Why no love for Cannondale?

[cherrybomb]

See, now; the Lefty fork?........it's kind of: 'wow, great.........but WHY??'

I reckon that's there problem, they try to be far too clever for their own good.

Maybe?

It's late! :?

 

[jonnyboy666]

somethingelse just occured to me, magic motorcycle cranks, basically they are "x type". outboard bearings with an oversize axle, that was cannondale ahead of everyone elses time.

see, they did do some good things.

still wouldn't buy one though.

 

[Dhphat]

somethingelse just occured to me, magic motorcycle cranks, basically they are "x type". outboard bearings with an oversize axle, that was cannondale ahead of everyone elses time.

see, they did do some good things.

still wouldn't buy one though.

Actually Alex Pong developed that and cannondale bought the patent. I love Cannondale (until Pacific bought them and wants to start mailorderinf them) I've had super v's, a M900, Gemini, a Judge, and a cross frame from them. They are great bikes stiff, light, and have very east coast geometry. I'm surprised i havn't seen any early Volvo replicas or more Beast of the easts.

 

[bushpig]

I had a T400 that I did some trail riding in Toronto on. Nice bike, but, with all respect, Cannondale always seemed too mass market for me.

 

[Archangel]

In the nineties Cannondales had a cult status in Finland. If you wanted to show to the common folks that you're cool and wealthy, you did ride a Cannondale. They were number 1 marque for robbers to look at too.

I had a 1992 M700 BITD. Stiff Pepperoni forks, Deore LX with Deore thumbies, etc. It had very nice welds and beautiful paintjob. The 1 1/4" headset cause me headache for it was quite difficult getting upgrade parts. That's why I had to buy a Manitou 2 for RS importer was unable to get any Mag 21s with 1 1/4" steerer.
But all-in-all it was a nice bike but still a poor man's Klein.
I was working in a bike shop that was a Cannondale dealer then and I have to say that almost all the 1992 Headshoks had to be returned for they all blew up. The only one that didn't was my buddy's Super V 3000's fork. Maybe they put more effort on that compared to Delta Vs...

Back then I loved the Super V and the Killer V too. We had a '94 Killer V 3000 in the shop. It had Syncros Ti post, Coda Magic cranks, Piranha brakes, etc. Very cool. And Super V, it's almost iconic now. Really outstanding frame shape when people were buying normal cro-mo bikes.... Riding one in city centre really made heads turn
From the riding perpective, the 1991 SE and 1992-94 Delta V full suspension series were just awful. Super V a little bit better though.

If I had to buy a vintage Cannondale for my collection, I guess it would be either a polished Super V or a 3.0 series mountain model, preferably SM Omega or 1MB limited edition with Campy parts.

 

[stew-b]

this is my third dale

 

[Raumer]

I've had 3 cannondales in total and have always liked them. Started with a beast of the east and then onto probably my favourite bike of all time - an original super v and then an F700. The last 2 I still own. The F takes a bit of getting used to and always felt like a race bike rather than one you'd be happy to ride all day. The headshock is an acquired taste but the one big advantage over the other forks is stiffness. Never found anything that could equal them.

The V I found was superb. Did everything we ever asked of it, lightweight cross country full sus, superb dual slalom and jump bike and used for a few downhills. Very strong frame, managed to bend a set of tripple clamps on the front of it with no damage to the frame!

The likes of the V frame design were very distinctive in it's day but now seems to have been taken over by the supermarket specials. Cannondales always seemed to be positioned in the middle. I wonder if people tend to collect either the bikes they first rode (more likely to be the bottom end of the market) and the bikes they dreamt of (Manitou's, Merlin's etc....).

Regards
Ed

 

[Archangel]

I wonder if people tend to collect either the bikes they first rode (more likely to be the bottom end of the market) and the bikes they dreamt of (Manitou's, Merlin's etc....).

Latter for me! Love to have bikes that I only dreamt of as a kid.

 

[neilll]

I love Cannondales and think they are underrated and deserve more kudos than they get.
I've been in love with them since the big fat 3.0 Series Mountain frames and the Beast of The East....gotta love them fat tubes and last year finally got myself an M1000 that is currently having a little facelift.

It'll end up as a street bike/trainer mainly but i'm thinking of building a spare wheelset for it so it can quickly get converted for trail use...

Sadly the V frames have never done it for me though...

 

[madjh]

I like cannondale but has some problems. I don´t like the idea of cannondale that make you use her components because it´s very difficult to mach for example a rock shox fork or some stuff are not compatible. Nowadays you have some adaptor but on 90s were very difficult to find it. You have to use coda components or fatty or ...

Apart from that they have done a good job.