i miss the days of earlier cannondale bikes.

Indeed mrs_oab had a Cannondale F900SL. Still the lightest bike we've ever owned, scary thin (flexible wall!) down tube, but also surprisingly comfy ride. Headshock tuned for a light rider was the shizzles.

https://flic.kr/p/yCCZW

I saw a brand new Cannondale frame in about 1992, it was my brother's pal's. It was dark green and absolutely lush, with it's matching oversized fork, wearing it's 'made in America' badge proudly. It was stunning. It was also a warranty replacement for one that had cracked. Probably why they were known as Crack'n'fail.

Looked like this one.....

Chunky tubes, ELO lefty forks, crossmax SLs or spinergy xyclones, SI hollowgram chainsets, F3000SL, F4000SL, just a shame about the price tags!

Same, Martyn Ashton/Cannondale era bikes always looked stunning. Once rode a headshock equipped hardtail test bike, it felt so rapid on the climbs in a way that I haven't experienced since. I swore I would get one and never did.

As much as I do like the look of a Cannondale Hi Mod HT, £10k on a bike for a guy in his 40's to ride around Rivington seems silly/unobtainable.

Yeah 90's paint schemes and prices were much better.

Straight 1.5 headtubes are the Boss - Cannondale defying the weenies with their tapered steerers. Unfortunately the weenies won and now every MTB features undersized 1 1/8 stem clamps.

Feel like their early innovation in aluminium will be their legacy, more than later MTB designs. The 1990s Caad4 / 5 HTs are just timeless. They always felt extremely creative at the time, and I think where within the 26'' mtb limits, but I don't know if they did much to transform MTBs into actually being good.

Not much to excite the cannondale fan with their current MTB offerings istm - although they're strong with road and gravel bikes. Think they're brought the superX back which is a great bike, but had been dropped in favour of just having a gravel line (most companies have done this).

Their Motocross and quad bike program was interesting but ultimately killed the company.

But.......I had a couple of their Caad roadbikes and a Prophet MX which at the time was great but I followed that with a Jekyll 27.5 and honestly it was the shittest bike I've ever owned! I cracked it quite quickly and had a replacement frame but the geometry was just utter rubbish, the unique rear shock was equally rubbish and wasn't supported by any suspension tuners so I was stuck with the crap valving. It was too far too laterally stiff and completely unlike the flexier Prophet so it didn't corner and would just skitter offline. Unprotected hose and cables running under the down tube (split a hose and cable riding at Stiniog).

The Lyrik fork was Cannondale specific and had a 29" offset crown on a 27.5" lowers instead of going with a slacker head angle.

The Cannondale standard sized head tube was crap as nobody made anglesets for it which it really needed. The unique headset bearings were junk. The rear axle threaded into non replaceable threads.

I took it to Morzine and was so disappointed with it I came home, sold it without riding it again and 'retired' from mountain biking for a few years - I was that pissed off and jaded by the whole experience. So yeah **** Cannondale.

Love those old Volvo Cannondale colour schemes

Always had a soft spot for Cannondale. Owned a CAAD4 road bike, a couple of Ravens and a CAAD4 F2000.  Brilliant bikes but a bit fragile

Chromalusion Purpleen anyone??

I had a polished Killer V back in the day. OK, it had a small dent but it's still one of the coolest bikes I've owned.

My only MTB is a 1996 polished Cannondale Killer V running almost complete period XT. Still rides really well for the stuff it was intended for in 1996. The good part about liking old bikes it that they can only cost a few hundred pounds.

I used to visit my local bike shop with my dad as a kid and we always loved the Cannondales they had for sale, unfortunately they were out of our budget at the time.

Fast forward about 15 years and I got back in to cycling and my first MTB was a Cannondale but it wasn't the same, the "Made in Taiwan" sticker was a disappointment and the frame didn't seem anywhere near as special as the bikes of the 90's.

They looked great, but the name "crack n' fail" wasn't without reason

I’ve had a couple of Cannondales, always had a soft spot for them. Sadly never had an mtb from them - always liked the look of the headshok hardtails and some of the super vs. Out of my price range first time round doing mtb as a teenager.

I still like the look of their road bikes but less excited about their current range of mtbs.

Had a Caad9 in the Liquigas colour scheme which I loved - and was one of the USA made frames.

Later I had a Caad12 disc which I liked, but never loved in the same way for some reason.

They looked great, but the name “crack n’ fail” wasn’t without reason

There was always a pile of broken Cannondale frames in our shop basement awaiting warranty.

Because Cannondale had one Europe-wide distributor at the time rather than a specific UK one, it took forever although to be fair they were generally pretty good at just replacing frames.

Rustynissanpirate my mate had a very similar experience on his Jekyl at the Megavalanche, I think he managed 3 days riding out of the week we were there, the rest of the time it was being repaired.
He was very annoyed when the French shop mechanic waggled the floppy back end and said it was made of cheese!
At the time Jerome Clementz was winning EWSs on his.

