I have been working on my old Cannondale CAAD5 today (<-- the one in my current avatar photo). The bike was making a few clicky, graunchy noises on the recent Dales forum ride, and the chain slipped a couple of times. I bought miscellaneous spare parts and then set about seeing what actually needed doing...
I bought a new bottom bracket. I thought the old one was probably okay but I wanted to get my Spa Cycles order over £50 to save £4 postage. I could not feel any play when twisting the cranks. I took them off and turned the BB by hand. It felt smooth. I put my ear against the downtube and turned the BB again. It
sounded smooth too. I am fairly confident that the old BB is actually okay but I decided to put the new one in anyway just-in-case. I would be annoyed to put the bike back together and then discover that the old BB only plays up under load! The old BB is now in my spares box.
I thought that at least 1 of the 3 chainrings would need replacing but I am impressed by how little wear there is on them. I cleaned them up and had to do a double-take to work out which were the new ones. When looking closely I can see a little wear in 2 places on the middle and little rings, corresponding to the points of maximum force through the cranks during each revolution of the cranks. I will put the new rings in my spares box to keep the old BB company and rotate the old rings to new positions to spread the wear to less worn teeth. [Spa Cycles
110 mm and
74 mm BCD Zicral rings get a big thumbs up from me - they look good and last well.]
I expected the chain to need replacing but I have mislaid my chain gauge so I wasn't sure. I ordered a new chain in case I discovered that I needed one. I took the old chain off and measured it using my steel rule. It looks like it has very little wear on it. I measured twice and 12 pairs of links were significantly less than 1/16th inch over 1 foot i.e. less than 0.5% 'stretch'. I cleaned the chain ready to be refitted. The new one has been added to an increasingly well-stocked spares box!
The cassette didn't look quite so happy... I already had one in my spares box so I evicted that to make room for the box's new tenants and replaced the worn cassette. I'm not sure if the chain slip on the last ride
was due to the wear on the cassette. It seems plausible, although I have ridden more worn cassettes than that in the past without problems.
The combination of new cassette and BB with much cleaner chain and chainrings should be an improvement but I have one last job to do before the bike is ready to test...
I noticed that my SPD pedals have a little play and just a hint of roughness in their bearings so they need servicing. I have a much newer pair on the bike on my rarely used turbo trainer so I intend to swap those in but I went to do it and discovered that the older pedals are reluctant to come off. I've had enough for today so I have given the threads a good spray of GT85 and will leave that to soak in for a day or two.
At around 8.5 kg, the bike was pretty light when I put it together 20-odd years ago but that isn't especially light by modern standards. The UCI min limit for pro bikes is currently 6.8 kg. I just picked the bike up to bring it back into the house and it didn't half feel nice without the weight of cranks, chainrings, pedals and chain! I'd say like this it is closer to 7 kg. It makes me lust after an ultralight bike, but the extra weight isn't really a big issue. When the bike is back to its normal weight I'll still be happy with it. If I ever end up with £20k in the bank then maybe I would splash out, but the truth is by then I would probably need a
HEAVIER bike... one with an electric motor in it!
