STEP BY STEP DISASSEMBLY

1. disconnect all hardware from fork (e.g. front disc brake cable, cyclocomputer wire, etc).
2. remove front wheel
3. either remove brakes, or wrap with plastic ziplock bag to prevent any accidental contamination of brake pads (I wrapped my disc brake with a ziplock bag secured with electrical tape). A little side note here: I can't recommend enough that when you are working on something, if you have the opportunity to protect a part that is likely to be damaged by knocks or contaminants, take the time to protect it or remove it out of harms way. It'll save so much time in the long run and usually provide you with easier access and ultimately give you a much better temperament to work on things. On a nostalgic note, I remember my father showing me how it was so much easier to remove the hood/bonnet of a car to work on the engine if you were going to work on it for a long time. Thanks dad, a lesson learnt and not forgotten.
4. Remove top cap using allen key. Put aside safely in a clean box for the parts.

   Another side note here: find a clean box to put parts in. I wish I could practice what I'm preaching here, but alas, I can't tell you how many times I've put a part down, and the "Small Part Pixies" come out with their magic dust and thieving grubby little hands -spiriting the part away right from under my own eyes. Putting the parts away safely makes it so much easier -I just really wish I could apply that myself!

5. Remove stem from steer tube.
6. Place a block of wood on the top of the steerer tube and tap it *gently* with a hammer. The fork should drop out of the headtube.

   You should now have the fork in your hands (with brakes removed or protected, right?). The next step is to secure the fork so that you can work on it easily -remember, I said there was only one of me and it can be a one person job:

7. Remove the quick release skewer from your front wheel. Put this on your old front axle, and fix your fork to the front axle with the quick release as you would your front wheel. Next, place this axle with fork affixed in your vise (depending on the size of your vise, it might have to go in at an angle -which I actually found was easier anyway) and tighten. The vise should be clamped with enough force to prevent the fork from easily moving. You now have a makeshift way of freeing up your hands to work on the fork!

   

8. Cut the zip ties on the headshok boot, and remove the boot (cutting it off if your are going to replace it) or push the boot down. Again, I recommend wrapping the boot with a piece of cloth and securing it with electrical tape to reduce the chance of you cutting the boot while your are working.
9. Using the Park SPA1 pin spanner, unscrew the aluminium cap from the steerer tube. Be careful; you need to hold down the pin spanner to prevent it slipping (which it will do quite easily -and happened to me. I have a big scratch on the top of this aluminium cap -fortunately it is hidden by the top cap cover so it doesn't matter aesthetically. However, for future disassembly reasons, you don't want the two pin holes to become burred over so be careful). The fork should now slide freely up and down.
10. You should now see the aluminium cap attaced to a rod. To remove this cap, slide down the foam spacer, and use an 11mm spanner to hold the rod in place. Use the Park SPA1 pin spanner to turn the aluminium cap anti-clockwise. Place the aluminium cap in your box of parts.
11. Pushing down on the fork, you should now see the castlenut about a centimetre down in the steerer tube. To remove this castlenut I used a home fashioned tool out of a door hinge, but you could also use a bladed screwdriver. At this point, if the castlenut is on very tight, rather than burr the castlenut, it might be best to purchase the specific Cannondale castlenut remover tool (http://www.bikeparts.com/search_results.asp?IDCA01146). I was fortunate, I found the castlenut came unscrewed with very little effort. 10. You should now be able to grasp the rod, and pull out the compression assembly with the castlenut. Put this safely away in your parts box (note: if you are upgrading the spring/elastomer to an air unit, the bottom cap at the base of the fork steerer tube is simply a compression fit and obviously needs to be removed as you'll have access to your air valve there. You can just use a socket extension and hammer to knock it out of the steerer tube if necessary). 11. Looking down the outer steerer tube, you should be able to see the four outer races (seemingly not secured in anyway but resting up against the thread at the top of the steerer tube) and inside the inner/fork steerer tube, you should be able to see your suspension spring (greensoft, bluemedium, redstiff). You can use your Park pin spanner to hook on the spring to lift the spring and elastomer assembly out. Put away in your parts box. Now, if you look carefully at the top of the inner/fork steerer tube, you should be able to see the tops of four inner races -secured by a race retention clip (looks like a regular washer with four protruding tabs on the outside where the races are secured).  
12. Remove the race retention clip using two zip ties and a small flat bladed screw driver.

    OK. It's at this point I can proudly proclaim this was an original idea of mine. So much of the stuff I've posted is purloined and gathered from other links, but this one is all my own, so I'm "dead proud" of this. You can use the ends of the zip ties to jam down between the tops of the inner races and side of the tab on the race retention clip, forcing the race back and away from the race retention clip tab. If you do this with two adjacent races, you can then use the flat bladed screwdriver to push up the clip and remove it. Using this method, it took me all of five seconds to get the clip out. A word of caution here: I'm guessing that if you break the retention clip, you could be in trouble, so be gentle. This is also another advantage to using the plastic zip ties as it is less likely you'll brea`k that clip using them.

