Cannondale Habit, first impressions.
While I'm not, for a minute, going to think that I can get away with complaining about riding secret new bikes on wonderful trails with great people... it is always hard to come up with a 'Well, how did that bike ride?' impression
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With nearly 25 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 32 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)
12 thoughts on “Cannondale Habit. First Impressions Of A Very Important Bike”
That looks great. No more Bad Habit, as I see you can go 27.5+ with the same frame. Cool. Very subtle livery for a ‘Dale!
Looking at the Cannondale website, all sizes of the new Habit aluminium builds are specced with a 125mm dropper. I’m not sure that’s a good sign for changing out for a longer drop if you’re not very long-legged. Maybe the Alu versions have a longer seat tube?
Where’s the Lefty?
Why is it a very important bike and what’s the point in saying the PF BB didn’t creak on the day? Bit like saying the brakes were responsive for the whole ride. Real world reviews required I think!
I like the look of that and think it’s a good looking bike. I really like the very subtle decals too.
same thoughts as Trailrider Jim – why is this an important bike? I wouldn’t say it’s important to the industry or consumer – it’s hardly ground breaking is it really? Is it important to Cannondale then? They now have a competitive trail bike I guess, and one that isn’t supremely ugly like most of their recent bikes…..
I also don’t get why people are still so down on press fit BB’s – got several bikes with Shimano and Hope press fit BBs – none of them have ever creaked. I’ve probably had worse luck with creaking threaded BBs. The shonky Token PF BB that I had for a little while was an entirely different story to be fair…
I really like Cannondale bikes, and currently have a CAADX and a Trail2 hardtail. Recently, however, I have seen a lot of myriding buddies having problems with frames cracking. This goes for fullys and hardtails alike. I would be very wary of buying another Cannondale, even if they have a good warranty programme… Shame, as the new Habit looks just like the kind of bike I would really get along with!
Looks nice.
Hope though they have the pivot bearing sealing sorted. TEN pivot bearings (as well as the usual 2 shock bushes). If not it will be a total PITA to maintain. (Best buy a steel hardtail whilst youre at it for all the time it’s up on jacks)
It’s a very important bike because it’s a huge part of the market and if Cannondale gets it right, then they can get lots of customers to buy them – especially ones who might have been put off the overly-proprietary bits and pieces of the past. The Lefty fork has (currently as far as I know) been refined to a shorter travel Ocho which appears on Cannondale’s race bikes. And there is still a Bad Habit model, but only for the USA… I’ll check the dropper-length spec for you, paraicj
And yes, real-world testing definitely needed. We just have to get hold of one now…
Looks nice. Always had a soft spot for Cannondales, but agree that recently their mountain bikes have been somewhat marmite.
Could it be a VIB because of the attention to detail around the suspension componentry sizing? I’m no expert (never stopped me) but I can see how the suspension might behave differently with different frame sizes changing the angle of attack. Same thing with chainstays really, never understood how an XL and an XS with the same chainstays would be expected to behave in the same way given the proportional differences in rear end to the overall wheelbase..
Chainging the chainstay length totally makes sense for different size frames/riders. Shame Cannondale forgot to do that here. They haven’t presented the numbers to anyone, as far as I know, to convince that their direction RE different shock yoke size, etc, does infact do what they claim – and without that all I can see is that they alter the leverage rate on the shock, per size, which could be dealt with by shock set up in any case…. just not convinced on this, and I think they only went halfway by missing out on the chainstay length.
Love that they’ve gone back to the original logotype and subtle decals, shame they’ve ditched the lefty completely. Seems the market has spoken.
That looks great. No more Bad Habit, as I see you can go 27.5+ with the same frame. Cool. Very subtle livery for a ‘Dale!
Looking at the Cannondale website, all sizes of the new Habit aluminium builds are specced with a 125mm dropper. I’m not sure that’s a good sign for changing out for a longer drop if you’re not very long-legged. Maybe the Alu versions have a longer seat tube?
Where’s the Lefty?
Why is it a very important bike and what’s the point in saying the PF BB didn’t creak on the day? Bit like saying the brakes were responsive for the whole ride. Real world reviews required I think!
I like the look of that and think it’s a good looking bike. I really like the very subtle decals too.
same thoughts as Trailrider Jim – why is this an important bike? I wouldn’t say it’s important to the industry or consumer – it’s hardly ground breaking is it really? Is it important to Cannondale then? They now have a competitive trail bike I guess, and one that isn’t supremely ugly like most of their recent bikes…..
I also don’t get why people are still so down on press fit BB’s – got several bikes with Shimano and Hope press fit BBs – none of them have ever creaked. I’ve probably had worse luck with creaking threaded BBs. The shonky Token PF BB that I had for a little while was an entirely different story to be fair…
I really like Cannondale bikes, and currently have a CAADX and a Trail2 hardtail. Recently, however, I have seen a lot of myriding buddies having problems with frames cracking. This goes for fullys and hardtails alike. I would be very wary of buying another Cannondale, even if they have a good warranty programme… Shame, as the new Habit looks just like the kind of bike I would really get along with!
Looks nice.
Hope though they have the pivot bearing sealing sorted. TEN pivot bearings (as well as the usual 2 shock bushes). If not it will be a total PITA to maintain. (Best buy a steel hardtail whilst youre at it for all the time it’s up on jacks)
It’s a very important bike because it’s a huge part of the market and if Cannondale gets it right, then they can get lots of customers to buy them – especially ones who might have been put off the overly-proprietary bits and pieces of the past. The Lefty fork has (currently as far as I know) been refined to a shorter travel Ocho which appears on Cannondale’s race bikes. And there is still a Bad Habit model, but only for the USA… I’ll check the dropper-length spec for you, paraicj
And yes, real-world testing definitely needed. We just have to get hold of one now…
Looks nice. Always had a soft spot for Cannondales, but agree that recently their mountain bikes have been somewhat marmite.
Could it be a VIB because of the attention to detail around the suspension componentry sizing? I’m no expert (never stopped me) but I can see how the suspension might behave differently with different frame sizes changing the angle of attack. Same thing with chainstays really, never understood how an XL and an XS with the same chainstays would be expected to behave in the same way given the proportional differences in rear end to the overall wheelbase..
Chainging the chainstay length totally makes sense for different size frames/riders. Shame Cannondale forgot to do that here. They haven’t presented the numbers to anyone, as far as I know, to convince that their direction RE different shock yoke size, etc, does infact do what they claim – and without that all I can see is that they alter the leverage rate on the shock, per size, which could be dealt with by shock set up in any case…. just not convinced on this, and I think they only went halfway by missing out on the chainstay length.
Love that they’ve gone back to the original logotype and subtle decals, shame they’ve ditched the lefty completely. Seems the market has spoken.