The Cannondale XR800

This was the first bike I bought when I started working at the Bike Doctor. This was the spring of 2004 I had started racing cyclocross the previous fall on the Mikado and had a lot of fun, so I thought I might get myself a gen-u-ine ‘cross bike. It was a previous year’s model that was hanging upstairs – just happened to be the right size and a colour that I actually liked ( my very first mountain bike was a similar green…)

It had a mostly Shimano Tiagra drive train with a 105 rear derailleur and Truvative cranks. The rims were Mavic CXP22 with Continental Twister tires. The rest of the components were generic Cannondale alloy…

I immediately put some Panaracer Stradius slick road tires on it and started riding every morning out Valley Road. By the end of the summer I had put a couple thousand kilometers on it and burned the Panaracers down to nothing. As it turned out I never did use it to race ‘cross because by that fall I had ordered a Surly Cross-Check frame and built it up to race ‘cross on a singlespeed!!

It came with some black bar tape which I was never really keen on. I picked up some “natural” coloured cork tape and tried to stain it a darker brown. It didn’t really work so well….

I also bought my first pair of clipless pedals for this beastie - Crank Brothers Mallets. 

For the next three years it was more or less been used as my summer “hauling-the-kids-around” bike. I might have done a few road rides on it in 2005, but by that time THE ROCKET had become my primary road warrior!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Here it is in is last operational capacity: hauling kids. I had swapped the carbon post and brooks saddle over and- let me tell you – that was the comfiest ride EVER! Conveniently the bike has braze-ons for a rack which was handy for some extra storage/hauling capacity especially when grocery shopping with two kids. At this point the tires have been upgraded to Continental Ultra Gatorskins.


Off to the zoo, or wherever….

I can’t seem to find any other earlier pictures of it…

This spring I decided the Mikado could be used as a year ‘round (or at least “three season”) single speed kid hauling bike and the Cannondale ‘cross bike became redundant.

I had thought about selling it but Amanda thought I shouldn’t, as I might not get much for it. Better to have not much than nothing and ANOTHER bike taking up space in the Bike Barn, I figured…. Then She decided that maybe SHE would like to have a ‘cross bike and race this fall – obviously this bike would be WAAAAY to big but I thought if I could find a reasonably priced frame and fork I could do a complete swap. I indeed found one and all the parts have been swapped over. This is now just a bare frame and fork sitting in the Bike Barn

…so if anyone’s looking for a ‘cross frame and fork….