13. Move the fork gently up so you have access to the lower Headshok collar. Use the Park SPA1 pin spanner to unscrew this collar. Other instructions have noted this is secured with thread locking compound (mine unscrewed very easily however). Once unscrewed, I moved the collar as far down as it would go, and secured it by wrapping electrical tape around it. Note: DO NOT MOVE THE FORK UP AND DOWN FROM NOW ON UNTIL SPECIFIED!!!! The races are now totally "unsecured" and will fall out if you pull up on the fork. You DO NOT want to do this yet!!!!!
14. Remember from the Super Fatty M overview I said: "keep the same races in the same position and orientation" -well, we're now at that bit where we need to secure the races so they all don't fall apart once we take the fork apart. One important thing here to help ensure everything goes back together exactly the same way -make sure you know which way the steerer tube goes on the fork steerer tube -this can be done by looking to see where the single vent hole goes in relation to the fork. The vent hole is a small hole that allows the air to escape from the suspension assembly. I secured my bottom inner races by simply tightly wrapping electrical tape around them. I also tried to use permanent marker to number the races and positions, but found that I could not get the races clean enough even for the permanent marker to take. I read you could use nail varnish to mark the numbers, but it wasn't my day to do my nails or get a perm, and hence did not have access to it. OK, with the lower inner races secured, we now need to secure the top outer races on the outer steerer tube. This is done by basically blowing up part of an inner tube inside the steerer tube, forcing the races to remain in place. It's really, really easy, and better still, works!!!!! Well, sort of.... read on for a cautionary tale: I was really excited at this point. I'd read about using the piece of inner tube to secure the outer races (brilliant I thought, ingeniously simple), and was well versed in how important it was to keep the races in their original positions and orientations. I found an old inner tube I had (700x23) which I decided was to be my sacrifice to the Cannondale Gods, and cut it about 5 cm up from the valve. Next, I cut past the valve about 25 cm down. Feverishly and with great anticipation I zip tied both ends and test inflated it. Perfect! It looked like a dull fat Lancashire black pudding (sorry, reference here for northern English folk) about 25cm long . Feeling well chuffed with myself for being so fortunate to read about such a clever tip, I deflated it -and hurriedly put it into the top of the steerer tube about 10cm down and re-inflated. I was worried about the races moving, so I pumped it up quite well to make extra sure the fit was a snug one. Sounds good eh?
15. Once you have secured the outer races, pull apart the fork -as slowly as you can...... the aim here is to make sure the races stay in position. Keep an eye on lower inner races and if you can see them, the top outer ones. Eventually the fork will seperate, and you will see four long rectangle needle bearings in plastic sleeves come down in between the two races. As far as I know, it doesn't matter the orientation or position of the bearings with respect to each other -though I'd still try to put them back the same way they came out as a matter of course. I ended up fitting new ones as one of my bearings had broken so it didn't matter to me. You should now have three sets of parts: (i) a fork with lower inner/fork races taped on, (ii.) four needle bearing sleeves and (iii.) an outer steer tube with an cut off inner tube inflated and sticking out of the top.

    OK, back to my little cautionary disaster story: I had those three sets of parts described just as above. I put down the outer steerer tube with inflated inner tube on my workbench to start degreasing and cleaning the bearings and inner races. Suddenly, there was a huge "POP!!!!" and then the sound of tinkling glass. My god, someone is shooting out the basement window! No.....the cut off inflated inner tube had split open, now looking like a forlorn floppy black rubber banana skin, and the outer races were randomly strewn inside the steerer tube. I said "Oh dear" and then added other far less than parsimonious words of the English language.

    If you recall from my description, I had about 15cm of inner tube extending out of the steerer tube, and when I had pumped up the inner tube in my ardour to secure the races...... well the top bit had deformed grotesquely because of the air pressure, which of course had no tyre wall (or steerer tube) to help contain it. So here's my lesson learnt: use a lesser length of inner tube (about 10cm), and have as little protruding out of the top as possible -this way, the inner tube should not burst. Also, don't be over zealous with the inflation. So, my dilemma now was I'd royally screwed up the order of the outer races. How could I put them back together again in the right place and orientation? All I can say is that in the end, I tried looking at marks on the races and matching them up to marks in the steerer tube. Honestly, I'm really not too sure I put them back in the exact same place, but what I can say is that my Headshok is smoother now or is as smooth as the day I bought the bike. I suppose the moral of the story is that even if you do lose the positioning of the races, don't give up, it's worth guessing and using a bit of detective work to hopefully reassemble them in the right way. And even if you don't put them back in the original places, it doesn't mean the Headshok won't work.

16. Finally, you should now be free to liberally degrease all parts and get them clean. Cannondale recommends you inspect the steerer tube parts for fractures or damage (bit of common sense there I'd say).

STEP BY STEP -REASSEMBLY