JBar

OK, I'm a roadie, but my wife has determined that we need mountain bikes (She completed her first century today, so that may have saved me for the moment as she basks in her roadie glory). I don't think we'll convert , but there are times when they'd be better for our needs. These two bikes look like about what we need. How about opinions on these bikes or others in the 15-2500.00 price range. We'll be mostly riding trails and timber roads. No downhill, but plenty of opportunity here for some technical stuff if we want it.

mcoine

Cannondale. Giant bikes suck.

CrashVector

+100,000


lol

Dannihilator

Then tell me why cannondales mtb's are being specced with Cheng Shin tires?

jiiiim

HANDMade in USA

Dannihilator

For the Aluminum yes. Their Carbon fiber bikes are made by Giant.

Siu Blue Wind

Ahhhh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!

rushguy

My screen name says it all. I have ridden NO bike that compares for less than $2000.( I ride a Rush 600)

mcoomer

Cannondale all the way. Get the Rush and you'll be happy campers. One of the guys that I ride cross country with always raves about his.

Don't know about Cheng Shin tires (mine had Maxxis Ignitors) but I wouldn't let that stop me from buying the bike. You can put any tires you want on the bike for less than $100 so.....

craigery

I concur. They are just better bikes. Especially if you get them with the lefty fork.

ed 

I rode a Trance and loved it. MBaction gave the Trance "trail bike of the year" award. For the products that they have reviewed that I have had a chance to purchase, I'd say they have been pretty spot-on. They had pretty good things to say about the Rush as well, but not the accolades that they gave to Trance.

Giant bikes actually don't suck. Opinions suck. I just think that saying the entire Giant Bike Corporation sucks is an uneducated statement with no substantial evidence to back it up.

Bottom line...go ride one of each. Not just toodling around in a parking lot. If you can't take it to a trail to do a "real test" then take it to the roughest part of the parking lot you can find and see how it feels. Make sure the salesman sets the suspension up to your weight too.

My own personal opinion is that C-dale is overpriced for what you get. I don't think they suck, but I'd take a Trance over a Rush any day. I know that rear suspension has made leaps and bounds, but I'm just not too fond of a single pivot bike for XC and I wouldn't use the Rush for anything more than that. The Maestro suspension design is pretty sweet, though there are drawbacks to it as well like having so many more pivot bearings to service at some point. I believe the performance increase is well worth it in the long run.

For Cannondale, the Lefty was never a comparable shock until Cannondale realized that they didn't know much about damping and comissioned Manitou and Fox to build their dampers. Now the Lefty is okay with a few drawbacks like front wheel removal. I actually used to have a Headshock. I blew the needle bearings out of it. They actually fell out rendering it pretty much un-useable. They had to put an entirely new fork on it.

BTW, I don't own a Giant or a Cannondale anymore. Just a fisher and a Jamis. They don't suck either.

JBar

Thanks for the feed back. I didn't mention that we both have Cannondale road bikes, though I ride a Litespeed almost all of the time, now, so I'm predisposed to the C'Dale. I'm not taken with the Lefty(nothing technical-just don't like the look), but I think you can now get a decent Fox fork as an option for the same $$.
Giant doesn't have the same appeal to me as a brand, but the bike gets good reviews for performance and value.

womble

I've owned a Cannondale hardtail for years, as have several serious biking friends. We've been okay with the bikes, but come to the conclusion that we'd paid a premium just for the brand name, as the bikes were not all that special. Most notably, Cannondale produced their own components, which were, quite frankly, junk. I'm not sure if they've moved away from this, but I'll never spend money on inhouse Cannondale part again (even their handlebars sucked, and that's as simple a part as you can come across!)

I've never been partial to Giant as a company (something in their marketing just repulses me). But after reading reviews and speaking to owners, I've decided to get a Trance (or perhaps a Santa Cruz).

seely

Cannondale in-house parts are all made by major manufacturers, all through the years. The CODA, Fire, etc in-house brands have a reputation for making some of the best stuff out there. Still is true today. I'm not sure what you had but their older CODA cranks and some of their bars and stems were nothing short of legendary for their stiffness and construction.

wheelhot

anyway I just love Giant's because its a cost to performance bikes. You get what you pay for. The disadvantage for me is the long waiting time. It has been 2 months and my bike hasnt arrive yet :@

craigery

You cant really compare the head shock to the left. Totally different beasts. At the shop I work at, we've had some problems with the headshocks and I wouldnt recommend one. However, the we have had absolutely NO problems with the lefty shocks. I've sold a couple and some of the other employees have sold a few. Everyone that has brought one came to the shop with a week or two saying how much they love it and how awesome the bike is. I dont really care for the maestro setup. Too many pivot bearings. Makes me nervous. Plus, I'm not too sure about Giant. We had a customer bring in an early 90's carbon fiber road bike that the frame broke. Its supposed to have a lifetime warranty. Well, Giant said no. When he bought that bike, it was the top of the line road bike and I'm sure it cost him several grand. They offered to give him $300 towards a replacement Giant bike. What kind of customer service is that. I had a trek frame break on me. They sent me a new frame in one week with no questions asked. Same with the cannondale headshock. They had us a new head shock within a few days. I'm sorry, but if you're going to say that your frames have a life-time warranty, then you better give the person a new frame. Thats just bad customer service. Okay, I'm done with my rant.

womble

Older cranks and bars? Eeeww. These Coda parts where what I was alluding to in my first post. Flexy, spaghetti cranks ('99). Weak chainrings (CNC'd no less!) that didn't shift properly and then had teeth snap off ('99). UV-suseptible paint on two different handlebars (went from black to green, '99 and '03). Seatpost that was strong, but heavy and poorly finished. The only Coda part I kept on my bike was the stem.

I thought it might have been just me. I ran my experiences past several bike store mechanics (stores that sold Cannondales) and they pretty much confirmed my opinions.

I was under the impression that Coda was a manufacturer that had been bought out by Cannondale at some stage. Even if they were simply sourced from other major manufactuers, I have the impression that Cannondale paid bargain basement prices for bargain basement quality. If Coda parts had such a good rep, there'd be a booming aftermarket for the brand. Which there isn't.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of Headshoks. As close to zero maintenance as it's possible to get for such a dynamic part.

ed 

I'm a little more nervous about 88 needle bearings than 8 sealed cartridge bearings. Either way, I wasn't really saying that the headshock was the same as the Lefty. The same basic idea is there though.

If you read my post about the Lefty, I actually said "the Lefty was never a comparable shock until Cannondale realized that they didn't know much about damping and comissioned Manitou and Fox to build their dampers"

Which means I do think they're somewhat comparable...I just think it's a pain taking off the front wheel. Sure it's stictionless, but I still don't trust 88 needle bearings.

I'm sure that a Lefty with Fox damping is super smooth, but cost 2x or 3x as much as my Vanilla 130 R. Does it perform twice as good? Doubt it.

Still don't relish a single pivot XC bike.