Cannondale F6 frame help

ed_arnold

Hey,
I have a Cannondale F6 that I'm steadily upgrading with new bits. The stock Dart 2 100mm fork has been replaced with a Recon Race 2009 solo air 100mm.

I'm really struggling to get a reply from Cannondale's support team (based in the US) as to what axle-to-crown lengths the frame supports without voiding the warranty, and the bike shop have not helped either. As far as I can see, there is no answer in the documentation that came with the bike.
Does anyone know if I could go to 115/120mm? The Recon should have an all travel shim inside which can be altered to allow this.

Any thoughts? And anyone else running the CO2 frame out of interest?
Cheers,
Ed

supersonic

Who are the UK importers/distributors? They are the ones to contact.

Some recons are 100mm max.

mtbrambo

ed_arnold wrote:

Any thoughts? And anyone else running the CO2 frame out of interest?

I have the C02 Frame

smegurmum

supersonic wrote:

Who are the UK importers/distributors? They are the ones to contact.

Some recons are 100mm max.

They are cannondale who are based in the netherlands

3110neil

Hi
I have the same frame and i updated the forks to toro 318 u turn 85-130,now i did check on the cannondale web site and found the info on what size forks could use on the frame They say lenght of forks from crown race to middle of wheel hub no longer than 50cm ,on my toro 318 i can go to 115 -120 .(100ml forks work out at about 46cm ) hope this helps

ed_arnold

Thanks everyone for the replies. 311Oneil that is exactly what I wanted to hear - thanks.
I must be missing the link on the site or something..

Did you also swop the headset and stem when you changed your fork? I feel like the bike 'nose'dives' a bit too much with the 100mm stem. Just finished installing a hope headset reducer as the stock bearings were shot.

3110neil

found this
http://www.cannondale.com/gbr/eng/Canno ... ote_en.pdf

3110neil

No i havnt changed the headset yet ,i was looking at the crane creek xx short headset but a lot of money ,how much was the hope headset reducer ,any good ,

3110neil

sorry i changed the stem to 90mm ,it made a big differance ,

ed_arnold

Great - don't know how I missed that manual. The Hope I picked up was from www.bikeoutlet.co.uk and cost me £58.00 delivered, which is a great price. It's the Reducer model from 1.5 to 1 1/8, with the extra spacer on the bottom cup to allow the crown to clear the downtube.
Comes with Hope's 'head doctor' which is their replacement for the SFN system. Looks great, and lowers the stack height which was too much before.

There wasn't much choice in the way of headsets, all the bike shops offered me was FSA's 'Fat Pig model' which I'm not convinced is cartidge bearings, so I found this one and fitted myself - easy, and should last for years.

Do you think a 70mm stem will be too much change? I'm also thinking of adding some rise.

3110neil

Bike outlet in york ,thats were i got my forks from ,Alex the lad who owns it fitted them for £140 all in ,there about 50 miles from where i live ,the hope headset wich one did you get there are two to pick from(zero stack or spaced) ,I allso put riser bars on ,2inch rise ,from carboncycles only cost £15.00 make a hell of a differance ,not to sure about the stem length at 70mm you can only try ,Ive done a fair bit to the bike new xt rear mech ,xt shifters ,

UncleMonty

I have the 2008 Frame and I've been running this with my Tora 318 u-turn's for over a year now, I never thought to check the max fork length so I need to look at this, I only ever wind out the forks to 130mm on long decents anyway and we don't have many of these where I live.

ed_arnold

Monty: "Not many long decents where I live..." Move! Take your bike and find somewhere that does!

Oneil: Get the version with the spaced stack otherwise your fork crown is unlikely to clear the downtube. Mine certainly wouldn't as it has the taller metal dial for lockout/motion control on top of the right leg.
With the spacer model, and 20mm of spacers in between the top of the headset and the stem, it stil only amounted to 200mm of steerer, which is less than it was before (210mm).
Was all much easier to fit than I expected, having not done one before.

I've not changed anything on the drivetrain yet except the cranks/pedals, which are some Deores I had lying around, and a BB replacement. I've got the 2009 Mavic Crossride wheelset, some Mountain Kings, and a set of Avid Elixir 5 brakes which I picked up in an amazing deal Merlin were doing where it was front and rear for £135 .

