Should I buy a Cannondale?
 

Hi all, I'm looking at buying a Cannondale Mountain Bike Tandem as a first tandem for my wife and I. I want to know whether these are good bikes or not for newbie tandem riders and what I should look out for in a second hand one. Having said that the one I've seen advertised is less than a year old and only had private use.
Appreciate any feedback you can give.

Great bikes but if to considered as full offroad aggressive Mountain bikes do require a few mods. Front suspension is the main thing and this can be expensive.Attachment is of our MT2000 on a 100 mile offroad in one day trip. It is 5 years old and I have learnt the Expensive way that aggressive riding will cost.

In standard form for the lesser offroad they are good strong frame that will take all the punishment you can throw at it. The ancilliaries are not bad quality- but make certain you fit the thing before you buy

We have the Cannondale MT 800, it's a 2002 model I think. We rarely take it off road, and never more than a gravel city path. So we put some 26' slicks on it. [Tom Slicks actually] Now she just flies like the wind.

We are well pleased with the bike. It's solid as a rock. [On that note, buy a suspension seat post for your stokie]. If we wanted to, I think we could jump curbs on it without issue.

Only change I would make is to change up the big ring to a 52t. It has mountain gearing and spins out at about 25-27 mph. That's slow by tandem standards :)

Some day we may graduate to a full road tandem, but the 26' is great for bombing around town.


+1 for the Cannondale.. once you lose the knobbies :)

I'm the proud owner of a 1989 Cannondale road tandem, bought used off eBay, and i must say that we've been very pleased with it. We can't see when we would be going off-road, so i liked the idea of the road tandem better than the mountain. Less rolling resistance, but possibly less sturdy components. We've not had any serious problems on it yet, though we've only logged about 300 miles on it so far.

As far as what to look for, i agree with stapfam: Make sure it fits. A great bike that's too big or small will not get used. Also, check for components. I own two cannondales, and i can vouche for their components. They're not high-end, but they don't skimp, either. I've not had any component problems on either my tandem nor my 5000+ mile commuter. If you're looking at a cannondale, you shouldn't have to worry about components for awhile. Keeping to stoker happy is crucial, too. Make sure she gets a gel seat with a shock post, an adjustable stem, a bell on her handlebars, tassles to go on the bar ends, whatever she wants to keep her on the seat. I can put up with a lot more pain than she can, i don't care what they say about men and pain!

We also have a Cannondale MT800. We are very happy with it, expecially since I put some narrow asphalt tires on it (they are much more suited to our riding). The quality of the frame construction and the level of components is difficult to match at this price point.

Doc

And I'll chime in here with our's also. We're very pleased with our 2001 MT800 that we put 26 inch tires on also because we don't ride it off-road either, just one road or some gravel pavements..It's a great tandem and works very well for us also..MTR is coming up this weekend, and we'll be taking it to there as usual for us to, if you've never done a rally befor, you really should try one, they are sooo much fun!!

Ride on!!

Benjamin

Our first tandem was (and still is) a C-dale mountain tandem. We also changed over to Tom Slicks and added drop bars with bar end shifters. (I'm a confirmed roadie!) The bike is 15 years old ... give or take a year or so ... and performs nicely. This is now our "other tandem" but still get a lot of usage. We have used it on vacation on Cape Cod and the islands, Maine, etc. Load the panniers and explored!

Tandem Edge
Trek T2000, C-dale MT1000, Trek 5200, Trek 610, Bridgestone Zip

Thanks all, really useful stuff, appreciate your time and comments.

We use a 2003 MT800 for aggressive off-road riding. The only major mod to it is a beefed up front end. We added a 'Zoke dj3 shock on the front with Avid Mechanical disc and Rhynolite rims mounted to an xt disc hub. Other than the riser bar for the stoker, a KMC chain and 2.3 tires it is stock and holding up well. It came with an oem suspension seat post for the stoker. The XT hardware shifts well. The frame is really rigid for how light it is and has survived every nasty thing we throw at it.

At the NYC 5 Boro Ride we saw a Cannondale tandem teamed by a woman and who I suppose was her son age 11? Orange if I remember correctly. What was really striking: the seat tubes were at least as big around as a soda can and the boom tube, if its possible, was even bigger than that. Whoa... What is that bike, do they still make them like that?

H