Cannondale MX400 – the bike that broke the company.

I used to race a bit of motocross in the mid late 90’s and remember when Cannondale started designing a Motocross bike. This was also the heyday of downhill bike innovation and Cannondale were coming out with crazy stuff like the Fulcrum ridden by Missy Giove, to me the company could do no wrong!

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/cannondale-fulcrum-old-school-tech-2012.html

However the MX project ultimately failed and broke Cannondale as a company and it ended up being swallowed up by Dorel. I fell down a Youtube rabbit hole tonight and came across this interesting program on a rare UK based bike, theres some old school mountain bike porn on there as well. The guy has a serious N+1 problem!

As an owner of several Cannondales around that time, including a Beast Of The East and a SuperVee 3000, which I still have, and mine is signed by Missy Giove, (I took it to the Vail Worlds, when she won the Women’s Downhill, and signed my bike afterwards), I really fancied one of those MX400’s! Nearest I got was a little diecast replica, the same colour as the one ☝️.

The guys blog is interesting reading.

https://diaryofamotorcyclingnobody.com/category/cannondale-mx400/

Some interesting Bike stuff as well

https://diaryofacyclingnobody.com/category/interesting-interviews/

How are Cannondale these days? I never see any out and about, and when I do it’s usually a bloke in his 60’s riding an old school lefty out on a nostalgia ride.

Had a look at their bikes yesterday with hardline coming up at the weekend and wondering what Josh Bryceland would be riding as they don’t seem to offer any super plush 200mm+ travel options which I’d assume you’d need for something like hardline.

Anyway, seems they’ve a few nice bikes like the Jekyll and Habit but have never heard or seen from any owners of them to attest to how well they ride

Funny that this should come up as I’ve recently test ridden the Moterra. Full carbon beautiful ebike and rides sublimely.

I’m a bit of a Cannondale “fanboi”, which may or may not tie in with being from Yorkshire, so “careful” with my money and Cannondale do seem to be a brand that ends up in the bargain bucket year end close out sales.

Started in 2004 with a Jekyll 800 with a Lefty that was a great deal from Evans. The bike didn’t miss a beat.   Three maybe four trips to the alps and still no issues.  Roll on to 2018 and the 2017 Carbon Habit SE was a ridiculous deal at Rutland.  Still running that and it’s a great bike.

I think they got a bit associated with quirky, non-standards but the new range of bikes always seem to get decent reviews and the 50:01 association was, I assuming, trying to get them back to being deemed hip.

I’m 53, so in seven years I may be seen back out on the Jekyll, with the lefty. Can’t bring myself to sell it for the pittance I’d probably get for it.

@rockhopper70, I find that really interesting.
When I started riding, mid-90’s ish, Cannondale was a real premium brand, never discounted and really top class bikes.
I never owned one, but would have loved a Martyn Ashton trials bike from circa 1997.

Funnily enough I went down a bit of a Cannondale rabbit hole recently and that was triggered by videos about the MX bike.

Fascinating company started by some clever people who had a bash at everything. The company used to have such a strong identity now it’s just a sticker slapped on some pretty generic bikes.

I never owned one, but would have loved a Martyn Ashton trials bike from circa 1997

Same here. That looks stunning.

I remember seeing one of these in Hardisty’s in Newcastle when I was a total beginner…

The price tag of £4000 made it as attainable as a space shuttle. It was the first ‘downhill’ bike I’d ever seen before I really knew what DH was. It was also the big bike review in issue 1 of Dirt magazine.

I think they got a bit associated with quirky, non-standards

I think there’s a line between doing things that are non-standard, but make sense in of themselves and are better* and then there’s Cannondale

* For a given value of stiffer, lighter, bigger, smaller,  whatever…

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Cannondale, I’ve had a few of their road bikes, a Prophet MX that was brilliant and a Trail SS29er. The CAD road bikes were very good

……..but then I had the 27.5 Jekyll with the Dyad shock and I hated it. The shock was good in theory but in practice was great at big hits but ‘packed up’ on fast stutter bumps. The geometry was awful, I ended up fitting offset shock bushes as you couldn’t do anything with the Cannondale specific headset but it was still crap. The frame cracked after a few months and I got a replacement.
Took it to Morzine and hated it that much that I sold up and retired for a few years!

Despite that I still think the stuff they were doing in the 90’s early 2000’s with bicycles and the MX/ATV before the company folded was revolutionary.

Fascinating company

Didn’t they start in something to do with concrete? Or did I dream that?

Didn’t they start in something to do with concrete? Or did I dream that?

