My CAAD9 just got a lot cooler than it already was. As if I didn't love it enough already.

looks fine to me. My Soloist is Chinese-made aluminum and has held up just fine so far.

my $50 huffy held up just fine.

flip it

Agreed.

I can somewhat understand the people who don't care about country of origin, but these boards seem to be full of people who seem to revel in production being moved overseas.

First, I don't believe they saved 200g, unless they took most of it out of the fork. If they did though, I suspect you will be seeing a lot of failures in the coming years.

S.A.V.E. on a racing bike seems wrong to me (I have the Synapse and SuperSix) and I'm 50/50 on the Oval top tube. Seems like the larger connection between down and steerer tubes would have been enough to upgrade the 9. I'm still picking up a 9 until this one proves itself. Based on ship dates that will be a couple years. GL

Well you could look at it this way. If Dorel did not come into play, would Cannondale still be here tomorrow.

Fuji went under and even though they are now in Taiwan people still buy them. Hell the same parent company owns Kestrel and I know plenty of people who love them as well.

Not if you are someone who likes to purchase products made in USA.

Seems like there are more haters of the BF ever loved caad9 then there are supporters these days. Or maybe the caad9'ers just gave up defending the greatest aluminum frame (formerly hand welded in the USA) the world has ever seen. Go caad 9. Glad mine was the made 2010 in the great old USA, USA, USA.....

I wonder what the overall geometry is like, too. Just like the latest carbon Six and the lower-spec SuperSix were awfully close together, making the CAAD* more like the Synapse can blur the product line a bit too much.

It took 3 pages to get the first "flip it"... Color me disappointed!

I wonder if this entire thread would be different if the stem was flipped in the video :)

It's also funny to read all these comments from people who have never actually even seen the bike. I remember the MADE IN USA decals on my first Cannondale over 20 years ago...but the company is changing. I didn't really like the fact that my Synapse was made overseas, but I'll tell ya it's a pretty nice frame.

The bottom line is that Asian production can be quite good if done right. It's quite likely that the new ownership and changes will keep Cannondale alive as a brand that is able to maintain both size and strength.

Look at what Dorel has done to some of the most prolific names in cycling.

I fear we will find Cannondales in Wal-Mart some day.

Depends on their business model. Cannondale is one of the really big brands that has the performance to back it up. I'd expect to see diffusion lines off of the Cannondale brand into the mass market, but investment to keep the high end intact. This is what clothing brands do quite well. When I buy a Zegna sportcoat I don't think about who made it really, I'm buying it for the cut, construction and fabric. If I want to spend less and am concerned with the name I can get a "Z" Zegna at less cost made in Mexico with a different cut and cheaper materials. As long as the top line doesn't falter, the business can have it both ways...

^^THIS^^

freakin' A

I thought it wa s a little sad also but for a different reason. Why are they still welding bikes by hand? They use robots to cut the tubes and drill the holes, why haven't they moved to automated welding.

Surely they make enough bikes in the world to warrant the investment in a few welding robots.

If there is a good reason for hand welding I'd be interested in hearing it.

Every process step requires the part(s), a fixture to hold the part(s) and the tool to cut the part or perform the action.

Welding is a pretty delicate operation along a pretty complex surface.

I'd guess that the effort (i.e. cost) to tool, program and weld the frame via robot is much more than a human given the quantity of items.

Cannondale 2011 Road Catalog
http://www.bdc-forum.it/images/pdf/cannondale11.pdf

mongoose and schwinn have high end lines that no one buys anymore... so in Bike terms i don't think you can have it both ways. We are a fickle bunch.

The "high end" Schwinn on their website has 105 components. If I can find a pro team that's racing on their frame I'll let you know.

perhaps they downsized.... though a carbon 105 isn't exactly a $200 walmart special either. (edit $5500 in 2009 they had nicer bikes)

the 2011 brochure does say 200g lighter, so I would not be worried about them continuing their development of bikes it looks like they are still on it.

Wow thanks! The Synapses look good to me

so the caad8 is the new caad9?
and, i remember hearing that the alu models were still being made in the us, anyone know anything about this?
caad10 has compact geo. interesting. but i'm starting to like that black one :D

CAAD10 looks sick, you're all wrong, welcome to 2011, glad I could clear that up for you.

We can rehash this when I post my murdered out CAAD10 with naked Zipp 606's on here.

There so far is no discussion of the material. OK, well in that supposed catalog link they do state its still 6000 series aluminum. The Optimo tubing was a proprietary blend of 6000 series aluminum that Cannondale worked with Alcoa (world leader in aluminum) to make, but I'm not sure if this is still the same stuff. They owned the exclusive rights to that alloy. The CAAD9 is on the small prestigious list of passing the full EFBe torture test.

http://www.efbe.de/testergebnisse/ra...p?typ=3&sort=4

Cannondale fans should also demand that it pass EFBe again, as a show of faith by Cannondale to its followers in trusting the move. Pour in the emails to Cannondale requesting they submit a frame for EFBe testing.

Yes apparently Cannondale forgot to tell themselves that they think compact is stupid. I ride a compact geometry bike and like it fine, but I didn't have it on my website that compact was a bad idea and a standard frame is actually lighter than an extended seatpost. Ok, so ideas come and go, but that it why its wise to only praise and flaunt what you have, and not ridicule something else you may adopt one day.

Although it has compact geometry, it still has crappy geometry. They ruined the ride after the CAAD5/6, with only a bad fork rake choice with CAAD7, and then screwed it up altogether with CAAD8.
And really, one rake fork in 45mm handles all the sizes from 48 through 63? Well its certainly cheap to make.

Oh if only Joe didn't try and make motorcycles and ATVs.