In more modern times they were well ahead of the gravel trend with their Slate, a drop barred fat tyred bike with a Lefty suspension fork.

There's a book they had printed and distributed to an elite clientele which documents their journey from when they made bike luggage bags, it's a great read if you can get hold of it.

I loved Missy Giove and Tinker Juarez as riders and always wanted a red killer V that I lusted after in Keswick Bikes, but couldn't afford one.

Really don't get the hype they receive.

Worked in the island of Gran Canaria as a guide around 2011- 2012. The shop was one of Cannondale's biggest buyers in Europe at the time.

I was given a RZ 140 to ride. One season I went through three frames. Each one cracking at the seat stay. Was then given a a Prophet as it was a burlier frame and that creaked like crazy.

Jekyll 27.5 and honestly it was the shittest bike 

Yeah. A friend has one. Shitty shock that's blown and can't be fixed. She no longer rides, but no one wants the bike.... Oh, and 1.5" steerer on the fork so can't even sell that for love nor money.

There was an old Cannondale 'Y Frame' with a headshock on the campsite in Lake Garda we were at last week. Bit before my MTB interest started so I don't know what model exactly. Looked pretty mad though!

All things cannondale including the catalogues:

https://vintagecannondale.com/catalog/

They were a nightmare for shops. They’d introduce mid season models that were better than the current one.

Or disk mount forks and non in the rear or vice versa. Strange ideas at times

I had 2 Cannondale hardtails back in the day.

One was brilliant, the other just wasnt right (for me) geometry wise and put me off them forever.

They were like many bikes of that era, just felt a bit more special and handcrafted, well I guess at least finished

I had one of these, if I remember rightly this was the good one

Edit: was defo this one. From what I remember it was stolen. Possibly the next one I had was the first of 'production line' Cannondale bikes

Vintage MTB Cannondale M600 Hand Made bike (youtube.com)

The green 1995 M500 was the bike I always wanted, either that or a Kona Lava Dome.

I almost bought the Lava Dome but used the money I'd saved to buy a snowboard and go to Austria with my uncle.

15 years old drinking gluhwein in mountain top cafes then boarding back down. I have no regrets about not buying the bike

I owned a 99 Super V 1000sl which was a great bike. I also ended up buying a mk1 Scalpel (off the old FS forum on here!), the one with the pivotless carbon chain stay. It was a superb bike light, well handling and from an era when Cannondale were really pushing frame design. I'm tempted to get another but they do seem to hold their value.

They’d introduce mid season models that were better than the current one.

I had one of those... F1000SL IIRC... loved it. And great value. At first it was bought to use for what we call gravel... so I could ride with a broken arm and the headshok would look after me. Then it gained a rack and became a commuter bike that could also do proper trails in the Peaks. Was so so fast. But then I made the mistake of riding it in the depths of winter as a full on mountain bike, and the fork really wasn't up to that at all... very much a dry trails product sadly.

Anyway, old Cannondales so often featured paint jobs that still look great today. Unlike most other brands. I always dip into old Cannondale catalogues when looking for paint and decal inspiration for future bikes.

My first Cannondale was this 1990 SM700 (Chameleon) - commuted 20 miles every single work day then raced at the weekends.

Eventually did fail at a weld around the seat cluster and Cannondale replaced with this frame under the lifetime warranty which kept going until I gave it away to a bike charity a few years ago.

I thought the CracknFail thing was after they tried MX and the company went to shit?

Also Cannondale was 1.25", maybe later models were 1.5 but not originally.

@alpin she could just get a tapered steerer pressed in or tell the buyer to do that. Not hard.

Still have and use my rz120  https://flic.kr/p/xZgk9y

Had an early 00s road bike as a hire bike back in 2015. Complete with CODA quill stem and Campag record 3x9 and ‘handmade in America’ stickers. No photos of the complete bike but it was enjoyable to ride around Calpe area.

I thought the CracknFail thing was after they tried MX and the company went to shit?

Also Cannondale was 1.25″, maybe later models were 1.5 but not originally.

The headtube joins failing (and the end of that issue) predates the MX bike by many many years. It was due to headtubes for 1" headsets not really working with the fat tubes Cannondale were using (this was in the 80s). Then, as you said, they switched to 1¼"... fixing the problem but not entirely successfully killing the bad rep... at the same time the headshock came along in, what '91 or '92? The big headshock tube was even better for mitres/welds with large diameter tubes, and was the right size for 1½" steerers/headsets a decade before they were a thing. So when 1.5" came along, there were huge numbers of Cannondale frames out there already that could use it.

I bought one a new Cannondale Prophet in 2009, which I think was the last year they were sold. Did all sorts of riding on it, general riding, Enduros, XC races, even tried to do the Mega on it but broke my thumb in practice! Still have it but not ridden it properly for about 10 years.

