Strengths: The frame it's self is very strong but the swingarm is not very strong.
Weaknesses: The weakness of the bike is the swingarm because it cracks very easily. The components arn't that good either the wheel sets are very weak the tyres it came with were slipping on bmx tracks.
Bottom Line:
The bike before I rebuilt it was a good cross-country bike part freeride jumping bike. But now its a whole new bike. Its a good bike for all sorts of riding and all sorts of people.
Bike Setup: 2003 marzocchi jr T forks, 105 shimano rear derailleur, fox vanilla rear shock, blackspire chain guide, new shimano bottom bracket, dice duke wheel sets and soon some hayes disc. Some people think its stupid rebuilding a whole bike when I could buy a full downhill bike but once I started to replace parts I thought I'll just finish it now I had started it.
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Submitted by
Walt
a Cross Country Rider
from Lexington Ky
Date Reviewed: April 30, 2002
Strengths: Razor sharp steering, Comfortable riding position
Weaknesses: Coda Components not the best
Bottom Line:
This is an update to my original post of 2 years ago. The love afair continues with this bike. I have slowly upgraded several parts, I changed the rear shock out with one with a lock out. I have seen alot of complaints about creaks from the crank. I thought I had the same problem but actually it was comming from the seat post. I upgraded to the Thompson and the creak went away. The only real problem I had was the LX front derailer gave me fits shifting to the big ring. My LBC traded it out for a XT and the problem went away. 2 years on the Coda cranks they are still working fine. I got the monkey lite for kicks and really like it. The bike has a rather upright position which took some getting used but it tracks like a razor. The only drawback it that sometimes it gets a little wild in steep climbs. I have been really rough on this bike for the last 2 years. When I bought it I weighed 225 and it survived. I will admit that this is no race rig but for Cross country it ROCKS.
Bike Setup: Upgraded the to complete XT Drivetrain, Shimano XT Disc brakes w/ EBC Green pads, Thompson elite seat post, Easton Monkey Lite Riser bar, 595 disc wheels, Fox float w/lock out
Strengths: very simple: strong, durable, sexy, and cool sounds(CK hub)
Weaknesses: none since i have transformed it into my dream bike
Bottom Line:
i have looked a long time to find a bike worthy enough to spend $ and time to make it into my "dream bike"...face it man...this bike have no weaknesses and with all these upgrades i would say it is lighter than some of the other hardtails my friends own...this is real man...this is what that lasts...go cannondale...and all u losers out there...if u dont own it it may not suck!!
Strengths: pin sharp steering accuracy,light and fast for the money, negligible flex and great colour(silver).
Weaknesses: many niggling/irritating faults, including the dreaded creaking esp. on uphills. It must be some sort of joint/weld or linkage and is very difficult to accurately locate but it obviously isnt a precursor to catastrophic failure or I would have read about it here. Not keen on mud -chainsuck and rear wheel bearings failed.
Bottom Line:
when this bike goes well it is fantastic-- fast, great handling, and spot-on riding position which makes hours in the saddle a wide grinned pleasure. unfortunately it has had its moments of being very high maintenance; I dont do any mad stuff but there was a phase where after every ride it was in the shop waitng its turn to be repaired. previous reviews seem to reflect this mixed bag on reliability and component quality--- sort out this problem and cannondale have a superb bike.
Bike Setup: as stock apart from tyres (hutchinsons great in bone dry but no grip on anything else)
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Submitted by
Rob
a Cross Country Rider
from Wading River, NY
Date Reviewed: May 8, 2001
Strengths: frame strength, rigid fork-no lateral twist (because of headshock), 120mm of rear travel
Weaknesses: little heavy, need special cannondale tools to work on headshock
Bottom Line:
I got a great deal on this bike. I paid only $700 on e-bay and got the bike from a bike shop totally tuned and ready to ride. The only complaint is the lopsided shock setup. There is 120mm of travel for the rear shock but only 80mm up front, not a big deal but they should have added another 20mm to the front. Ive only had the bike 3 months but its handled everything I throw at it. I have heard a lot of complaints about the headshock on this bike but so far I havent had any problems. I give it 5 chilis for value because I got such a good deal and 4 chilis for overall due to weight and lopsided travel.
Similar Products Used: gary fisher sugar 3, specialized enduro
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Submitted by
Richard
a Cross Country Rider
from Grand Prairie, Texas USA
Date Reviewed: April 2, 2001
Strengths: Great Bike I love the suspension. The Lx Xt set up works great.
Weaknesses: My rear rim taco'd after a couple of months. I will admit that the jump I did probably wasn't what the rim was designed for.
Bottom Line:
I bought this bike after months of searching and talking to alot ofmy biking buddies who all wished they owned a Cannondale. I love my bike and I think what I will Keep it for a while. I plan on slowly upgrading it to my dream bike. I think it would be a great investment for anybody looking for a good bike that will take punishment and lotsa' miles
Similar Products Used: Klein Mantra, specialized enduro
Bike Setup: I used to have an lx, xt set up with lx shifters I now have xtr shifters and I switched from the avid single digit breaks to the arch rivals and because I didn't want to ruin another rim I bought a beefier sun rhino lyte rim.
