stompandgo's Cannondale Tesoro Neo X Speed build

[stompandgo]

I bought my first e-bike about a month ago. It's a Cannondale Tesoro Neo X Speed in Medium. I bought it on closeout from Mike's Bikes in Colorado. It's the first bike I've bought whole in decades, as I usually build my own. Right away, I knew that there were going to be modifications required.

The first thing that I did was remove the aluminum fenders and Racktime rack, and install my preferred Topeak MTX 2.0 rack and trunk bag. These have panniers that unzip and fold out when needed. The top also expands. I also added my Garmin mount and fitted Crank Brothers Candy 7 pedals. For my Varia radar and Fly6 camera, I cut down an old carbon seatpost and attached it to the back of the rack. I also moved the SuperNova taillight to the rack reflector mount. It fit perfectly.

 

[stompandgo]

After riding it a few times, I knew further fit changes would be needed. I started to get pain in my torn up (grade 3 AC tear, no surgery) right shoulder. This usually meant that there was too much weight on the bars. So I changed out that awful Cannondale adjustable stem that weighed a ton and used a nut adjuster, for a Ritchey road stem I had kicking around. To attach the stem, I used a modified 40mm expander plug. The top cap will be changed once I find one I like. I bought some carbon bars (700mm, stock are 760mm). On the ends, I fitted Ergon GA3S grips. My glove size is 8 so I'm right in between Small and Large. I thought I'd try the small first. I also added a Hafny mirror. I had previously set the tire (28x2.15) pressure to 50psi, but dropped them to 45psi for the checkout ride.

I rode almost 3 hours today with zero shouder pain or fatigue. I need to push the saddle back 2-3mm, as my knee alignment could be a bit straighter. I also might drop the tire pressure down to 42psi and try that next.

 

[stompandgo]

Another mod that I'm working on is a dual battery setup. The bike comes "dual battery ready". I found a great deal on a brand new PowerPack 500 battery. The rest has to be sourced and installed by a Cannondale dealer, as Bosch parts and diagnostics are required. My local shop had never done one, but they got the details from Cannondale and started the job. Unfortunately, Cannondale was mistaken that the battery Y-cable was in the frame, as it was not. That had to be ordered. It goes back to the shop next week (it's raining all week) to finish it up. Once completed, I'll have 1125 watt-hours of battery for the motor. It's an older System 2 Performance Line Speed, 45km/hr, 85nM.

 

[stompandgo]

The bike is a month old, but it's a 2021 leftover model. On the last couple of rides, at about 2 hours in, the motor starts to make a creaking or squealing sound that matches my pedal cadence. If I stop pedaling, it stops. It sort of sounds like a dry bearing, which would make sense as it sat in a box for four years. It gets worse as the ride gets longer. The bike has a 1 year warranty, and the motor has a 2 year warranty. I'm going to wait until it gets a lot louder in a lot less time before taking it to the shop. I don't want to deal with a wall job. In the meantime, I'll just ride it.

I've been impressed with the bike so far. For my first e-bike, I'm happy.