Mountain Biking - cannondale F500

1234567890

No. At least, not for long. Its not a freeride frame, its intended for XC. The fatty fork's stanchion is hexagonal and tends to be bent doing jumps, or worse yet, drops. Once that happens you're in the market for a new fork.

My first bike was an F500. I got it when I was 15. I just sold it this year, I'm 20. It held up to some big hits and drops.. but I only weigh about 140 pounds. I taco'd several sets of wheels, but the frame took it all without a complain. Had no problems with the Headshok, either.

If you're an aggressive rider, that frame won't hold up for long. Save up for a P series from Specialized.

The frame'll be fine. There's no reason to go out and buy an aggressive jumping frame when you still XC and cant afford to build up a new bike. People forget for some reason or another that an XC frame isnt going to snap on you the second you take a drop/jump. And if you're smooth that frame could go through a lot. As for the headshock if you have the money scrap it, it's really underdamped and hard to adjust at all. Funny thing is my furure employer(it's looking pretty good) is actually the guy who pretty much developed the headshock.

Yeah.. I've been pretty rough on all my XC frames and I've never broken a single one. They're not FRAGILE.. but don't expect them to hold up to 30 foot hucks or anything. But it's STILL a mountain bike frame, which is designed to take a good beating.

My first mountain bike was an F500 (98 model I think). It took some abuse, but mostly standard XC fare. I did towards the end of it's lifespan take a few 2-3 foot drops without much of a problem. I don't think I'd go any larger than that though.