The new neon neow Cannondale Bad Habit

We’re looking forward to getting hold of one of these. Not just because of the most excellent paintjobs – although that doesn’t hurt – but because we really enjoyed riding the previous Habit and Habit LT bikes.

A black mountain bike leaning against a wall in a minimalist interior setting.

So what is the Bad Habit about? Well, it depends. Cannondale are clearly promoting it as an enduro bike. It did take Ella Conolly to the top step of podium last year after all. Yet with ‘only’ 155mm rear travel (160mm fork) it falls into what a lot of folk would class as a trail bike.

A vibrant yellow mountain bike with a distinctive pink accent, featuring large, knobbly tyres and a sleek frame design. The bike is equipped with a black front fork and has a modern suspension system.

What would we class it as? Apart from the temptation to facetiously say it’s a “mountain bike”, how about we bring back ye olde category of All Mountain? Yes, let’s. What does All Mountain mean? Fundamentally we’d explain it as ‘not flat stuff’. Climbs and descents. Steady climbs and natural techy descents. Steep seat angle, long reach, slack head angle, decent stack height, mixed wheel size.

A black and yellow mountain bike frame featuring a modern design and a rear shock. The frame has a vibrant gradient pattern with pink and yellow accents.
Claimed weight 3370g w/o shock

What else? Proportional Response (size-specific kinematics, geometry and construction). Coil or air compatibility. StashPort frame storage (a first for Cannondale MTB). 34.9mm diameter seat tubes for long-travel droppers (up to 280mm insertion on L/XL). Full carbon frame. Shuttle and chainstay protection. Threaded BB. Metric shock. UDH hanger. 160mm (S/M) or 165mm (L/XL) cranks. Warrantied for life (as outlined in Cannondale’s limited Lifetime warranty policy). Up to 170mm for single crowns and 180mm for dual crowns (bring back the Lefty Max!)

Not FlexPivot. Cannondale state this is primarily due to FlexPivot being expensive to manufacture: “FlexPivot wouldn’t have made a night-and-day difference to the overall weight, but would have increased the price.” Speaking of stays, the S and M sizes have a super-short 430mm chain stay length, the L and XL get still-very-short 435mm length. This is done by moving the main pivot position (5mm further rearward on the L/XL) as opposed to fabricating two chain stays.

As regards the suspension kinematic stuff, we don’t have any graphs and stuff at the moment. Suffice to say, Cannondale engineers have stated that the Bad Habit is quite a linear bike. Which is good to hear. Despite what a lot of folk think, coil shocks and modern air shocks work better most of the time for most of the riders when the leverage rate is not shaped like a Nike swoosh.

Cannondale Bad Habit geometry

SM MD LG XL
Wheel Size29/27.529/27.529/27.529/27.5
ASeat Tube Length (mm)355380420455
BTop Tube Horizontal (mm)565592618655
CTop Tube Actual (mm)535555577609
DHead Tube Angle64°64°64°64°
ESeat Tube Angle Effective77.7°77.7°77.8°77.8°
E’Seat Tube Angle Actual69.7°70.2°71.1°71.5°
FStandover (mm)734737739746
GHead Tube Length (mm)110120130140
HWheelbase (mm)1195122412561295
IFront Center (mm)764793822862
JChain Stay Length (mm)430430435435
KBottom Bracket Drop (mm)25252525
LBottom Bracket Height (mm)342342342342
MFork Rake (mm)44444444
NTrail (mm)135135135135
OStack (mm)630641648657
PReach (mm)430455480515
QAxle-to-Crown573573573573
RRear Travel (mm)155155155155
SShock Eye-to-Eye (mm)210210210210
TShock Stroke (mm)55555555

That’s about all we know for now. We’re trying to get one in ASAP for test. Keep your eyes on Fresh Goods Fridays.

UK Pricing

Bad Habit 1 £7,795.00
Bad Habit 2 £5,995.00
Bad Habit Frameset £3,750.00

cannondale.com

SIgn up for our newsletter: Exclusive editorial & early access to reviews

185cm tall. 73kg weight. Orange Switch 6er. Saracen Ariel Eeber. Schwalbe Magic Mary. Maxxis DHR II. Coil fan.

More posts from Ben

9 thoughts on “The new neon neow Cannondale Bad Habit


  1. Why can’t you buy bikes with Shimano drive trains anymore? I don’t like SRAM especially the massive gap on the cassette between the biggest 2 cogs

    Are SRAM still using Shimano’s old monopoly tactics against them? Get a bulk discount when you buy gears, cranks, brakes, forks & shock? I’m sure i read somewhere they sold cheap to OEM and made the profit in retail.
     


  2. The black frame with pink and yellow ends is exciting me more than it should.
    Looks like a great bike.
    Cannondale seem to be on a roll with paint jobs on the Habit range. This is indeed funky as hell, but it doesn’t top the purple-blue-glittery-flip paint of the recent Habit. Benji’s review mentions the paint job on that one but in reality it’s even better. We’ve got two of them…
     

     

  3. After getting my fingers burnt with a Jekyll  there is no chance I’d ever have another Cannondale. It was awful geometry, the specific shock was crap, proprietary components were hassle (headset) and their design/engineering was lacking (non replaceable axle threads). It also cracked.

Comments are closed.