I have a Cannondale "Beast of the East" which I bought around 1990 and which I used a lot in the early days of it's life. It's been in the garden shed, pretty much unused, for the last 5 years or so while I have been bouncing around on a various FS bikes. I've been wondering about having it repainted and modernised e.g. by having some disc brake mounts fitted and even some decent forks so that I have a hardtail to use as well as the FS bike. Am I completely bonkers? If not, has anyone fitted suspension forks to one of these bikes and if so what travel works best?

Do it. wouldn't go bigger than a 80-100mm fork mind. Take some pics so we can all see.

Definately not bonkers and by all means repaint it, but why "modernise"?

As I'm sure you know, 'v' brakes work rather well, especially if you keep it light and fully rigid like the lovely one below.

Is it one of the 26/24 versions? With the cantilevered dropout?
I would imagine that putting discs on the rear would break the seatstay quite quickly and that the fork would have to be no longer than 80mm but being 1" headset could prove problemmatic.
As above why not just try modern brake blocks and remind yourself quite how skilled you were back in the day?

My (just been sold) Beast Of the East was 1.25" headset, not 1"…

i did it with a 95/96 killer v and used 100mm reba`s with 1.5 reducer cups,check your frame isnt the 1" 1/4 headset that the early dales had,you may still find a 2nd hand fork but may be easier sticking with the o.e fork if so…

still ride the super v with newish kit on in the pic but the hardtail now a v brake commuter used daily…

For the cost of a repaint/adding disc mounts etc I'd just get a new frame – doing that will cost a load more than what a new On-One 456 or something would cost and I'd personally not like the idea of riding around on a 20 year old alloy frame!

I have a cannondale M800 beast of the east that i brought about 1996 in metalic grey. My first ever mountain bike.

I still use it every week however the frame is the only original part and even that has been modified slightly to fit disc brakes.

I run fox F80 terralogic forks (1 1/8th headtube) and Hope C2 disc brakes with a hope uni mount as the frame doesnt have disc mounts (had to trim a little off the drop out to make this fit). Ive run sus forks and disc brakes on it for at least 6 or 7 years without any problems (only changed from old pace forks to Fox F80's last year). I wouldnt recommend going any bigger than 80mm – 100mm travel.

Can take some pics of mine tonight if you want to see the rear brake mount etc.

That'll be great! BofE was the high BB trials bike wasn't it!

Yea do it and get some pics on.

No no no – not disc brakes – they're all wrong for the BotE. You need to fit it with Magura rim brakes.

'dales around then used T6061 (mebbe they still do) – it was heat treated after welding, so you can't easily fit disk brakes unless it's the kinda thing thing that has a bar up to the canti boss for support. (Tho' there is the A2Z thing
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=521329&sid=0606d2e59880f4fcde0556274c226524
– dunno if that's better or worse for the frame.

But I'd just fit V-brakes.

IIRC the canti dropouts were around '89-90, but the replaceable ones probably 90 onwards.

I'm not sure anything around '90 even allowed for suspension forks eg here's a '91 BOTE:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36185
And I'm pretty sure > 1" steerers were later than that.

>80mm – 100mm travel.
No more than 80mm, and even that's pushing it a bit I suspect. Most 80mm forks now are about 440mm drop>crown, I think the original forks are probably more like 395.
Some of the few forks you could buy then were Rockshox Mag21s (iirc) or Manitous – dunno what the measurements of those were, but the available travel was something like 60mm or less (50mm on the Manitous?). An old set of elastomer Paces would almost fit the bill, except for the availability of the elastomers nowadays (ie you can't get 'em)

The 24" rear wheel was (I think) before '88 – a mate had an '88 that was 26", after having a go on that I splashed out on an M600 ('89)…600+ quid at the time 😮
Had a wacky white/red/purple paintjob..sadly that croaked (longitudinal crack along the top-tube where it wrapped the seat-tube) about '91.
I wound up with a level top-tube M500 as a replacement (probably should have given them the extra 50 quid or so for the BOTE version – they'd changed the ranges/pricing around…) which I used regularly 'till '97 and is sitting in the garage waiting for it's rebuild (as is my '96 M2 stumpie…)

Worth trying to patch-in any missing paint? – Imron was a bugger for chipping on the chainstay but seemed to stick ok elsewhere…

SM600 was the one with the 24in rear wheel. Not produced after 88 AFAIK. Used to lust after the SM100 (black magic) back then.

For the cost of a repaint/adding disc mounts etc I'd just get a new frame – doing that will cost a load more than what a new On-One 456

I wouldn't ride an On-One even if it was free, souless, made for a price bracket, the handling is shit no matter what size fork you stick on it, silly coloured, pile 'O' crap.

I agree, stick an XTR V on the back and some 100mm Rebas with a 160mm disc on the front. Last Killer V/Beast of the East era Dale i saw was a 1" 1/4 headset so you'll likely need some reducer cups. 100mm forks worked pretty well on it.

Keep the dream alive!

>SM600 was the one with the 24in rear wheel. Not produced after 88 AFAIK

Edit – yup re 24", wrong re naming.

