Some of the most recent Cannondale bikes are starting to look a little sensible, thankfully they’ve come out with this 2 shock downhill bike to prove they still have all the crazy left in them.
Cannondale has always’s been one to release innovative suspension products. If it wasn’t the Headshock, it was the Lefty, and that’s not to mention the Cannondale Fulcrom DH bike from 1998!
Recent Cannondale bikes, like the modern Jekyll and new Habit though, have lost the eccentric flair of those old Cannondale suspension designs, so imagine how excited we were when we saw this Cannondale downhill bike with 2 shocks!
Regular Singletrack readers and those of you who watch our weekly Newsdesk segments will have already heard plenty of rumours about Cannondale’s 2 shock bike, but this official video makes it… well…. official.
The video goes into a little detail as to why Cannondale has adopted the 2 shock design, and it also mentions the fact the frame can be set up using various configurations to get the best from the rear suspension.
Although this unnamed prototype downhill bike can be set up with a single shock, it can also be set up with an individual damper and standalone spring. In the video, we get to see the bike set up firstly with a single shock then with a damper in the downtube setting and shock above it.
We’re told that with the damper in this lower position, Cannondale engineers are able to tune the damper with a more linear path while allowing the spring to follow a different kinematic. There are also different spring location options that have an effect on spring progression but not on the damper.
Obviously, this is only the tip of what can be experimented with the new dual shock Cannondale platform. A separate damper and coil spring is one option, but what about a damper and separate air spring? What happens if you run the damper above and the spring below? Could 2 separate shocks be tuned to handle different stages of compression and rebound? The possibilities are pretty exciting.
Chances are we will see the 2 shock Cannondale downhill bike at a few rounds of the Downhill WC and rumour has it that Josh Bryceland might enter a race or two, although we’re unsure he has the UCI points to enter a WC event.
Keep posted to Singletrackworld.com for more downhill tech stories.