Cannondale Killer V

Right or wrong, I've always been a total fan boy of Cannondale mountain bikes, and one frame that always stuck in my head was the Killer V hard tail frame. Cannondale have generally always been a bit different or innovative with various techniques, such as the asymmetrical front "fork" the Lefty.

The Killer V frame is mainly unique in it's day for it's top tube design, where the top tube consists of two separate tubes, one longer top tube extends from the seat tube to the down tube and the shorter top tube connecting the other top tube to the head tube giving a delta shape. Anyway, a picture speaks a 1000 words, or at least better than the 55 I used above

I've been looking out for one of these frames for quite a while now, and I did have a few requirements on the one I wanted. It had to have the 1.5" head tube as I plan to install an old Lefty DLR on to the frame, and additionally I wanted the rear drop outs to be the newer style. The older frames have a long narrow rear drop out.

After many months of searching for a decent frame that wasn't insanely priced or in a sad start of affair, I finally found one. The bike was advertised on an online classifieds web site. The bike looked in pretty good shape based on the photo. But I really needed to see it in person just to be sure. Considering these frames are at best around 10 years old I was naturally expecting some wear and tear showing.

Unfortunately the bike was sitting 500km away from where I live so it was a 5am wakeup call as I arranged with the guy to be at his place around noon. Anyway as soon as I saw the bike I knew it was a well looked after bike. The guy seller could not have been any nicer, another Cannondale fan boy, but selling the bike since it was no longer used. Well he did have two other Cannondales in the shed.

Naturally that meant he knew the value of the Killer V frame, but it was a fair price and I don't think I would have been able to find another frame in such good condition. I had planned to strip the paint off and have the frame in all it's glory with bare aluminium, but it almost feels a shame to do that.

Anyway that decision is for another day...