Dream Bike Build, Part 1: 2001 Cannondale R1000 gets Shimano R7000 update

Welcome to my dream build.

I’d been looking for this exact frame for over 2 years. Almost needed Dr. Jones’ Grail Diary to find it. A 20 year old bike in a smaller than average size – a definite Holy Grail.

I’d been specifically looking for a turn of the century Cannondale R-Series; I love everything about these bikes. Everything about them is hot. The level top tube, the hidden welds, the groupset spec, and especially the colorways. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I hate boring bikes – I love splashy flashy colors. Bikes need character. Anyway, the 2000 – 2003(ish) model year R-Series were just wonderful machines. The R1000 was the high-end consumer level model – spec’ed with a mix of Shimano 105 & Ultegra components, and a carbon fork. The higher R2000-5000 models were spec’ed with a mix of Campy & Dura-Ace, and some different forks – and would be even more Holy Grail-ier than what I was trying to find. But I really liked the colorway of the R1000 the most anyway – that multicolor fade is just real nice.

I would check Facebook Marketplace and eBay probably about once a week; looking in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, then reaching further to cities I knew I had friends or family in that I could beg (or bribe) to go pick up the bike for me. I finally stumbled across one for sale in northern New Jersey. I live in Houston, Texas. It looked to be in good condition and the price was acceptable; about $100 more than I was hoping to spend, but this was the first one I’d found since I started looking that was my size (a 52cm; I should probably ride a 50cm but short people bikes are almost mythological).

So I put the word out on Facebook to any friends that lived in the area if they’d be willing to do me the favor of a lifetime. An old high school buddy saw it, and lived about 20 minutes away and was happy to help. I Venmo’ed him the cash and he went to look at it for me. Hilariously, neither he nor the lady selling it really knew anything about the bike (or bikes in general), so we Facetimed for a few minutes while he was there – it was all pretty funny. Anyway, it appeared to be in good shape – she said it hadn’t been ridden in a long time. Who knows when I’d find another one, so I took the leap. My buddy was awesome – he took it to a bike shop I picked and had them box it up. Then after I pre-paid to have it shipped, he dropped it off at the FedEx store. Can’t thank him enough!

Finally, my dream bike was on its way.

So I had it in hand. The only problem was it was 2021; Covid-19 was still in full swing, my job had us all in salary cuts, money was tight, not to mention bikes & bike components were still nearly impossible to come by. Anything you could find was overpriced by 20-50% sometimes. It was going to be a while before I could go full-tilt on this build. I was hoping to maybe pick up a piece here and there over the course of the next few months depending on availability. Just had to play it by ear.

In the meantime I could take it apart, take inventory of the classic parts, clean it up and get it as ready as possible for its eventual future.

As I mentioned, the R1000 was the higher-end consumer level bike, decked out out with a mix of the good stuff: Shimano 105 & Ultegra. Obviously their sophistication doesn’t compare with their modern incarnations, but they were some good shit in 2001. And being in the sublime condition they were even 20+ years later, they’re still good shit. Everything was in perfect working order but even so I had plans to upgrade. Here’s the original drivetrain parts:
-front derailleur: 105
-rear derailleur: Ultegra
-crank: Ultegra
-bottom bracket: BB5500, 68mm
-hubs: Cannondale CODA
-rims: Mavic Open Pro
Click the pics below to see larger images in a gallery…

Likewise, the cockpit was a mix of excellence.
-brakes: 105
-shifters/levers: Ultegra 9-speed
-headset: Cane Creek S2 external cup
-fork: Cannondale Slice Prodigy carbon fiber

Taking apart a bike is one of my favorite things to do – I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I get to use all the tools I spend way too much money on? Anyway…taking it apart was good as usual but turned out the bottom bracket was seized – I couldn’t get it to budge. I tried a few different tools but in the end all I did was scrape some paint and damage a little bit of the metal around the bottom bracket shell. So, I gave up and ended up bringing it to a local shop to see what they could do. In the end it took them about 10 minutes and 3 tries to finally get it off too. They had some other tools I didn’t have which ended up being the key.

Once off, as usual I cleaned everything – not that much was needed this time around because everything was in such immaculate condition. Hell, the cassette looked like it hadn’t been ridden on more than a few times? Check out the pristine pretties below…

Despite everything seemingly be in incredible shape – it wasn’t until I removed everything I found the one blemish. Looks like at some point during a ride the chain fell off the crank and there was some significant chain suck; the chain got stuck between the frame and the crank while pedaling and it took a decent chunk out of the frame/finish. Thankfully the damage is basically cosmetic and doesn’t really effect the structure or function of the bike. Phew!

So that’s the breakdown and all I’ll cover in this post. In part 2 I’ll go over the parts I ordered and some of the assembly, and in part 3 I’ll show you the finished product.

Dream bike build has commenced…