wicked wrenching customs

If there were ever a 'Village Bicycle' that was in my life, this would have to be it. When Cannondale released the Super V series of bikes in the mid 90's it quickly became the 'had to have' bike on everyone's lists.

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One of the mechanics at Cranks Roseville was a guy named Paul, but everyone called him Bargearse ( I can't remember why exactly but I think it had something to do with the Late Show police parody skits). Cranks was a Cannondale dealer, and it didn't take long for the Super V's to start filling up the racks. Paul had bought one in a really cool olive green colour, and after riding it for a few seasons sold it to my good friend Jack. 

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It was a serious upgrade for Jack, who had previously been riding Apollo and Diamondback hardtail frames. The bike had some sweet mods, Paul had ditched the headshok for an RST high five downhill fork, and it also sported some crazy white walled street tires! Jack quickly modded it further into a beast of a downhill and general trail bike, and it wasn't long before Jack was killing us on the descents.

 

We would all gather in a local park where some guys had placed a makeshift wooden launch ramp, and find out who could jump the farthest. It quickly became apparent that Jack had the upper hand as he was able (if timed right) to pre compress the suspension just before take off so it would help catapult him off the ramp. We would line up volunteers laying down after the ramp, and count our distance in people cleared rather than meters. Once it was confirmed that the Super V was the 'cheat' bike... everyone used it for ramp jumping from then on!

 

Jack held on to the bike for many years, and eventually the head tube either ovalised or cracked, I can't remember which (probably from the extra leverage from the downhill forks). Jack had the frame warrantied, ( which was lucky as he wasn't the original owner) and the replacement was a nice black anodized frame. The bike then went on to have several different configurations, from XC to street commuter, and when Jack moved to live in the States- I did not see it for a long time.

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I was living in Canada in 2011 when Jack emailed me saying that he was giving up the beloved 'dale. I was surprised (I never thought he would sell it), and he knew that I'd be interested in having it. It was quickly shipped up from California to Ontario, and I set about bringing it back to it's former glory. A headshok fork was a no-brainer, (it had a basic manitou on at the time) and the rear Fox Alps shock was tortured so I had Kevin Risse tune up a new shock for it. Then it was on to finding some original CODA (which stands for Cannondale Only Design Application) components like the Tarantula crankset, and the Kore headshok stem, bar and post. All top shelf Cannondales had IRC Mythos tires on them back in the day, so they were used as well. M739 Deore XT and Gore Ride On lines and this bike became my new favourite vintage ride around the trails in Toronto. Eventually I took it with me to Vancouver where it served out the rest of it's days riding trails and general commuting milage before a fracture in the shock mount finally retired this remarkable machine from daily use. 

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Thankyou Jack for giving me your bike, it was a blast to build and ride.