More on the Cannondale Trail SL 29 3

Ok call me smitten, the Turner is currently resting in the basement while I am putting in miles on my new single speed, the Cannondale Trail SL 29 3 . As I mentioned in my last post, while I can turn the pedals just fine with the stock 33/20 gearing I don’t think its the best for my knees.

I picked up a Niner 21T cog and a Salsa 32T Chainring to make climbing easier. Oh man the hills are much more fun now. I might go back to the 20T in the rear after a month or so and my legs adjust to the SS. But for now the new easier gearing is nice!

Also there has got to be a better tool than this lockring wrench. I mean no one makes a large socket-style-tool to fit over the lockring?

Comments

  1. I guess somebody does make the tool you want. You just need to know how many prongs (or notches) your lockring has (-:

    BTW, I am in the process of getting the same bike as yours. Would you mind answering some questions about it ?

  2. I just let it happen that the my LBS owner pulled the bike from display as soon as I said I was taking it (on layaway actually). I didn't think of other things than just sizing it up ("trying on" is more like what it sounded in Russian (-:) – y'know, counting the fingers that go between the top tube and yourself, grabbing the handlebar and getting into the saddle to get the overall impression (the pedals were not attached, so I could not get the right seat height, but I think it did fit me (-:).
    So, when I wanted to take a second look, the bike just wasn't there. And my questions as for now are:
    1. Looking at its pictures on the Cannondale site (bike porn and such (-:), I noticed that there is something like a cablestop on the downtube (near the headtube; looking like the one for a bottom-pull front mech, but wait, that is an EBB frame, what front mech are we talking here about ?) Can you please take a look and find out what that is for ?
    2. Maybe there are other cable routing provisions not noticeable from pictures ? I am specifically interested in putting an internally geared hub on it (in the future).
    3. Can one mount a rack there ? I saw some holes at the dropouts in your pictures (first I saw only the seatstay eyelets and was like "and where does the rack go at the dropouts ?") and here http://veloplaneta.com.ua/obzor-cannondale-trail-sl-3-29
    4. Do you happen to know what that hole in the "face" of the chainstay is ? (on pic 2 in this post, to the right of the skewer adjusting nut; it can't be for internal cable routing, probably a vent from the welding process but who knows (-:) Is it like that on both sides ?
    5. Is there a hole in the fork crown (for light or fender attachment and whatnot) ? The above link does show something like that, but you seem to know better (-:
    6. How does the EBB hold up so far ? Are there any problems with it ?
    Do you happen to know its dimensions ? I'm wondering if it is possible to retrofit a Niner Bio Centric EBB (which is 68 wide and "… fits 55 mm ID EBB shells") to it (some people over the Net have been complaining about the double wedge EBB on Cannondale bikes).

    P.S. As for the lockring tool, you may want to check this http://velosolo.co.uk/dictool.html
    Maybe it is the tool you need (although I'm not sure whether it is the size you want). Also, the Hozan locking pliers (C-203) may be of interest to you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *