CSG Launch : Cannondale and Charge

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Welcome one, welcome all, to the second in our illustrious series (of three) covering the loveliness that caught our eyes at the CSG launch last week. Today – Charge and Cannondale!

Cannondale

Jekyll

Cannondale Jekyll

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Cannondale have redesigned the Jekyll for 2015 with the help of Jerome Clementz. It now sports a steeper seat angle, a longer top tube and front centre and a slacker head angle for added vroom. There’s a 160mm lefty on the Carbon Team and the Carbon 2. The others – which are all aluminium – get Pikes.

Cannondale Jekyll detail 2The Fox DYAD RT2 pull shock is activated by a handlebar switch, which activates two different damping circuits, and gives you two different spring rates. The two modes are called Flow (for descending, and, um, flowing), with a flatter spring rate, and Elevate for going up which is more progressive. Apparently Mr J Clements likes it so much he uses a modified Gripshift shifter to change between the two modes with lightening speed. They also have different travel: Flow gets you the full 160mm of travel; Elevate runs at 95mm, and the sag changes to steepen up the front and aid climbing.

 

Prices range from £2699.99 to £5299.99.

 

 

Trigger

Cannondale TriggerThe Trigger has a broadly same idea as the Jekyll: a DYAD pull shock with two damping circuits and progression rates, all activated by a handlebar mount. The Trigger runs 140mm or 85mm, with the similar geometry and BB height changes. Cannondale market it as a ‘quiver killer’: the bike that does it all. Prices from £2699.99 for the Trigger 4 to £6999.99 for the ENVE wheeled, XX1 Trigger Carbon Black Edition.

Scalpel 29

Cannondale Scalpel

The Scalpel is a rip-snorting, bit-champing XC machine. 29in wheels, lefties throughout the range, and 100mm of travel front and rear certainly suggest a full bore, flared-nostrilled trail-charger. Prices range from £2499.99 for the only aluminium bike in the range, up to £6999.99  for the Scalpel Carbon Black. The Cannondale Rush occupies the full-suss XC niche below these price points – aluminium frames and a broadly similar suspension system are available from £1299.99 to £1899.99.

F-Si

You might have seen a video with Peter Sagan ripping up the trails on the new Cannondale hardtail (it’s here if you’d like to see it again). This is the bike:

Cannondale FSi

It weighs slightly less than a packet of crisps (may be a slight exaggeration – it’s certainly very, very light), and has all the current buzzwords, which certainly makes it interesting from an XC hardtail point-of-view. It has a 1×11 drivetrain, it’s longer, lower in the BB and has a (slightly) more relaxed geometry. So it should be a hoot to ride trails hard with, especially with the feathery weight.

Cannondale FSi detail4 The FSi uses a slightly (6mm) offset rear wheel – so you can run it dishless, which is a bit stronger. You can also make the shainstays shorter too, because you also offset the chainset, and give yourself more room at the seat-tube to cram everything in. Prices from £2999.99 up to £6999.99 for the F-Si Carbon Black Edition Di-2.

Cannondale tandem

We thought this might be Chipps’ perfect bike – a 29er aluminium tandem was in the Cannondale lobby. Fatty fork, big, tandem-specific wheels, £2499.99.

For more details see Cannondale’s website.

Charge

Cooker 5

Charge Cooker 5

The Cooker range all share geometries, and range from the Cooker 1 at £599.99 through to the pictured Cooker 5 at £2999.99, with a lovely Tange Ti frame…

Charge Cooker 5 drivetrain

1×11 drivetrain…

Charge Cooker 5 detail

…and an all-new Fabric saddle.

Charge CookerThe charge Cooker Maxi was so successful last year they’ve doubled the range. This is the Maxi 2, which has a Tange steel frame, and cartridge-bearing wheels – 135mm front and 170mm rear – at a prie of £1099.99. The Maxi 1 has an aluminium frame and slightly more cost-conscious componentry for £849.99.

More details here.

 

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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