Submitted by
YellowBird
a Cross Country Rider
from Wisconsin, USA
Date Reviewed: June 7, 2008
Strengths: Price for frame (in 2008!). Easy to build up. Super Fatty SL Headshok suspension - balanced and firm w/correct pressure for your weight. Fox rear racing shock - I keep it almost locked out, still a responsive, plush ride. TIGHT turning - flexible, strong frame (no "loose" riding).
Weaknesses: zero.
Bottom Line:
I am one with the bike - The way riding should be.
Submitted by
Jason
a Cross Country Rider
from Hutto,TX,USA
Date Reviewed: October 22, 2006
Strengths: Tight Geometry built for twisty singletrack,and rocky terrain,reliable suspension design,headshock fork tracks like a pirahna,
Weaknesses: heavy even with upgrades,rear suspension tends to bob slightly(only really noticeable on the road)
Bottom Line:
A great woods bike,but not a great fireroad bombing bike. The same tight geometry,high bottom bracket,and short cockpit that work great in the tight and twisty add up to a handful on high speed runs. Still,for the riding I like to do it's probably the best bike I've ever ridden. Very confidence inspiring. And it looks good too!
Bike Setup: 1999 SUPER V 2000....with a 2001 LEFTY DLR, downhill DX pedals...and HOT S MICHELLIN TIRES
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
JC
a Cross Country Rider
from Weatchester,NY
Date Reviewed: November 3, 2000
Strengths: This bike handles great around turns. Frame is lightweight, good climer and fantastic on those downhills.
Weaknesses: rear shock bussings suck! coda components not worth having. Headshock not reliable.
Bottom Line:
Good bike, you might need to change some stock parts if you want that extra edge. It's a great bike to start out with for those looking for a full suspension. This was my first bike with rear suspension and it made a world of difference. It's a bike worth having.
Bike Setup: Full XTR, Marzocchi superlite, Hayes disc full hydraulic,Mavic disc rims,Kore Elite stem and seatpost,Azonic risers bars and wildgrip tires.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Yuri Cook
a Cross Country Rider
from Longview, Texas
Date Reviewed: May 6, 2000
Strengths: This bike is agile in tight turns and over technical stuff. The front and rear suspension is well balanced and the rear is active while braking on technical descents. The cockpit seemed short at fist (the virtual top tube length is about an inch shorter than my Fisher Joshua, both medium), but the geometry adds to the maneuverability. This bike has definitely "improved" my riding by allowing faster recoveries and forgiving poor wheel placement. Again, balance and agility are excellent.
Weaknesses: Poor quality calipers on the disk brakes -- they leaked repeatedly. There is a recall on certain serial numbers, but you have to check the Cannondale website. Customer service was lacking; they were rude and at first insisted that there was no recall despite the fact that it was posted. Then they insisted that I had to take the brakes to a C-dale shop. Even though I explained that the nearest C-dale dealer was over an hour away, they wouldn't exchange the calipers by mail. There's NO excuse for treating a customer that way, especially after he paid over $2K for your product. I've replaced the disks with V-brakes pending the disk repair. The single bolt seatpost is also a poor spec and won't hold my saddle level with hard riding. No problems with other components. Price of $2200-2600 is no bargain.
Bottom Line:
Good but expensive cross-country bike with a few poor specs -- brakes and seatpost. Well-balanced fully-active suspension. Fast and agile with a somewhat short cockpit --good for turns and technical stuff. I think riders who like rocky/rooty and twisting trails would be pleased with the ride; long distance riders might like a longer, more comfortable top tube length.
There is no excuse for treating customers poorly, if they pay this kind of money for a product -- or, actually, even if they don't. I like the Super V, and I understand that components sometimes fail. However, I will probably not buy another C-dale product simply because their customer service was so rude to me.
