest

Update:
There is no Caad4 R1000 in the 1999 catalog.
So your guess of it being sold as frameset (which I assume is just the frame) is quite right. (That or its a restickered CAAD3 )

 

[black lightning 1987]

The seat stays are the only difference between CAAD3 and 4. I can't tell from the picture which stays your frame has but CAAD4 are hourglass shape, CAAD3 straight. There is no difference between models of CAAD4 road frames except paint and decals. Forks could be different between models. Is there a model number on your frame? I think the white Saeco logo depended on the year of the frame. In the 2000 catalog it is back to white. Maybe Cannondale thought yellow looked better but Saeco liked white? Just guessing.

Campagnolo made the front derailleur in three clamp sizes plus braze on. I'm not sure if they made a clamp adapter at the time Daytona was current, but they did later. Whoever built the bike must not have had the correct clamp size Daytona so used a braze on type with a Shimano adapter. It wouldn't be hard to find the correct clamp for your FD. You can even swap the clamp from a different model.

 

[Cranzai_]

Thanks a lot for your help! I think we can consider this case closed, with it being a CAAD4 sold as frameset.
(Quite the late reply due to some time off the internet )

There's no model number on my frame afaik.

 

[black lightning 1987]

I'm not sure why, but Saeco replica frames didn't have a model number decal (at least some years), even though they might have had a model number in the catalog. If you look at the 1998 catalog, the Saeco bike is shown as R4000, but there is no model number on the frame.