Bike Review: 2003 Cannondale CAAD5 "Nashbar Special" After 14 Years

CAAD5 in 2017, on Tano del Norte Road, with Sangre de Cristos in the background

 Out of a bit of a miff that Patrick O'Grady is always reviewing new bikes, I decided that it was time to review the oldest bike in my fleet: the 2003 Cannondale CAAD5.

I bought the CAAD5 as a frameset in 2003 from New Mexico Bike N Sport (callout to Tony and the gang!) and transferred a Campy Chorus 8 speed setup to that bike from a previous Cannondale that I brought from Hawai'i. That Hawai'i bike, I think a Cannonball 2.8, did a lot of miles including my first Red River Century ride in the fall of 2002 shortly after we moved here from Paradise and I got over the shock of going from sea level to living at seven thousand feet. But I chafed for a new ride, especially after wrecking the beautiful eggplant color in a spaz attack with a rock wall in Hawai'i, and sprung for the CAAD5. Soon the CAAD5 was upgraded to a Chorus 10 speed setup in honor of the climbing here and having worn out the shifters. With a better CAAD tubeset and carbon fork (and Campy headset) the ride was greatly improved.

In 2005 I upgraded to a Six Thirteen, in part due to a lower back injury that resulted in me wanting a more compliant frame with a slightly bigger frameset; the Six-Thirteen is 52 cm instead of the CAAD5's 50.  The carbon tubes did the trick as well in their ability to damp down vibration. I swapped most of the Campy parts over from the CAAD5 to the carbon bike, leaving the CAAD5 temporarily sitting as a frameset. That did not last long.

Current drivetrain

The aluminum bike was soon rebuilt with the benefit of frequent visits to the clearance pages on the Bike Nashbar web site and after an email session with Lennard Zinn, who talked me into the virtue of compact cranksets. The FSA Energy 50-34 crank was purchased from Lennard, who, by the way, grew up in BombTown. The rest of the drivetrain is a mismash of Ultegra 9 Speed, the FSA crank, and a compact front derailleur from the Excel catalog. Wheelset shown above is Mavic Open Pro hoops laced 3x, 32 double butted DT spokes, to an Ultegra rear hub and believe it or not, a Shimano 600 front hub that I bought as part of a wheelset from a racing teammate in Hawaii back in the earely 1990's. I retired the sewups on the old wheels and kept that 600 front hub, lacing it to this wheelset. The rear cassette seen here is a 13-30 9 speed Sheldon Brown Century Special (holy shit, the price has sure gone up). A recent photo (below) shows the bike shod with a set of Shimano paired spoke wheels. Brakes are circa dozen year old 105's that stop the bike just fine. Brifting is courtesy of Dura Ace 9 speed brifters that were a Nashbar closeout. Tires on these hoops are 700-25 Vittoria Open Corsa CX while on the Shimano paired spoke examples are 700-23 Michelin Pro Service Corsa tires, servicable although ancient. Handlebars are Nashbar 44cm examples locked down with a Richey WCS stem. The bars look a little wide on such a squat bike but I have a wide set of shoulders in spite of being a runt. Blame my Sicilian ancestors.

CAAD5 with paired spoke wheels

Each generation of Cannondales rode better than the last and I have been riding them since the original Black Boneshaker of 1985. The CAAD5 suits me just fine, as does the Six Thirteen. The aluminum bike is what they call stiff yet compliant, largely defined in terms of wheel compliance. The Shimano paired spoke wheels give it a stiff and almost scary-nervous ride on twisty, chipseal descents while the traditional three cross Mavic wheels shown in the first photo give it a very compliant but efficient ride. With traditional rims the bike tracks excellently. I was distracted yesterday looking for where to take those pictures and suddenly noted I was about to ride into a sharp, steep downhill right turning curve. A quick shift of weight and flick on the bars and I recovered my line, avoiding the dreaded oncoming lane. My main problem with the deep profile Shimano rims is they tend to "rudder" the bike a bit and that can be annoying in crosswinds or high speed, sinuous descents.

I really like this bike and rode it a lot this year with the stem riser that I added back in 2005 after suffering a disk herniation. The added height on the handlebars came in handy this year after major shoulder surgery that left me uncomfortable on the deeper drop of the Six-Thirteen. The ride has not deteriorated over time. Maybe I just don't know what I am missing with the new stuff.

The other advantage to having a high end "second bike" is that it could be a test bed for various experiments while not messing with one's primary road racer. I've fiddled with wide range gearing on this by substituting an XT or XTR derailleur, allowing me to mount an 11-32 or 12-34 cassette for off season (read overweight and out of shape) mountain rides.  Also, as mentioned previously, added stem risers and my original experiment with a compact crank. All of these were useful experiments and I've kept those options on the bike.

The bottom line is that bikes are not disposable or for that matter, easily made  obsolescent except for crappy companies that don't support their past parts lines. This bike is a dear friend and will likely last me a long time. It flies up and over the hills and mountains of Santa Fe and Los Alamos as well as I can manage given this old set of bones and descends like a rocket if I want to do that too. These old Cannonballs can still carry me as far as I want in a day. I know the bike companies want to sell me more stuff, but they had better come up with a better reason to get me to part with dead presidents or I will keep riding this old stuff. After all, I am old stuff too.

105 brakeset

Back when Cannondales were made in USA
No, you don't have to stand, damn it.