Yes – I think it was in that MX video (?) but I have heard that recently

That vid’s too long to watch now, but will have a look at some point! I vaguely remember MXA being big fans of a Cannondale MX bike, although it may have been earlier than that one – have a recollection that it had some kind of funky chain guide that raised the height of the chain as it back to the front sprocket, so both runs of the chain were parallel, I THINK that was the one they tested. But yeah, quirky, ahead-of-its-time tech. I hated four strokes even back then, but MXA loved ’em. 🙂

Just re-read the MXA review, they were quite underwhelmed, but basically said a lot of the issues were first year blues and fixable- thought the bike would still be overweight.

Flux in MX at the moment, the (sort of) arrival of the Stark Varg, and Triumph and Ducati both with bikes under development fro sx/mx – not sure there’s need/want/space in mx for another 2(3 with Beta) manufacturers, it’s a small market and getting smaller and expensive development and race programs have the ability to destroy companies very quickly.

I had loads of Cannondales back in the day, they were excellent bikes. The original Scalpel was an XC race weapon.

My latest Scalpel by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Loved the 1-FG, probably my most ridden MTB:

Singlespeed heaven by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Just re-read the MXA review, they were quite underwhelmed, but basically said a lot of the issues were first year blues and fixable- thought the bike would still be overweight.

Ah – fair enough, in that case I vaguely recollect incorrectly! Think it was ATK I was getting mixed up with, an earlier, simpler and much better beast. 🙂

My (non-moto-riding) impressions were that the bike tried VERY hard to be different and hopefully better. Wasn’t it one of the first four stroke motocross bikes? But also one of the first with electric start. They turned the engine round, so that the air intake was at the front (where the clean air is) and had a hole in the headtube to feed air into it. It meant that the exhaust didn’t have to head out of the front of the engine and curve all the way to the back… Lots of clever ideas, but too much, all at once for a new bike.

As @rustynissanprairie says, at the time, they could do no wrong. I reckon they should have thrown their clever R&D dept at making a cool Vespa-style scooter, which would have used existing tech, but sold to lots of bike fans and used the cash from that to finance their kooky MX desires…

How are Cannondale these days?

They’re still quite popular here in Spain with the lycra crowd. I see quite a few Lefties out and about on my rides. I even saw a bloke on a Cannondale CAAD fatbike with the Lefty Olaf fork last year down in Almeria. Didn’t even know they made them before that moment. It was a proper double take moment.

@pondo

Ah – fair enough, in that case I vaguely recollect incorrectly! Think it was ATK I was getting mixed up with, an earlier, simpler and much better beast

ATK was founded by Horst Leitner – he of the Horst linkage fame (FSR chainstay pivot that was patented by Specialized for many years) and early AMP research full suspension bikes.

It was the ATK Motocross bike that had the elevated chain guide roller to make the chain pull parallel to the swing arm which is kinda where high pivot mountain bikes are now at.

mrs_oab still misses her F900SL – bought from a forumite on here, sold to another forumite for his daughter.
The downtube was so thin you could flex it like a coke can, but it was a stunning ride quality, super light and the fork was brilliant when clean and running.
2016 Trek Superfly 6 13.5″ and 2000 Cannondale F900sl by Matt[/url], on Flickr

Cannondale road bikes are still up there. The SystemSix is just behind only the Canyon Aeroad & Cervelo S5 in terms of being the most aero bike available (according to Tour magazine wind tunnel tests).

I think I’ve owned 6 over the years – 2 road, 3 MTB and a CX. The road bikes and CX bike were excellent, the MTBs a little more varied. The F700SL (I think that’s what it was) should have been good but I just didn’t get on with it. The Rush was excellent but the back end flexed and ate back wheels. The Cujo 650+ was simply good fun and I got it so cheaply that I could chuck it in the back of a work van, when working away, and didn’t have to worry. But the standout was the CAAD4 road bike which was simply superb, and as finbar says above, the current C’dale road bikes are fantastic.

CSG, the distributor, has undergone a bit of reorganisation recently and seem to have lost track of what they want. I’m sure they’ll sort themselves out soon.

The downtube was so thin you could flex it like a coke can, but it was a stunning ride quality, super light and the fork was brilliant when clean and running.

Towards the end I was struggling to find anyone who could service a Headshok in the UK, which was a shame.

In the end I pulled one apart to DIY, but you needed various sleeves etc to reassemble it all…

Curiosity killed the Headshok by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

I was out in Madeira earlier this year with FreeRide Madeira, and all of their bikes are Cannondales. One of the guys we tagged along with was out on an Orange and snapped his brake so had to use one of their Cannondales – he didn’t seem to mind it at all. Pretty sure they were all on Jekyll’s, even the guides. Didnt hold them back and in a week of riding don’t recall any mechanicals. From what I heard I don’t think they were particularly light or pedal efficient uphill..