Scooby Snax

Ok who has a C'dale with a Lefty and do love it or not?
What has your experience with Cannondale been and are you still smitten, or is the relationship sour?

Im drooling over a F800, and am real serious about buying it, the lefty is the big thing, stiff, has a lockout and rebound dampening, decent wheels and ok drive train, Im going to ask them to upgrade shifters and front der to LX.


Now I take a step back and see what starts!

KleinMp99

EXPLOSION!! geeze.....good thing you stood back, you were likely to get killed!

Scooby Snax

Im guessing if you own a Cannondale, you're out riding, rather n here?

BMXGUY001

? HOW DO YOU REMOVE 1 PIECE CRANKS

a2psyklnut

I just sold my 2000 F2000SX.

I had absolutely no problems with this bike. I sold it so I can go back to full suspension again.

I'm a big rider (225 lbs) and thought I'd destroy the Lefty, but have got to say, it was stiffer than any other 4" travel fork I've ridden. I didn't have any maintenance issues with the strut (Lefty's are not forks BTW) or the frame. I didn't abuse the bike at all. IOW, I didn't ride off any 4'0" drops with a XC bike.

The frame is incredibly light and strong and a great comfortable bike for XC type riding.

My only issue I had was the cable routing and my frame suffered some rubbing at the headtube during my first ride.

L8R

Bokkie

Once more our famous troll, KleinMp99 comes out of his hole, dances around the Cannondale tree, kicks it barefoot, and hops in pain back down the hole!

Anyway, check out the new Lefty 2003 models as I think they've increased the length? Seems like it's a good time to buy. A bike shop in the north of England (a long way from where I live) has already slashed some Cannondale prices by about 20%, presumably to make room for the 2003 range. I'm sure that might be the same US-side possibly?

I spoke to a chap at the lbs this week who also has a Jekyll of some kind with standard Lefty. He's a bit of a hard rider and when asked, he said he liked the Lefty - a lot. He uses Marz on his other bike. Anecdotal evidence perhaps. As for Cannondale, the mech at the lbs went to Holland a few months ago to visit the Cannondale european offices. He told me that they were the most amazing company to visit. Proud of what they make, attentive to detail, quality control, and they let him have a non-photo session with some of the Lefty-based race bikes. That's been my experience so far with my Gemini.

Stand back and watch the fur fly. We've got some pretty mean cats out there!

Go for it!

nsfdff

I have a 2002 Jekyll 1000 with the ELO Carbon Lefty. I'm a dainty 220 lb rider who likes to go nuts, get crazy, jump s**t and make my wife look away, while XC-ing. I've done more damage to myself than I have to the beasticle. This is an awesome setup. Wondered about the lefty when i first looked at 'er, but found it to be smooth, reliable, and a definite body saver on sick drops and bumps!
C-ya!
Ein Prosit!

KleinMp99

O christ....and this whole time I thought they made bike frames and components.

jump

Well I thought it was funny

Bokkie

They do, it's just that you are too pre-occupied holding your foot.

Scooby Snax

Well, after drooling over the F800, I took a stumpjumper comp out for a spin, same money, slightly better drivetrain.
Then the World IRC mentioned something about another bike shop in the area, and well he had a FSR XC that was 3 months old, my size and colour, for 1600, I had ridden the 4bar before, it handled nice, so I took this one for a spin, then bought it!!

Yippee!! Im in hevan!!

She weighs less than my hardtail, by 0.3 lbs!!

And climbs like a scared cat!!

WorldIRC

I got urr email but it was unclear. U ended up buying the bike at bike depot.

Scooby Snax

Yep, thanks for the tip Brian!

Kones

Just got my new 2003 Jekyll 600 with the lefty. It's much stronger than I anticipated, much better than the headshok I used to have on my old hardtail F500. The shock has a girth much larger than you'd expect, you relly need to see it up close to understand.

PeterG1185

OK, just since you all have been waiting for it here goes. I wouldnt buy the cannondale just for the lefty, hell i wouldn't ever buy a lefty since they're a ***** to service if you're not a cannondale mech with the right tool which can only be found at the LBS that carries cannondale. Albeit cannondale makes decent frames they're just finally starting to come out of their hole and realize that forks are better than any headshock/strut/lefty that they can make. Dont limit yourself to cannondale there are some awesome bike co's out there that you can build from. If you're looking at a 2K Plus bike i'd look at something from yeti, SC, etc etc etc or buy from Trek. IMO trek makes the best hardtails from any of the big 3.

Ok, you were waiting for a rant and i gave it. I am done

PeterG1185

OOPS, missed the post about you buying an FSR. GOOD FOR YOU!!!! I have an 02 FSR Stumpy Comp, great bike handles awesomely and climbs better than a hardtail b/c of the traction gain. But trust me on this a Cane Creek shock will make it feel much more smooth. Cane Creek doesnt get enough credit for their AD-12 and Cloud Nine shocks from the bike mags, but if you've ever got a little extra dough for the bike it's worth the $200 on trade in for the AD-12

Kones

Personally, I'd rather go a tad out of my way to make sure my bike gets serviced by someone who's been certified to repair it. Any kid with a wrench can say he knows what he's doing, and many do, but I don't like taking that chance with my bike. People either love Cannondales or they hate them, you'll rarely find anyone in the middle. Guess it's just the nature of the beast really.

fubar5

How's the bob on Jekyll's ? They look coolio but also like they would be bobbing fools.

Kones

Not bad at all. Granted, you'll want to lock out the rear on anything paved, and you can also lock out the lefty on the fly as well. But, I was out this weekend kinda putting the bike through its paces, and the bobbing was something I was worried about, but it stays nice and firm. You can adjust the air pressure to your liking with a shock pump to meet your needs.

Kones

By the way, here's the bike if anyone's interested . . . :-)

fubar5

How was it going up?

fubar5

Nice bike dude!!!! Is that the 600? If you don't mind my asking, how much was it?

Kones

By going up I'll assume you mean hops and whatnot. It went up fairly easily, it's a little heavier than my old hardtail was, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The rear shock didn't limit anything, in fact it felt like it gave an added umph to the pull I gave it. This is the 2003 Jekyll 600, I'm not sure how much it'll go for, I got mine for $1600

Kones

As for climbing, haven't done anything serious with it yet, and if I do, I'll prolly just throw the lockout on the back.

fubar5

Coolio! Just looking at it makes me want to ride, right now. I love Cannondale, nothing makes me want to ride like a Cannondale does.