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Submitted by
Kelly Eubanks
a Racer
from Austin,Texas,USA
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2000
Strengths: As it was a frame only purchase I can only comment on that. The frame is stiff and offers excellent feedback, the weight isnt too elephantine and the colors are nice(except the red model, just a little too much RED) Its a proven frame with few modifications over the past 5 years, that should tell you something.
Weaknesses: Okay, the ONLY problem I've had with this frame is a constant creak from the swingarm pivot. My race mech., bike shop mech. and myself have rebuilt it 20 times (even with "updated parts" from cannondale, and.....it.....still....creaks. This is definitely where the creak is coming from and cannondale insists that it doesnt. B.S. Its a defect in the frame pivot points and I'm having it replaced soon.(hopefully before my next Xcountry)
Bottom Line:
great bike for weekenders but quality in frame manufacture seems to be slipping. so racers beware, a frame failure at some of the more thrilling race locales could be FATAL.
Similar Products Used: 1995 super V900,1997 super V700
Bike Setup: Titec berserker downhill saddle(still the best at avoiding that all day ride "numbness")XTR deraillers,gripshift800 shifters(I know, I know),mavic sup517 rims(heavy, but STRONG),panaracer smoke and dart combo, XTR v brakes,and Specialized strong arm cranks. Yes, its a heavy (29 lbs.), but in past experience my super v's can go thru 2 seasons of racing with very little problems.
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Submitted by
Gerry
a Cross Country Rider
from Armonk,NY
Date Reviewed: August 19, 2000
Strengths: Excellent bike, does everything well
Weaknesses: came with thin walled mosquito tires
Bottom Line:
Love this bike, Seems to do everything good! Ride a lot of technical trails, but today went up to Hunter Mt., NY and the bike performed really well on the downhills!! Will probably get rid of the 1.85 Mosquito tires that it came with at the end of the season and get something fatter, but other than that I have no complaints!!
Submitted by
Jonty
a Weekend Warrior
from Christchurch, New zealand
Date Reviewed: August 11, 2000
Strengths: Solid Frame, single pivot swingarm, sealed bearings, plush fork and rear end, great steering and braking ability. Lots of seat adjustment (not like specialized FSR etc)
Weaknesses: Coda components, high riding position, stuff all clearance between the swingarm and wheel. Questionable quality on the rims. A little porky on the scales.
Bottom Line:
I had the bike for 7 months, done over 1500 kms offroad and the bike is holding up well. The Suspension is plush and very active on both the front and rear end and seems to be pretty well balanced even with the difference in travel. But i have found that both the fox shock and the fork need to be pumped up after a jumping or downhill session (i weigh only 75 kgs and don't get more than 4 foot off the ground, so beware this bike is not for hard core extreme nutters). Brillant bike in technical and tight stuff, killer fun on single tracks. Has great traction uphill, but the front end has a tendency to lift and move about due to the bikes geometry, but this is offset by brillant tracking downhill. The fatty fork has given me no problems so far, travel is butter smooth, and its a sweet handler on the smaller rough stuff especially when cornering. No flex in the fork from braking or hitting stuff. The suspension will bottom out on the big stuff, but this is a kind of x-country trail machine and not a downhill stunt buster. Negatives Coda stuff is poor quality cr#p!, the coda quick releases just about killed me when they came adrift doing 70 km/hr. The brakes were flexy and the pedals just didn't do the job (ie either didn't stay in or wouldn't release). The wheel set is heavy, but I had no problem with it staying straight, although the brake surface on the rim flakes off on hard downhill runs (suggesting poor quality rim material). All in all the bike goes good and with a few key upgrades when things need replacing, it'll be even more of a bullet proof rocket. Remember light is not always right!
Similar Products Used: own a wheeler 7900zx (great little hardtail & cheap) tried many full suspension bikes like specialized, gary fisher, khs, k2, wheeler, klein, fuji and scott.
Bike Setup: Sram 9.0 shifters and derailer, xtr brakes, lx skewers and quick releases, 545? (shimano aluminiun case) pedals , pararacer tires, the rest is shock.
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Submitted by
Chris
a Weekend Warrior
from Bradford, MA
Date Reviewed: July 28, 2000
Strengths: See previous review
Weaknesses: See previous review
Bottom Line:
Correction of my previous review:
The bike test, which I have referred to, used a mass of 1300N (equals 291lbs) applied to the bottom bracket for 100,000 cycles instead of 130N. You can review the test result @ http://www.efbe.de/ehard.htm. I have contacted EFBE to receive more detailed test results but they stated that Specialized and other well-known ATB manufacturers requested NOT to get their test results published. I guess their stuff broke way to easy.
