Cannondale 2016: The CSG Launch (VIDEO)

Barney toddled off down to the Williams F1 team compound in sunny – er – Wantage, Oxfordshire, to take a look at some of the gear they’ve got lined up for the coming 12 months.

First up is Cannondale – here’s a taster of some of the stuff that caught our eye. Here’s our first look at some of their Habits…

Cannondale Habit

The Habit is Cannondale’s New! for 2016! 120mm trail bike. And very tidy it looks too. It’s got a 68 degree head angle, 74 degree (effective) seat tube angle, a reach of 450mm on the large-sized bike, and 438mm chainstays. There are loads of models in aluminium, aluminium (rear) and carbon (front), and full carbon, and of course, there’s the Lefty on everything from the Habit 4 up.

Clean looking BB/pivot/junction/area/thingy (technical term).

…and an elegant rear brake mount for those 4-pot SRAM Guides:

Carbon linkage saves a bit of weight, and looks groovy.

Prices range from £1,299.99 for the Habit 6 all the way up to £6,999.99 for the Di2 Bling McBlingbling Habit Black Inc. We’re promised 60mm stems and wide(ish) 760mm bars, too. They don’t have a pivot at the dropout – it’s taken up by flex in the (elegantly shaped) chain stay instead.

Cannondale importer CSG’s Chris Hughes chats us through some of the Habit’s features:

Oh, but there’s more. If that was the good Habit, meet the…

Cannondale Bad Habit

Oh yeah. This bad boy is apparently specifically designed for 27.5+ tyres, and as such will run the full kahuna WTB Bridger in a whopping 3.0in size. The same head and seat angles as the Habit, with longer chainstays, natch, and 5mm more rake on the fork to keep things snappy.

Elegant front mech/chainguide mount, like the ones on the regular Habit. There’s routing for an internally routed dropper post too, although neither model comes with one. It’s good to know you can upgrade, though.

Neat Cannondale 1x specific chainset…

And of course, you get some pretty substantial rims. WTB scrapers, as it happens, on the Bad Habit 1 (Cannondale’s own on the Bad Habit 2). There are two models; prices are £2,499 or £2,999 depending on which one you go for.

Cannondale FSi

The Cannondale FSi range now encompasses alloy and carbon bikes; the alloy ones share many of the same features as the carbon jobs. Short chainstays, oversized head tubes, 69.5 degree head angle, long(ish) top tubes, and increased rake on the forks to reduce trail and keep the handling nimble. In both carbon and aluminium flavours, the small bikes come in 27.5in wheel diameter, and the rest of them are 29in. Here’s a carbon one:

Prices range from £1,199 for the FSi alloy 3 through to £6,999.99 for the carbon Black Inc. pictured here.

Beast of the East

It’s back! Cannondale’s fabled ruftytufty hardtail is REBORN as a 27.5+ monster! Asymmetric drivetrain means short (435mm) chainstays, even with humungous tyres. Forks are 120mm, and what looks to be a whole heap of fun. Does anyone else think that chubby bikes like this look like cartoon bikes – in a good way? There are 3 BofTE models from £1,099 up to £2,099.

Fat CAAD

Now this looks like a load of fun – the CAAD2 pictured here is rigid, but the CAAD1 has a Lefty – which sounds like a riot. Chainstays are short at 456mm (hey, it’s a fatbike), there’s extra fork rake, a low Q-factor to stop you riding like you’re on a horse, and there’s internal routing for a dropper post. Prices range from £1,599 to £2,599.

Cannondale Trigger

Pretty and purposeful. And green. The pull-shocked Trigger Carbon 1 gets WTB carbon rims…

Prices range from £2,499 for the alloy Trigger 4 through to £5,499 for the Trigger Carbon 1, which is, er, carbon.

And finally – we know this is pretty much a road bike, but it’s GOT A LEFTY! Eeek!

Cannondale Slate

This slice of mentals is a 650b wheeled, 42c tyred, 30mm travel Lefty Oliver-equipped, dropper post compatible, 142×12 rear-axled, shaped chain and seat stayed, slice of WANT. Look out for more pics in our sister site Grit.CX soon… £2,499 will get you one with 105, up to £2,999 for a SRAM Force equipped job.

For more details, check out Cannondale’s website.

 

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