Cannondale History

[kjop]

someone picked up the Cannondale history in a view minutes video with some nice vintage footage...

'How Cannondale Bicycles went Bankrupt!?' is the title of the video.

at 5:26 he has added some pictures... what machine is this? xD

 

[IdahoBrett]

For me it is a new story. One that took place a couple of decades ago. Heckuva gamble to enter the motocross market. Was it poorly executed? I don’t know. I might have to see if I can find the article written about the bike. The author wrote very negatively about the mx400 when it was released. He wrote an article twenty years later and was an interesting read.

 

[kjop]

till i watched the video, i didn't even knew cannondale has produced motorbikes too^^

but i meant this black carbon?-thing from the picture. anyone has some infos about it? it was made for triathlon, right?

 

[IdahoBrett]

Bizarre looking "thing" for sure.

If I were to guess, I'd say some sort of futuristic concept from an engineering team. For a trade show or something like that.

 

[Nico]

In 2021 a book came out named "The Cannondale Archives"
It is a very limited edition about the history from '71 to '21 and not available for the public.
I have seen one being offered on ebay for like $900 and then some.
In the Netherlands they have one for viewing at the office of the The Racefietsblog.nl

The futuristic bike is the V4000 aka the Alex Pong bike.
This bike was a design study and never reached production stage.
Here a link to a page about the Pong Bike.
You can also find this youtube video

​

 

[kjop]

the pong is crazy... do you know what the black one was? the one after the pong bike from the video?

In 2021 a book came out named "The Cannondale Archives"
It is a very limited edition about the history from '71 to '21 and not available for the public.
I have seen one being offered on ebay for like $900 and then some.
In the Netherlands they have one for viewing at the office of the The Racefietsblog.nl

that is awesome... would love to view the book in quite minute with a coffee... so maybe one day i have to ride my CAAD5 to the netherlands to visit these folks xD

edit:
just for fun checked the map where they are... 270km from here... doable by bike...^^

 

[Nico]

the pong is crazy... do you know what the black one was? the one after the pong bike from the video?

No sorry
It was made around the same time as the pong bike (it also has Magic Crank) and appeared in some magazines after factory visits were they spotted the bike. If you search for Cannondale r4000 protoype you may find more info.

Edit, that's funny, I used to live in Soest (the Netherlands)

 

[kjop]

Edit, that's funny, I just to live in Soest (the Netherlands)

 

[kjop]

seth made a short video about cannondales

 

[JohnnyD]

seth made a short video about cannondales

View attachment 11555

I've watched both videos that Seth made for his channel on the Lefty and Headshok. Pretty entertaining and educational for those that don't know about how the forks work and their history.
My take away from the video's and my own personal experience with Lefty's and Headshoks is the same that Seth concluded. On light to moderate trails/gravel they operate buttery smooth, but if you are looking to ride very aggressively, then a modern suspension fork is a much better fork overall. As Cannondale aficionados, we all should know the "quirks" that come with owning Lefty or Headshok forks.

 

[kjop]

these vintage headshock-bikes are perfect to rebuild them to gravelbikes. with gravelbikes you ride trough an environment, where the headshock was made for

have seen half a year ago an cad3 silkroad in bright shining orangeyellow with black decals... the price and contidion was perfect... and i was close to buy a train ticket and drive 700km to buy that nice bike... but hesitated too much and it was sold already, when i was ready^^

something like this

 

[IdahoBrett]

I believe it was his video on the Lefty that I watched last year. Yes @JohnnyD ”quirky” . My own experience with the headshock when new was disappointing; losing its air charge. Quickly. And from what I learned about the Lefty before I bought one was migrating bearings. Can they really be called “bearings”? More like rub strips.

But I have to say my first ride on a 15+ year old lefty that never had a proper service tear down impressed me. The seller told me after a gentle ride up and down the paved road in front of his house, “ride it again, but this time hit a curb head on at speed.” I did and was surprised that the Lefty took it and I felt almost nothing in my hands.

My biggest beef after seeing the inner parts of these things mirrors hydraulic brake parts experiences: low grade seals (packings, o-rings). Why? Cost per bike? Really? They could’ve charged less than $5 (Euro or Lb. equivalent) per bike and gotten aerospace quality seals that wouldn’t degrade from the type of fluid/oils they were being used in.

All that wasn’t meant to be contradictory @JohnnyD Modern forks probably are better. I have no experience to draw from.

 

[JohnnyD]

I believe it was his video on the Lefty that I watched last year. Yes @JohnnyD ”quirky” . My own experience with the headshock when new was disappointing; losing its air charge. Quickly. And from what I learned about the Lefty before I bought one was migrating bearings. Can they really be called “bearings”? More like rub strips.

But I have to say my first ride on a 15+ year old lefty that never had a proper service tear down impressed me. The seller told me after a gentle ride up and down the paved road in front of his house, “ride it again, but this time hit a curb head on at speed.” I did and was surprised that the Lefty took it and I felt almost nothing in my hands.

My biggest beef after seeing the inner parts of these things mirrors hydraulic brake parts experiences: low grade seals (packings, o-rings). Why? Cost per bike? Really? They could’ve charged less than $5 (Euro or Lb. equivalent) per bike and gotten aerospace quality seals that wouldn’t degrade from the type of fluid/oils they were being used in.

All that wasn’t meant to be contradictory @JohnnyD Modern forks probably are better. I have no experience to draw from.

I couldn't agree with you more on the quality of parts used inside the forks. I never once saw a hydraulic seal failure on aircraft that was caused by material degradation, only improper part installation or the few times I discovered fuel rated o-rings installed. If I really had the time to tear down and measure out all the different seals used in the Lefty and Headshok forks I am sure you could find aerospace grade ones to replace them.

 

[black lightning 1987]

these vintage headshock-bikes are perfect to rebuild them to gravelbikes. with gravelbikes you ride trough an environment, where the headshock was made for

have seen half a year ago an cad3 silkroad in bright shining orangeyellow with black decals... the price and contidion was perfect... and i was close to buy a train ticket and drive 700km to buy that nice bike... but hesitated too much and it was sold already, when i was ready^^

something like this

View attachment 11568View attachment 11567

What size do you need? I have a couple of Silk Road framesets in the basement. No idea what shipping would cost.

I have two Silk Roads built up. Here's the first one I purchased, a 1996 SR500. It's built for all surface use, with wide range gearing and 27 mm cyclocross knobby tires.