Second review. The bike started of as a bit of a dissapointment. I was only getting 60mm's of travel out of the fork (due to the bearings slipping) but this has been fixed. I cracked the swing arm, but this was fixed also. The bike rides great, it does everything that I want it to, and to those that say that the C'Dale company sucks I think that you will notice that as the sport grows and bikes become more and more mass produced we will see more bikes from all the manufacturers failling. Only the bikes that are hand made will maintain any consistency. When you go to McDonalds and get a dodgy tasting burger does it stop you from going back.
Submitted by
Chris
a Weekend Warrior
from Bradford, MA
Date Reviewed: July 17, 2000
Strengths: Tough, rigid frame (by the way, this frame was stress tested in a laboratory with 100,000 cycle of a 130 N load applied to the bottom bracket and did not break. The Super V's and the Raven's were the only bikes who withstood this test. This test included Specialized, Schwinn, and over 60 other high end frames). Super handling / precise stirring (both downhill and cross country). Lifetime service and warranty!!!! Good looks (not that important).
Weaknesses: Clicking cranks, adjustment of the Coda Expert Clipless pedals.
Bottom Line:
I love it and trust me, I am beating it up. I have hunted down every rider on their Stumpjumper FSR's, Schwinn's and GT's on my trails so far (and they all hate me for it). The clipless pedals almost brought me into trouble because they don't always release at the same torque (I have actually measured 7 ft-lbs up to 11 ft-lbs of torque with a meter attached to the heal of my shoe). The clicking crank is anoying and I have already replaced it (the new one clicks again). I have checked the old crank and found metal flakes from the mounting surfaces of the crank arm (seems to brake when being over-tightened). I would give it 4.5 chilies because there are probably even better performing race bikes out there but I will give it 5 chilies because of all the jerks (with their 10,000 typos) who keep putting this bike down and talk about jumping of garage roofs, etc.. (they must be stupid).
Go and get one if you can afford it. Go Cannondale!!!!!!
Similar Products Used: Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Pro, Scott Pro Racing
Bike Setup: As specified by Cannondale (unfortunatelly they replaced the Mavic X221 rims with Weinmann ZAC19 which aren't that great). I have purchased the bike with the WTB Velocirator tires right away because I suspected that the factory tires don't perform that great.
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Submitted by
Karl Erbach
a Weekend Warrior
from Barrington Il
Date Reviewed: July 14, 2000
Strengths: The suspention is simple, effective and very responsive. The bike looks better than it preforms. That is a plus when everyone except for other bikers look at it.
Weaknesses: The bike spends 1/3 of it's life at the shop. First of all the wheels are some of the weakest I have ever seen. It only takes one ride to set them compleatly out of wack. The cranks and bottom bracket are compleat pices of crap. They have loosened up on me three times and they constantly creak. The shop claims that the creak is normal it drives me nuts. The tires that are on the bike belong on a road bike.
Bottom Line:
This is my second review because the first one was Krap and it didn't do justice for the bike. After riding it for 3 months I now know why they call cannondales crapendales, cannonfails ect. I do not recomend this bike to any one.
Similar Products Used: Schwinn Rocket 88, Fisher Sugar(I wish I bought this bike) Kona Roast
Bike Setup: Stock except for the tires
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Submitted by
Terry
a Cross Country Rider
from Turkey
Date Reviewed: July 4, 2000
Strengths: Suspension is great! The XL frameset is the perfect size for a 6'3" rider. This red bike looks really cool, especially with the red SPOX!
Weaknesses: The original brakes suck! Sometimes the front lockout will gradually start locking out...don't know what's up there!
Bottom Line:
This bike is great! I purchased this bike as a demo, however I think it may have been a rental bike...it needed some parts changes when I got it. Originally it was very heavy compared to my hardtail, but lightened up with the parts change. The original brakes couldn't stop me...wrecked because of it. Wheelset replacement made a huge difference in weight and acceleration capabilities. Very little bob noticed on the uphill. I am 230 lbs and this bike doesn't flex when I am twisting up a hill. On the long rides this bike will keep your back in shape for a ride the next day. Previous bike wouldn't do that for an old fart like myself. Another difference...my vision doesn't blur when I'm rolling over these rockbeds at 40 KPH. It actually climbs very good, especially since you won't be afraid to hit a few big rocks on the way up. I would always shy away from that with my hardtail. Anyhow, this is the coolest looking bike around and with the parts modifications I have made, I have this baby dialed in for great performance! I'd definately recommend it, especially for the Clydesdale Class of MTB warriors!
Strengths: The frame and new swingarm. They both rock and provide for a beautiful ride.
Weaknesses: The seat is just a little bit uncomfortable so I suggest going with the Selle Italia MaxFlite Gel.
Bottom Line:
It's an all around great bike. For $1400, Cannondale provides you with one of the best deals around: the frame is super stiff, the stock components are overall excellent, the ride is smooth, and the value is unbeatable. I checked out a lot of bikes before I made my decision and this one stood out as the best. Cannondale is a great company with outstanding products. GO CANNONDALE!!!!!!!!!