The weight is just dropping off the bike now which is making a huge difference.

3110neil

Hi
What tools did you use to change the headset ,have you got any photos of the headset in place ,plus you have lost me when you say your fork crown is unlikely to clear the downtube. Mine certainly wouldn't as it has the taller metal dial for lockout/motion control on top of the right leg.
I dont understand that bit ,I could be stupid though ,cheers neil
Just had the light bulb moment ,you mean when you turn the fork ,it would catch the downtube

Mastineo

100 mm Rebas fit and work much better than the stock Dart2. Would expect them to really.

ed_arnold

Hi Neil,
Yep you've got it. I went with the headset that has the spacer at the bottom, same price. Ensures that neither frame nor fork will be damaged in a crash or when the bike is shoved in the back of the car.
The headset looks REALLY tidy - will try and take photos soon. I knocked the old headset race out carefully with a hammer and a screwdriver (light tapping rather than bashing). Then, the new ones went in using a massive 'G' clamp that my mate has, with two bits of wood to spread the load over the whole area of the new cups. Tighten up and just check it's pressing in evenly top and bottom rather than at an angle. It was useful to have someone else watching. Pressed in with no trouble at all. From then on it was a case of loosely fitting the bearings and spacers, to decide how much steerer to cut off the new fork I put in at the same time.
The Hope headset comes with their 'head doctor' which is instead of a star fangled nut.
Make sure you smooth away the inside of the top of the steerer tube so that it is rounded and won't snag this rubber ring on the head doctor, and it'll just tap in easy.
The rest is just greasing the bearings and putting them in, then tightening it all up.
Really pleased with how easily it all went together (my first one), although I did have a more experienced hand on standby. Good luck!

3110neil

Hi
Thanks for that ,did you have any trouble replacing the crown race ,as when i had the forks changed over the bike shop had to take the old forks to an enginering company as the crown race wouldnt budge ,did you just the screwdriver to get the race off
cheers neil

ed_arnold

You mean the race in the bottom of the headtube? After removing the stem and star nut, the old forks and bearings should just drop out and you should be left with the old races in the top, and the bottom of the headtube, both of which I was able to tap out with a hammer and a flathead screwdriver, hitting the bits of them that are inserted in the headtube. There was nothing left on the old forks to remove, and nothing to install on the steerer of the new fork other than the lower bearing cap which just pushes on.
Have you got your headset yet then?

3110neil

Hi
No havnt got it yet ,i thoght when you replaced an headset you had to replace the crown race on the bottom of the fork steerer tube ,or am i being stupid ?ie the old crown race would not be compatible with new headset ,so you would use the crown race that came with the new headset ,never replaced an headset before so am i wrong ?
cheers neil

UncleMonty

yes you'll need to fit the new crown race which comes with the headset

When I swapped my forkes I tried to get the race off myself but it wouldn't budge, took it to Stif bikes and they couldn't get it off with the special tool either, they did get it off in the end with brute force but made made a bit off a mess of my old dart forks

3110neil

Hi
monty
when i had my dart s the shop had a lot of trouble .Looking to replace the headset and the hope one looks good at the price at bikeoutlet ,i know the lad who runs it so may get a discount too,just with the trouble with the crown race they had ,i can sense i will have trouble too ,thanks for answering the question
cheers neil

ed_arnold

Oh I see what you mean. Yes you get a new one with the headset that just pushes on. The old one came off fine for me - no powertools required. I guess if it's quite corroded it will 'weld' itself to the steerer. My cranks were like that and had to be hammered off.
Did a 50km trail on Sunday round the forest of dean - the bike was superb with the new headset and forks. So much better that I'm going to forget about changing stems etc for now.

benjie77

hi guys,

i realise this post is a bit old but wondered if anyone could still help. just managed to get my hands on a cheap set of marzocchi bomber 55 ATA (2008) which have a pretty big 160mm travel which can be adjusted between 120 - 160. what i really want to know is if these are just way too big for the frame or can they be run on it?

thanks
Ben

ed_arnold

Slow reply - my bad. Those forks are too long for the CO2 frame - you'll put too much stress through it and the geometry won't be very useful for anything set up like that. You need something that is 120mm max rather than minimum. Sorry to be a spoil-sport!