Bike Setup: Stock components with WTB saddle and XT V-brakes to replace defective disks (pending service). Looking for a seatpost.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Yuri Cook
a Cross Country Rider
from Longview, Texas
Date Reviewed: May 6, 2000
Strengths: This bike is agile in tight turns and over technical stuff. The front and rear suspension is well balanced and the rear is active while braking on technical descents. The cockpit seemed short at fist (the virtual top tube length is about an inch shorter than my Fisher Joshua, both medium), but the geometry adds to the maneuverability. This bike has definitely "improved" my riding by allowing faster recoveries and forgiving poor wheel placement. Again, balance and agility are excellent.
Weaknesses: Poor quality calipers on the disk brakes -- they leaked repeatedly. There is a recall on certain serial numbers, but you have to check the Cannondale website. Customer service was lacking; they were rude and at first insisted that there was no recall despite the fact that it was posted. Then they insisted that I had to take the brakes to a C-dale shop. Even though I explained that the nearest C-dale dealer was over an hour away, they wouldn't exchange the calipers by mail. There's NO excuse for treating a customer that way, especially after he paid over $2K for your product. I've replaced the disks with V-brakes pending the disk repair. The single bolt seatpost is also a poor spec and won't hold my saddle level with hard riding. No problems with other components. Price of $2200-2600 is no bargain.
Bottom Line:
Good but expensive cross-country bike with a few poor specs -- brakes and seatpost. Well-balanced fully-active suspension. Fast and agile with a somewhat short cockpit --good for turns and technical stuff. I think riders who like rocky/rooty and twisting trails would be pleased with the ride; long distance riders might like a longer, more comfortable top tube length.
There is no excuse for treating customers poorly, if they pay this kind of money for a product -- or, actually, even if they don't. I like the Super V, and I understand that components sometimes fail. However, I will probably not buy another C-dale product simply because their customer service was so rude to me.
Bike Setup: Stock components with WTB saddle and XT V-brakes to replace defective disks (pending service). Looking for a seatpost.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Steve
a Weekend Warrior
from Benicia, CA.
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2000
Strengths: Very ridgid bike, considering it's a URT of sorts, it's unbelievable. Love the HeadShock ajustability.
Weaknesses: I guess I wish it were a little lighter but it's about as light as can be. It comes in at between 26lbs. 15oz., to 27lbs. 2oz.. I can live with that. Although I keep my rear shock a little firm, it can be an unbelievably plush ride!
Bottom Line:
Great balance in the tight twisty stuff, great on technical climbs. The riser made the bike perfect for me. Bottom line: It has raised my level of riding and confidence. We have some very rocky MNT Bike parks around here, (like Skyline in Napa), and this bike makes it soooo much fun.
Similar Products Used: Tried a few different bikes. A good bike is a quality bike that feels right to you, like they built it for you. No right, no wrong.
Bike Setup: XTR fr/rr "D", brakes, pedals and hubs. Race Face drive train, Easton Monkeylite carbon short rise bar. Sachs grip, Kore Elite Ball Saver Stem. It works for me.
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Nathan Osbourne
a Weekend Warrior
from Greenville,SC
Date Reviewed: September 24, 1999
Strengths: High quality craftsmanship! Attention to detail. Simple design that is tried and true!
Weaknesses: Weight, bottle cage placement, and no unique selling point/target audience.
Bottom Line:
Excellent ride quality and handling. I've had the rapid shifters break and opptd to put gripshifters on it. This really allowed me to fine tune the shifting. The front air shock gave me some problems at the start, but the shop fixed the leak very quickly. The rear shock takes a little while to get set-up, but is worth the time and effort. Overall this bike is a great ride for it's price, durability, craftsmanship, and performance.
Similar Products Used: most full suspension bikes in this price range.
Bike Setup: XTR/XT/Coda set-up with Sahcs gripshifters.
