i miss the days of earlier cannondale bikes.

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?!

BITD I was going to miss a round  of a race series ,as my bike was out of action.

A friend* stepped in and loaned me their Killer V.

It was ( and still remains) the worst thing I have ever ridden.

* it’s a miracle we are still friends 🙂

@mashr  and RNP  .

Their motocross venture passed me by at the time,so I went digging.  🙂

https://motocrossactionmag.com/biggest-disaster-in-motocross-history-the-story-behind-the-cannondale/

They really did bite off more than they could chew.

Shame,as it looked pretty good.

Never did own a Cannondale back in the day (went with a Klein instead which i still own) but i did always want the f600 with the retro aeroplane finish…i thought it was so cool (still do!):

Wow. That is a bike i *want* a go on…how much @thepodge

@FunkyDunc – the frame they gave me as warranty replacement was a 1995 SM-900 purple I think

Damn I forgot about the hooligan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGeesNlaKA8&pp=ygUNQ2Fubm9uZGFsZSBteA%3D%3D

Don’t know how to embed YouTube videos nowadays – but the above link is interesting for the Motocross bike from a UK channel.

@desperatebicycle
They also do a full sized rigid Lefty

@matt_outandabout
Mine has Fatty forks (twin legs not single) which are apparently less common but also less sought-after. eBay suggest I’d get 500+ set up single speed and 600+ with the Alfine 8 speed set up.

I picked up an R500 frame in 1987 for ~£180 after I stuffed a 531c.  I won so many races on that thing.  Power transfer was unreal… back in the day of 20mm tyres @120psi.  As a big powerful rider I became a specialist in… hillclimbing (with the bike in full road trim with 32 spoke wheels)  just because the thing put all the power to the road.  Amazing.

Probably 1990, money got tight and I tried to sell a beautiful Columbus SL framed bike but the guy who came only had eyes for the Cannondale and reluctantly I parted with it.

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!

I went from a Marin Eldridge Grade, to a Klein Pulse and then a C’dale F800 with headshock (iirc?) between about 1997 and 2002.

The Marin was a lovely steel frame, but very flexy – I can remember what felt like the BB twist from side to side as I was sprinting occasionally.

The Klein was very stiff and direct, and was a great race bike, especially teamed with the Pace forks I had on mine. It felt like every ounce of power went into forward motion and the bike begged to go as fast as possible.

The C’dale wasn’t as direct as the Klein, but wasn’t uncomfortable, imo. Mine never felt as though it fitted me properly, despite being the correct size on paper. I think I sold it after a few years and carried on using the Klein. I never gelled with the C’dale, but a friend who borrowed it for a few races thought it was great – tellingly, he’s about 3″ shorter than me.

Is that… a rigid Leftie?!

This is going blow your mind

Funny, I’ve probably seen them before, but did look weird on that weird little green thing 🙂

I wonder how my beast of a Cannondale Moterra would cope with a Leftie… not enough to try it though

The single legged Leftie per se wasn’t a Cannondale innovation (although what they did with the square stantions and caged needle bearings was clever) – the Kastan Strut was an earlier single sided BMX race fork.

https://oldschoolmags.com/tests/Kastan-BMXPlus8903.pdf

About 15 years ago I commuted in London on one of these (not my picture). Was absolutely great until the SRAM 3 speed hub gear crapped itself and then it took Evans years to get a replacement.

The Hooligan was kinda cool. A friend has one. Used to be able to take 20″ wheeled bike on the trains for free in Germany, but the bastards have changed it.

I’ve had lots.

Started off with a SM600 beast of the east in 1991 that I got resprayed as I was racing for my mates shop back then. moved to a CAAD4 in 1999, caad5 in 2004, prophet, the single pivot rush in 2007, another caad5, caad4, another prophet, an old scalpel with headshok, then elo carbon lefty, that lefty went on a caad3 hardtail, another caad4 with headshok that I used with 26″ and 700×32 and my final one a couple of years ago was another prophet that I ran 27.5.

I always wanted a Bad Boy Ultra, but never got one.

Had a couple of Scalpels, which I really loved and a 1FG single speed, which was also really nice and an F800 hardtrail.

Cannondale Scalpel 2000 by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

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

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

GF at the time also had a HT:

Return to England by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr