Why no love for Cannondale?

Here's mine:

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I've put X-lite components on,Sachs wavey, a flite and XTR brakeset.

The Z.5 Series Marz and the dodgy pressed steel chainset were already fitted.The latter is soon to be removed :roll:
 
mr_mr":1ljw0cm2 said:
currently shopping for a bike for the girlfriend around the £650 mark. have looked at all the major brands and the biggest let down was the cannondale. had the worst spec for the cash, but the main problem was the geometry was all to cock. the 16" womens model had a super high BB and the top tube felt too long for me and im 5'10". whats the point! how many 5'4" women are no legs and all arms! i certainly wouldnt want to be dating one of the test beds for that bike! she would look like an orangutan!

Made me chuckle, To add my tuppence is I just look at them and find them souless, When I first saw a Sworks back in 96 I think it was I was like "oohh I fancy that" and still to this day I would love one (couldn;t afford one then)

I bought a spec rockhopper comp which tbh was a fantastic bike. In the end riding a cannondale was akin to the feeling you get when you see some old fart in a bright yellow lambo.

Your first though it nice car shame about the colour and look at the w*nk*r driving it which is the same feeling I get when I used to see Cannondales.

No offense "cannondale" riders just a personal opinion founded in nothing resembling proof :D
 
looked in awe at the super v 3000 in 93...

bought the same f/f nearly 20 years later feeling the same awe!

must say something for them, though id agree they have lost their way over the last few years
 
i mean... come on... it was 1993 when this came out....!

best brand in the world? perhaps not... but yes, some truly iconic bicycle design, pushing the boundaries...
 
i mean... come on... it was 1993 when this came out....!

best brand in the world? perhaps not... but yes, some truly iconic bicycle design, pushing the boundaries...
 

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i mean... come on... it was 1993 when this came out....!

best brand in the world? perhaps not... but yes, some truly iconic bicycle design, pushing the boundaries...
 

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I've never been into 'dales. It wouldn't be so bad if their clever ideas brought a performance benefit, but lefty forks, head shocks etc were pretty crap just for the sake of being different.

I don't mind their more conventional iron, but TBH there are dozens of outfits that do conventional better than they do.
 
SUPER V3000 1994


Even after 20 years I still love this bike. I just finally finished ...
Cannondale is timeless and it does not mean that just have bad bike.
We like it or not, but I for one Cannondale has advanced the world of mtb
with their innovations and their followers.

FLASH F1 2010


Here is for me the last of the brand because it does more Asian frames finish
we loved so much. "HANDMADE IN USA"
 
Here are my 2 I built up over the winter, a 1999-2000 F600 and a single-speed 1995 F1000:
 

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Great thread - read it from beginning to end this morning, and now realise why 90% of bike shops I visited with my '99 Cannondale treated me like a complete tw@t.
The old Cycle Surgery in Spitalfields was the worst (by a long way) even though they had only stopped selling 'dales about 6 months after I bought mine. My CAAD 3 bike was built up from frame & forks, no proprietary components necessary, all common sizes and interfaces, yet even when I entered a shop knowing precisely what I wanted (an easy sale), I was treated like some rich prick with a flash bike (not rich, never have been). Pretty sad really, I think the BMW analogy elsewhere in this thread is quite accurate.
Innovations like stealth city bicycles (practically every manufacturer copied the Bad Boy), BB30 and Lefty are what really differentiate the company from the Church of Klein, imo.

As for newer non-'Handbuilt in the USA' Cannondales, you can keep them.
A mate hired a CAAD 10 road bike from a local shop the other week and the build quality (and weight) of it was just shocking. Didn't ride well either.
As a company they've definitely lost something, and I wouldn't consider buying a new Cannondale today.
I'd fecking love an old Track frame though.

cannondale_track.jpg
 
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