1998 Cannondale - White

In 1988, Team Crest was outfitted with white Cannondale bicycles and accessories. Built from Reynolds aluminum, the Crest-branded bike was American made, and Team Crest was one of the first sponsored teams in the world to race on aluminum bikes!

The team likely had semi-custom bikes. But Cannondale also made a consumer version that was based on the SR500 model. It has been estimated that Cannondale produced about 300 of these consumer level bikes, but that's just a guess... If you know more about this, please submit an update on this site's home page!

In at least two images, including the one shown here, there is a baby-blue version of the Team Crest Cannondale. I am not sure the story behind this light blue version. But what I really want to know about is the giant toothbrush attached to the seat tube of the frame! I am always looking for more Team Crest memorabilia and information, so if anyone knows more about these light-blue versions of the bike, please let me know!

Although the team started racing on Cannondale bicycles in 1988, the next year Team Crest's bicycle sponsor was HUFFY. Anyone who knows bikes will know that HUFFY did not make decent road bikes. So even though their team bicycles said "HUFFY", they were actually custom steel frames, handmade by some of the finest American frame builders of the era, possibly including Dennis Bushnell, Mike Melton, Brent Steelman, and perhaps others. Exactly which builders made which frames can be difficult to ascertain, as most of these bicycles were one-off custom builds, made specifically to the specifications of certain members of Team Crest. These black Team Crest bicycles were made in very limited quantities, with no consumer versions made. Over the years, I have collected two of these frames so far. One is a steel road frame, supposedly made by Brent Steelman for Scott Moninger. The other is an aluminum time trial frame, with a moderately aero-shaped downtube, seattube, and seat stays.

In 1984 Crest gave away “Fluorider” Big Wheels! The following excerpt from Power and Protocol for Getting to the Top: The Image, the Moves, the Smarts for Business and Social Success. 1992 by Jeffrey P.Davidson tells that story:

"While reading the Wall Street Journal one day, Richard Levy saw an article about the enormous promotional budget that Proctor & Gamble had allocated for Crest Toothpaste. It didn't take Levy-a former publicist, Hollywood script­writer and marketing consultant-long to conceive of a big­wheel tricycle that incorporated an enlarged, durable plastic replica of a tube of Crest linking the floorboard with the handle bars. Research showed that every child in America in his or her lifetime will at least own or ride a big-wheel tricycle. Levy was able to sell the concept to the product's brand manager and ultimately established a team to manufacture "Crest Fluoriders" exclusively for Proctor & Gamble. The venture was so successful that, on one day, Levy remembers having 17 forty-foot trailers filled with tricycles leaving for P&G's warehouse. "That doesn't sound like much of an invention,'' you might say. It isn't. Levy has the capability, however, to identify salable marketing ideas to major game and toy manufacturers who recognize a profitable product when it is presented to them. Levy has gone on to create and sell more than 60 other "toys," some less complicated than the Crest Fluorider! He's now recognized as one of the top creative minds in the game and toy industry."