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spent £1900 on a 'dale - it was shite, infact, it was the after sales that sucked most - sold it nearly straight away.
Why no love for Cannondale?
- Thread starter john
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Never forgot the first time I saw one BITD - circa '89. Was a shock then as nearly 100% of bikes were skinny steel and in it's day the Cannondale looked 'drainpipe' like (until the Funk came along).
I think a few cracked then - tall riders running huge seatposts on 18" frames and the 1" headtube with a lack of weld area did not help.
I think a few cracked then - tall riders running huge seatposts on 18" frames and the 1" headtube with a lack of weld area did not help.
Vitorzip
Senior Retro Guru
Loved them BITD and still like them now. I´ve been looking for a red M800 or M900, with those longer dropouts, it was the greatest model to me.
I cannot understand why most of the people kill for a Klein, but doesn´t pay attention to a Cannon for more than 2 seconds...
(ok, don´t kill me, not comparing, but both were great bikes BITD...)
I cannot understand why most of the people kill for a Klein, but doesn´t pay attention to a Cannon for more than 2 seconds...
(ok, don´t kill me, not comparing, but both were great bikes BITD...)
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i've never really liked them, not for any particular reason, they just never did anything for me, test rode one once and wasn't blown away, then road a p7, liked it, bought it. 
that was '96.(tested both where i work now)
1year later i was in the trade. 6 years later i got the job in the shop i run now, was a cannondale dealer, kicked them out 2 years ago and never looked back. they were very niche so it made them hard to sell to people who didn't understand them, headshocks and lefty's etc. even if you spent ages explaining the pro's of headshocks etc (and they do have some pro's!) people just didn't buy them, they went for something else instead that was more "normal" or better specced for the price.
i did much prefer the older ones though,
also full suss wise how many times can they make a single pivot bike with 130mm travel in a different configuration, super v's, jekyl's, prophet etc all single pivot and 5inch-ish. :?
also they were an aspirational brand but i think that companies like evans have innadvertantly turned them into a discount brand with their structured end of season sale system, and that will affect the image even if it's not deliberate. maybe hence the no love here for cannondale.
just my thoughts anyway.
that was '96.(tested both where i work now)1year later i was in the trade. 6 years later i got the job in the shop i run now, was a cannondale dealer, kicked them out 2 years ago and never looked back. they were very niche so it made them hard to sell to people who didn't understand them, headshocks and lefty's etc. even if you spent ages explaining the pro's of headshocks etc (and they do have some pro's!) people just didn't buy them, they went for something else instead that was more "normal" or better specced for the price.
i did much prefer the older ones though,
also full suss wise how many times can they make a single pivot bike with 130mm travel in a different configuration, super v's, jekyl's, prophet etc all single pivot and 5inch-ish. :?
also they were an aspirational brand but i think that companies like evans have innadvertantly turned them into a discount brand with their structured end of season sale system, and that will affect the image even if it's not deliberate. maybe hence the no love here for cannondale.
just my thoughts anyway.
One of only 2 MTB races I ever rode not on a DBR Axis was on a Cannondale Killer V900. I really enjoyed it at the time and am about to build one.
I think Headshok was the beginning of the end for them - although the new ones that are stupidly light and have one fork blade look awesome.
I think Headshok was the beginning of the end for them - although the new ones that are stupidly light and have one fork blade look awesome.
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I had a 1999 F3000 disk in Volvo Team colours - it made me wet my pants every time I looked at it, headshok was pants but lived with it. - I'd bought it with the insurance pay out from my then stolen Zaskar (which turned up a year later :shock: )
I mean, my god, it looked like a wet dream FFS!
I rode it from Brighton to Littlehampton via the south downs way and Devil's Dike - it was :shock: :shock: :shock: ing awful! I was so disapointed, almost min tears - 26 years old and just invested an obscene amount of money in a pup.Yhe Canondale rep just laughed when I ran over his toes in Mike's Bikes, Cambs as the then Coda disks were absolutely godawful - I was sick to the stomach :cry: :cry:
I mean, my god, it looked like a wet dream FFS!
I rode it from Brighton to Littlehampton via the south downs way and Devil's Dike - it was :shock: :shock: :shock: ing awful! I was so disapointed, almost min tears - 26 years old and just invested an obscene amount of money in a pup.Yhe Canondale rep just laughed when I ran over his toes in Mike's Bikes, Cambs as the then Coda disks were absolutely godawful - I was sick to the stomach :cry: :cry:
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I've had 2 Cannondales lately - a Delta V900 and an M500, I liked them both - the M500 was 1500g (3.3lbs) for a 22" frame! - but I recently decided I just don't like aluminium...nothing against Cannondale. I'm glad I had them, but I don't miss them.
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just occured to me though, cannondale do try wih the publicity, i remember and artical alittle while back in one of the sunday paper's magazines about celeb(utard)s on bikes and how it was fashionable to have a "top of the range" cannondale, and how it was the celeb bike brand of choice etc. i just think it wasn't a fashion thing, i think said celeb lives in so called fashionable parts of london and on a whim decides to get a bike, "evans" stores everywhere and the guy in the shop sees celeb coming, a mile off (and quickly removes the "sale" label!). . . hence celeb on most expensive bike in shop! hence pictures of celeb on bike in sunday paper!
also, once a celeb decides something is cool the masses follow suit, then people like us go against the grain of fashion!
makes sense to me! retro =different!
also, once a celeb decides something is cool the masses follow suit, then people like us go against the grain of fashion!
makes sense to me!
retro =different!
jango
Senior Retro Guru
well, I got a R900 and it's more comfy than I expected, mainly due to the cantilever rear dropouts I think, even so after 50 miles I've had enough! see hear http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23540 it's not getting any love either!!
I have ridden later Cannondale mtbs with the 'normal' back end and they were awful, just too bl@@dy stiff, kinda put me off them.
In some ways I aplaud them for daring to be different but then they bring out the lefty and that's just all wrong....to my eye at least.
I have ridden later Cannondale mtbs with the 'normal' back end and they were awful, just too bl@@dy stiff, kinda put me off them.
In some ways I aplaud them for daring to be different but then they bring out the lefty and that's just all wrong....to my eye at least.
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