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Jim Arnold
a Cross-Country Rider
from Middlebury, Vt
Date Reviewed: August 27, 1999
Strengths: Engineering
Weaknesses: new technology
Bottom Line:
I did pay alot for this bike but also new I was buying new to the market componets Coda Disks Rapid Rise etc. So I did not expect to have the reliablity of my old 8 sp rapid fire GT Avalanche. It took me about 3-4 months to find the air pressures that work for me. And I still am experimenting. Any one who thinks they can get on one of these bikes and just ride forever guess again. I have a great GT I'll sell you since I never ride it. I think the supension is very responcive for XC. I did have the shims migrate on my Super Fatty but had the local Cannondale rep install the retaining clip modification while at a race in Killington's parking lot. Cudo's Rich. The brakes have been an evolving effort. When the work man are they sweet. But a different manufacture and compound are a big improvement. In the mean time Cannondale had worked with me supplying different pads and service at my LBS when he came through town. My only disappointment is with the Rapid Rise. I never got it dialed in. Changed cables and bent a couple of Casettes. I am biting the bullet and installing 9.0sl . Sorry for the lengthy post but these are my trials and tribulations. Would I do it again? Have you ever rode a V bike with disk brakes? You bet.
Strengths: Components, looks, not a bad design for the rear
Weaknesses: head shock, frames
Bottom Line:
The cannondale Super V line is not so bad, like the Trek, Klein, Schwinn S-works lines (all amount to expensive seat post suspensions only). But the head shock is not as good as a K2 crosslink with smart shock. the crosslink is a single shock, electronic brain suspension. The steering of the head shock is poor compared to telescope forks, and much much worse than the best fork--the crosslink (IMHO). The cannondale also makes their carbon frames with an aluminum spine. K2 does it much better with all carbon. For the money, I would still go with something besides cannondale.Two chilies for not being a seat post susp. But expensive still for what you get.
Similar Products Used: Many full susp (k2, trek, specialized, schwinn, klein, cannondale, santa cruz--they're all mostly crap, except K2/Proflex)
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Micah Owens
a Cross-Country Rider
from SunValley CA
Date Reviewed: July 31, 1999
Strengths: VERY LIGHT WEIGHT, sits up nice and high for great climbing
Weaknesses: THE STEERING IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST ON ANY BIKE MANUFACTURED OUTSIDE OF HUFFY AND MURREY!!!! It's handling must be improved in tight fast turns or someone will get killed.
Bottom Line:
The head shock design is hat kills this bike. The lack of ability to corner quickly outweighs any benifit derived from the reduced fork leg torqueng. Even with a conversion kit the steering wont improve due to the gap that will remain bettween fork and headset. DONT BUY THIS BIKE WITHOUT A SEROIUS LIFE INSURANCE POLICY
Similar Products Used: FSR, Joshua, Mantra comp, Schwinn
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Trialsins
a Downhiller
from _________
Date Reviewed: June 10, 1999
Strengths: Great looks, Good riding position for trials , Strong rear end .
Weaknesses: It broke on me .
Bottom Line:
Great bike while it worked . Great for wheelies and 5 feet drops . Rear end never flex , held up well . But while doing a simple nose wheelie oneday , the headtube downtube junction gave way . Really sad ....... 3 chillies for its performance.
Similar Products Used: Cdale f3000 , GT Zaskar, Porsche HT
Bike Setup: Marzocchi Mr T , Stratos Helium , Spin Wheels , Magura Gustav
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Rick
a Cross-Country Rider
from Doylestown
Date Reviewed: June 7, 1999
Strengths: Stiff frame, isolates flex from the suspension Gobs of smooth front end travel
Weaknesses: not as plush rear end travel as some but thats the price you py for no rear end flex
Bottom Line:
This is the best all around MTB I have ridden. It is the best MTB I have ridden on the road and the best I have ridden off. maybe not as good as a few off road but all around the best CC FS bike on the market
Favorite Trail: High Rocks @ Ralph Stover State Park
Duration Product Used: 2 Years
Similar Products Used: GT RTS-1 LTS-1 & 2
Bike Setup: full XTR with coda 900 crank, spinergy wheels
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Michael Glasgow
a Weekend Warrior
from Purdue University
Date Reviewed: June 7, 1999
Bottom Line:
If you read my review later in this section I apologize. I was out of line, even if I don't like something i shouldn't trash it like that. Cannondales really arent that bad. I guess flunking out of Purdue and getting dumped by my girl helped me to get control over my anger. Sorry also to Jim Montgomery, I really do think he is a nice guy. Sorry!