Alp d'Huez '12 with broken thumb

what was the one they did probably early 90s that had sort of a frog-o-dile green-and-yellow colour scheme? I liked that one IIRC

My original Raven failed at the seat tube. The spine parted company with itself at the seat tower. Fortunately I wasn’t harmed in the process

CRacknfail was bullshit! My mate had a M800 in deep blue - he loaned that bike out (actually he bought the bike with a loan he had to get his kitchen done!) - one time my nutty brother was riding it - didn't appreciate you had to have some finesse on a rigid bike back then and went straight into a tree at about 25mph. No cracks resulted... the headtube was stretched so you could never get a headset tight, but no cracks!

And myself, I had 2 rigids after that, replaced the (Pepperoni?) forks with Pace RC36s and got hit by a 40mph travelling Golf - connected right in the middle of the downtube (still have a photo somewhere) - the forks were destroyed, I was destroyed, but NO CRACKS (except in my backbone)! Just a huge bend in the downtube.

My mate had a gorgeous Raven. He loved that bike. He left it in a friend's loft (nope, no idea) when he moved house and the friend had a house fire! The bike was caught in the fire... NO CRACKS!

It melted.

They were a nightmare for shops. They’d introduce mid season models that were better than the current one.

Or disk mount forks and non in the rear or vice versa. Strange ideas at times

Anyone remember the 3-bolt Coda disc hubs they had for a time?

Meant you could only use their in-house Coda brakes (which were shit) unless you bought new wheels with normal 6-bolt hubs. Although Hope did come along and save the day with some 3-bolt rotors for a while.

I think the main nightmare for shops, apart from the half-year product cycle, was all their own-brand Coda parts which were invariably proprietary and crap.

The adjustable angle Coda stem was neat. And the BB/cranks set the path for all the ones we use today.

I think my 2018 Scalpel SE is still looking decent. It's good at big Scottish xc rides but will also go around a trail centre trail black pretty well too.

Had a headshock on an xc race rig.  it was shite.

they sure did try to innovate and it looks like those sort of days are over.  Guess we settled on what works whereas back then full suss was new territory

Back in 2017 I picked up a brand new, bright green CAADX Disc cross bike - was only £695 in the sales, Tiagra 10 speed, put some Prime alloy wheels, but a pretty basic spec.

I absolutely loved it, had it for 2 years as my only bike and it just used to put a smile on my face. Felt like it nicely carried through on its Cannondale alloy frame lineage.

RustyNissanPrairieFull Member
Their Motocross and quad bike program was interesting but ultimately killed the company.

I bought a copy of an American MX that had a test of it - it wasn't pretty. From memory;

- Serious low down power issues resulted in having to use the clutch a lot.

- Clutch died quickly (see above).

- Jetting could only be adjusted via a wee electronic controller rather than 2 seconds with a spanner. Struck them as complex for no reason.

- Hubs started to fall apart.

- Wwwwaaaayyyy more expensive than better bikes from the Japanese brands.

Seemed like Cannondale got in way over their heads. iirc they got better, but the damage was probably already done

They really pushed wall thickness and the Crack'n'fail thing was no joke in the 90's.

They also didn't survive crashes so well, or letting them fall over onto any sort of edge.  Plenty of them still around thought

Forgot about CAADx! Definitely a road bias feel to it, but great bike to ride. Unfortunately someone decided they wanted it and stole it from my van. A great welcome to life in Yorkshire…..

I remember riding a F700 with headshock in the late 90's and thought it was so rigid and uncomfortable compared to my steel Marin pine mountain. Looked great but happy to give it back!

Loved the iconic blue Volvo Cannondales, the most recent cannondales that had similar fizz were the hooligan and slate.

Growing up in the 90s Cannodale Mtb’s were items of lust that I’d never have a chance of owning to know how good / bad they were.

This year I bought my first Cannodale (dark side, not Mtb) a Supersix Evo 1, it’s a fantastic bike, already one of my favourite ever.

vmgscot - I think that 2nd Cannondale pic of yours is the 2nd Cannondale I had , it was definitely a single seat stay thing. What’s the model , difficult to tell in that pic.

I still have my CAAD4 road bike, very seldomly used these days. It has achieved that desired ‘vertically jarring but flexy bottom bracket area’ ride quality that steel bikes couldn’t get.

Friends had those lovely F-series hardtails in early 2000s, few cracked from doing trials style riding and Headshok bearings rusted solid due lack of greasing. Can’t fault the bikes for that.
I recall one local race where I saw 2 guys with those lovely Ravens riding back to start area with their seatpost in jersey pockets… not a successful weekend for them.  

Gawd I loved my Prophet!

Wanted one of these more than oxygen BITD

Much as I love Cannondale I've only ever owned one and I'm looking to sell it.

That's not actually mine, I don't have a picture to hand but it is the one that made me hunt one down.

Is that... a rigid Leftie?!