So.. err…. WTF is this?

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/955937/

I can think of quite a few better ways to spend my £2000. Probably. If I think hard.

I love the tyre choice too.

🙂

cannondale raven, innit.

Ha ha and I thought Orange had that market covered!

‘full xtr groupset’

oh yeah? truvativ cranks are part of xtr now, are they?

i really like that (swop the tyres and that massive stem)

Raven 2 was one of the bikes i really really wanted back when they first came out

question is, would you pay £2k for it?

i agree with titusrider, by the way!

Is it interesting? Yes.

Would I pay £2k for it, even if I had the money lying around doing nothing? Not a flippin’ chance.

Nice bike, must be a few years old though.
But I take it we’re just laughing at the price, right?

nice commuter…

Suppose you wont like this either ( and it aint cheap )

Looks a bit like those new empire bikes that are all cnc machined. Saw one at ft william and its stunning.Wouldnt pay 2 grand for that though.

So.. err…. WTF is this?

new to MTBing are we then?

whats the fuss all about, just another cyclist expecting to sell for close to what it would be worth new..

thats the rules isnt it?

he will soon realise itsonly worth a grand..and someone will pay a grand

Is the seatpost attatchment a cynical mod?

Worst brakes ever made.

have you guys never heard of the Raven?!

supposedly best bike ever made in all the magazines of the day…

super light, apparently very strong. ELO (electronic lock out) on this one too.
I must be showing my age but I think its nice. Mash of components and road tyres arent helping it though

You can tell what year people started MTB’ing by the oldest bike they recognise instantly.

I remember the old ‘dale ‘V-shaped’ bikes from 1998ish?

Red with a headshox fork! And they had a modified ‘Super V’ downhill bike, with Headshox Moto forks and discs…

… feeling quite nostalgic now…

supposedly best bike ever made in all the magazines of the day…

We gave one a particularly scathing review in an early MBR… the words were along the line of “more of a Dodo than a Raven”.

We gave one a particularly scathing review in an early MBR… the words were along the line of “more of a Dodo than a Raven”.

I remember that one. We got a lot of mileage out of it with a mate who bought one out of the first lot to arrive 🙂

The Ravens contruction was quite advanced, even then. Aluminium skeleton with CF tubes. Way ahead of its time. Sadly it was made by Cannondale who in the middle of their “crank ‘n fail” days at the time.
Mate had one and it looked fantastic, threw its front wheel in the sea once by mistake. 😳

They were around £4000 new back in 99-2000 😯
Many of the Ravens cracked, some folk bought the lovely machined swingarms and bolted it onto the Super V to increase travel to 5 or 6″ depending on shock stroke, (knowen as an Uber V) and they made good climbers and descenders and were light too for the time,
I think they call them All Mountain Bikes now 😉
i still ride one 🙂
99 frameset, 02 swingarm 06 build

Boing!
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DSC_0235[/url] by coastkid71[/url], on Flickr

not so sure the aluminium skeleton was ahead of its time so much as cannondale trying to maintain that alumimium was still a key material, having built their original reputation and market on the metal. Marketing yourself a master of alloy and then making your top of the range bike out of plastic was always going to be uncomfortable.

Super V to increase travel to 5 or 6″ depending on shock stroke, (knowen as an Uber V) and they made good climbers and descenders and were light too for the time,
I think they call them All Mountain Bikes now

So… like the Patriot then (5″ or 6″ bounce / 24 gears / climbed like a goat ) 😉

A friend had an even earlier one, c1997. Great bike, definitely ahead of its time! Sold it for a pittance a couple of years ago (it was pretty trashed though!). His had the Coda hollow cranks on it, and a Headshock.

They are popular in the retro circles so some people will pay that. Collectors items and all that.

Amazing design and engineering IMO, particularly the first straight one.

A pal of mine who worked at a cannondale dealer told me there were so many fails it nearly bankrupted cannondale (infact it did didn’t it?) The Cannondale solution to strengthening the frames was to get the dealers to ‘squirt’ some epoxy-resin through the seat tube and bottle bosses apparently………glad i never bought one!

]now thats a work of art
almost as pretty as mine

epo, I think what bankrupted cannondale was some shocking financial mismanagement, and dabbling in the money pit of motorsports

http://www.totalbike.com/news/article/786/

A pal of mine who worked at a cannondale dealer told me there were so many fails it nearly bankrupted cannondale (infact it did didn’t it?) The Cannondale solution to strengthening the frames was to get the dealers to ‘squirt’ some epoxy-resin through the seat tube and bottle bosses apparently………glad i never bought one!

The Raven was their top end bike, and as such would not have sold in the numbers which would’ve bankrupted the company. Cannondale have generally bin pretty good with recalls and stuff; could tell you stories about other companies who jolly well have not bin quite so forthcoming about their shortcomings… 😉

For a relatively small company (compared to the likes of Spesh, Giant, Trek etc), Cannondale have enjoyed a disproportionate amount of success in all areas of cycle sport. They’ve consistently bin one of the most innovative and exciting companies in cycling, and have brought a number of standards and designs which have bin proven to have certain advantages and which have bin adopted by other manufacturers; 1’5″ headset, BB30 BB, outboard BB bearings, hollow crank arms etc. One of the first companies to use aluminium extensively for bike frames, one of the first to market a full-suss bike,

Oh, and they started out as a company making bike trailers. The first production bike trailers, in fact.