Generally SM400/500/600/(700?)800/900/1000 referred to the componentry level/$$, but there were a couple amongst that that were BOTE – 600 the year I bought mine (I think 800 too). Tho' that might explain why they wouldn't give me a warranty replacement without more $$ – ie in 91 mebbe only the m800 was a BOTE.

Between retrobike and the online 'dale catalogues (somewhere) you can probably piece it together if yer bothered..

>Last Killer V/Beast of the East era Dale i saw was a 1" 1/4 headset so you'll likely need some reducer cups. 100mm forks worked

Err…they did use the term for several years….

>Last Killer V/Beast of the East era Dale i saw was a 1" 1/4 headset so you'll likely need some reducer cups. 100mm forks worked

Err…they did use the term for several years….

I think we'd all agree that you should probably measure it first 😉

I had one. started off with Manitou 2s and then I put Marz DH3s on, which made just a sneak heavier. then added a big yellow KORE stem, which made it amazing.

Previous bike was about a stone heavier, and next bike was much classier, so it's trick to say now how good it was.

BotE was nice though, I liked it 3 inches didn't feel like too much. (oo er)

Second other opinions about butting discs on back. Old ally plus stresses outside design could end things prematurely.

found this while I was looking for pics a second ago.

What the hell is it?

😯

What the hell is that!?

It looks like the results of a three way between a road bike, an arcade machine and a shopping trolley.

It was a concept road bike from about 1990(?) might have been Alex Pong?
Some stuff here

coastkid – is that an uber v version of the superv?
i'm slowly building up one of those myself – tho i've been stuck on teh groupset stage for the past 6 months 🙁

I had a 1994 beast of the east, fitted reducer cups so I could run an inch and eighth headset, put Rockshox Indys of some description on it, not the best for but preferable to the rigid Pepperonis
I wish Id never sold it…. 😥
Still got the LX hubs in the bits box 😉

I wouldn't ride an On-One even if it was free, souless, made for a price bracket, the handling is shit no matter what size fork you stick on it, silly coloured, pile 'O' crap.

Oh, you're one of 'those' are you. Thinking that the pinnacle of bike design was somewhere in the early 90's and that old Konas etc handle and ride so much better than anything out there today.

Weird bunch…

I had a 1989 BofE SM600, 1" steerer, plate dropouts, round stays (with indents to clear the cranks) and full mountain LX groupset.

if it's one of those you could use an A2Z adapter, but I wouldn't want to go down the welding route myself.

Oh, I kept the BofE for 5 years, stuck on some 50mm travel RC35AB's great stuff. Wouldn't go any bigger than 65mm old SID's really.

Oh yeah, Shim Jim reducers for the DH3s

Oh, you're one of 'those' are you. Thinking that the pinnacle of bike design was somewhere in the early 90's and that old Konas etc handle and ride so much better than anything out there today.

Weird bunch…

Not really… I just think that "you should get a 456" is a default response to most of the questions on here, when doing something interesting is a much better idea.

get magura rim brakes and some 65mm forks. Lovely jubley!

get magura rim brakes

Yay – I'm not alone!

disco_stu – Member

coastkid – is that an uber v version of the superv?
i'm slowly building up one of those myself – tho i've been stuck on teh groupset stage for the past 6 months

yes stu its an uber,caad4 raven swingarm with RP3,love it..,has a high BB but perfect for ST through the heather,10 year old main frame now and have had a prophet and heckler inbetween,but it descends good for such a good climber,i have another 2 super v frames and 2 killers,the one above and the older 1 1/4 headset one with pepperoni taperd forks..that lot all up loft forgotten about..,
this is the one to find,colin macrae signiture frameset…

anyway sorry back to the hardtail progect…

M800 Beast of the East in purple. I really wanted one of those back in 1993-ish.

and 2 killers,the one above and the older 1 1/4 headset one with pepperoni taperd forks..that lot all up loft forgotten about..,

How much to get it out of the loft? This thread makes me want a Killer V!

one up loft was my big brothers given to me..,there on ebay quite often,just a case of patiance and getting one cheap when little or no bids..
i paid £80 for the john deere green frame,forks came with a super v as did wheels,used old mtb stuff for finishing kit and £15 for tyres..on the road cheaper than an on-one frame..though i want a red one of those too…

heres the cannondale history specs website

rofl at wozza, so true

just sold my beast-of-the-east frame & forks, 1 1/4 headset etc for £40 – was collected today. Would never had gotten round to building it up sadly…

Thank you all very much for your really helpful posts. Seems that the best way to go is a repaint, stick with a V-brake on the back and fit a decent 100mm (ish) fork + disc. I'm enthused now. It's 26" front and rear by the way.

Here is mine with disc brakes.

Reminds me on my old Killer V, great bikes

Wouldn't go 100mm, thats a lot for a rigid XC frame! Given the average STW'er paniks over "would an extra 10mm invalidate my warenty?". Keep it as original as possible, ride it till it snaps, and see if cannondale will give it its lifetime warenty.

Get some sold SID's and swap arround the internal spacers to give 63mm. I got the 80mm headshocked cannondale out of the garrage on Saturday, was amazed how different it felt, the travel just absorbs the clatter from the trail without the pumping/wallowyness of a big 5"+ fork.