While at Timbomooses shop he showed us some of the most horrific wear from the cages that Ive seen yet. One had easily .030" chewed through the outside race of the rod and what was left of the center was still going. Its a good thing the rods are strong enough not break when they sieze or we would have run out of cases a long time ago. He also had one and Ive seen it before was a rod that ground up the cage and bearings and was just running without anything inside. The piston smacks the head constantly but some still kept going and the owner couldnt hardly tell. If Tim gets a chance he wil post some cool pics.
Talking with a few crank builders it was interesting to find that the ripsaw bearing is not a cannondale only issue. There were some street bikes that also had this problem. I guess the general term used by most is just called step wear. And wouldnt you know it thier fix was to just replace the bearing with similar one and accept premature failure or use a flat style cage that didnt rub on the rod. Hmmm .....Duh.
Also noticed the early Falicon GSXR crank is actually a two piece design just like our cranks with pin part of the web and a solid rod.No babbit bearing like later models.Just the dreaded ripsaw which steps the rod.At least there isnt a big undercut like stock cranks for the cage to **** even more.