Cannondale – 2010

Cannondale has been bought by Dorel. As well as making baby products they’re also into their ‘Sport and Leisure’, already owning GT, Schwinn, and Mongoose.

In light of this Cannondale is focusing their product lines and will no longer offer bikes of the downhill variety. Pricing will also be more competitive with like for like models from other manufacturers. Although, their top of the line models, offering advantages that other manufacturers can’t offer will be priced as accordingly.

Their lineup will now consist of the following bikes.

Hardtail:
Flash Carbon – ultimate XC hardtail
Flash Alloy – slightly less ultimate XC
Trail SL – Performance HT

Full Suspension:
Scalpel – XC 110/100 mm travel
Moto – 160 mm travel
Rize 140 – 140 mm travel
Rize 120 – 120 mm travel
Rush – 110 mm travel

Details of the Flash will follow in another story.

Scalpel (XC Elite)

The Scalpel is pretty much as before but has a revised carbon layup reducing frame weight by 100 grams, and a new shock link that drops 30 grams. It relies on flex in the chainstays for the suspension action, so no need for a weighty pivot.
Comes in Team, Carbon 1, Carbon 2, Scalpel 3 (100 mm travel, and aluminium frame) flavours. All feature Lefty forks and BB30 bottom bracket.

Moto (All Mountain)

The Moto, frame wise, is unchanged apart from one very important feature. It has a new shorter shock link which drops the bottom bracket by 1 cm and reduces the head angle to 67°. The great news is that this new link will be retrofittable on last years models and is highly recommended to make the bike more suitable for its intended purpose.
Available in Moto Carbon 1, Moto Carbon 2, Moto 3 (featuring a HammerSchmidt as standard), Moto 4.

Rize 120 and 140 (All Mountain)

New travel options for this year on the Rize (previous was 130 mm only). A single pivot design with a linkage driving the shock, it is tried and tested by many and this is Cannondale’s take on things. As with most of their range they come in carbon and aluminium flavours, Lefty, Fox, or Rock Shox forks depending on the model and price. Almost all have 1.5″ custom steerers (only the RS Rev has a 11/8″ with reducer cups).

I spent an afternoon riding an RZ 120 (or R Zeeeeee 120 as the American folk say) and came away impressed. It’s a very dependable ride, and I felt right at home on it immediately. The type of bike you don’t realise how well it’s working until you watch the shock for a bit. The bottom bracket was stiff, partly due to the BB30. The steering was very accurate and allowed me to navigate some very tight switchbacks with the 68 degree head angle. Smaller sizes still get the full travel because the link is altered depending on size. I liked it.

Available in Carbon 1, Carbon 2, Carbon 3, Carbon 4, 5 (alu frame, carbon seatstays), 6, 7, and finally the X (full alu frame). With a lineup like that there should be one to cover most price brackets.

Rush (Marathon)

110 mm of travel and 69 degree head angle.

Available in Rush HiMod 1, Rush HiMod 2

Trail SL (Performance Hardtail)

The Trail is made of 6061 aluminium and, again, is available in various guises from 1-6. The 1 has a mix of Deore, SLX, and XT, with a Super Fatty DL80 fork.

And a couple of other things…