I figured the ‘retro bike with brifters’ thread needed to up its game.
Had the idea in my head a while ago, but was always a pipe dream, Di2 was too pricy even second hand. It wasn’t until HLC tagged me in a pic of a Klein road bike running Di2 that the urge was too strong to ignore, so after a bit of googling I nabbed a brand new 6770 upgrade kit from Merlin that was heavily discounted and added the 6800 cranks and brakes from Ribble.
Frame was always gonna be another cannondale, but it made more sense because I knew there would be existing holes to be able to run internal wiring with minimal drilling. When I finally got the frame in my hands I was half right, chain stay and DT had holes perfectly placed, but needed to drill some holes in the BB shell to feed wires through, as well as in the ST for the fd. BB shell already had a few breather holes drilled so I was pretty comfortable in drilling it
Wires were a tad finicky to feed through but got there in the end, wire coat hanger/paper clips came in super handy. Next to tackle was the battery placement, didn’t want to shell out for an internal battery, but still wanted to run internal wiring. After some more googling I went with the under saddle mount via a TT bidon bracket. Mount is solid, but then had to do a little more drilling in order to feed the wire through the seat post. Thankfully there already was a hole, I just had to widen it a tad more to fit the 5mm connector. Also had to file a little ‘U’ channel in the saddle clamp so the wire wouldnt be squashed once I had the saddle secured.
Soma Hwy One bars are a bitch to put through the quill stem , angles are tight! Still not sure if I want threaded or threadless set up. Might go to threadless when I repaint, as cool as the chameleon paint is, it’s more tatty rather than patina cool and I love my matte black.
Parts list 6770 group with 6800 cranks / SRAM S80s / 3TTT & soma hwy one combo / 1997 CAD3
Garage shots for now, ill have to get some proper daytime shots later. Finding time to build let alone ride when in between moving house and organising kids parties has been a challenge to say the least.
good work on making something cool. if you’re looking for something to quirk it up, i will suggest a kidney shape seat tool pouch cut to accomodate the battery, era-appropriate colouring of course
sime, cheers mang, front junction box is a tad tricky, cos i need quick access for adjustment/battery check.
I do agree it could be tidier though, pics probably make it look worse then it really is
LAM, I did think about hiding the battery in a tool pouch, but then saddle bags are a no-no, and i kind of like making it look obvious that its electronic =D
Utter bike porn. Reckon all I’d change is double sided tape the junction box under the stem so it looks a touch neater. Battery is fine I think, a seatpost battery would clean up the lines a little bit tho.
This is rad and I love the battery under the saddle, gives it kind of a drift feel in the best possible way… “Yeah damn right that’s my haltec where the glove box is supposed to be mate” :o
That’s the only problem with 6770 is the wires are hard wired in the junction box, the next gen they plug in and you can choose a much shorter cable and mount it under the stem or under a Garmin mount.
I like the paint and to be honest if you repaint it black it will look just like the brand new caad 10 matte black di2 ultegra bike but with a quil, they are a bloody nice bike so nothing wrong wit that I guess
Awesome, the retro roadies with brifters thread will be even better when we have wireless SRAM, I’m seriusly considering it for my next build despite being all campag all the time…
