I stopped by to see the factory on my way up to the Altoona area to train for a couple of days in the mountains. It was in Bedford, Pa. It was a pretty generic looking warehouse style building in a small industrial park type area, but did have the name “Cannondale” on the building in the familiar script.
The Saeco sponsorship was very good for Cannondale. Without the team telling them that their bikes rode like crap at the beginning of the sponsorship, there is no way that the product would have improved as it did. You could observe the input from the team over the years…very stiff frames when Cipollini was the only star and a bit more forgiving during the period when they had winning GC riders like Gotti, Salvoldelli, and Simoni. They had a section on their website where they sold team bikes. I bought a new CAAD 5 that had been built for a team rider whose name I can’t recall at the moment. It had never been built as the team was getting CAAD 6 s starting halfway through the season, and apparently the frame I bought was no longer needed and had been intended as a mid season replacement. In any event, I bought on a bit of a whim as it was perfect for my needs with a top tube 1 cm longer than the stock number for my frame size and a low bottom bracket height as well. Interestingly, it is also not particularly light and about a half pound heavier than a standard frame (clearly heavier tubing) and the fork had an aluminum steerer. Even the team frames had the “warning” sticker at the bottom of the downtube telling the owner to always wear a helmet, etc. Before leaving the factory, they had affixed a sticker of a cartoon caricature Saeco rider over top of the warning label. The bike also came with the CODA/Magic Motorcycle crankset and a Campagnolo integrated headset (I think the bikes for general sale had FSA). Nice bike, beautifully welded, machined and aligned…..but very stiff and not the bike that you would pick for a century.