Grinding doesn't make welds better. It makes them prettier and it costs more. So what's the big deal?

Cannondale engineers have spec'd ground welds for the last 10+ years. They've even done it on their mountain bikes. At least as far back as the CAAD4. Why did they stop all of a sudden?

Could it be because their corporate overloards want them to cheap out on the frames?

Yes.

Unground welds. They may not be in charge (yet) but they apparently have a say.

I suspect there are enough old guard engineers there that the CAAD10 will be a great frame. But eventually people leave and retire. And if Dorel has a say in weld grinding you gotta believe they have a say in who gets hired. And they must have a say in how many of 'em are employed. What happens when the last real engineer leaves? What happens when the cut the staff in half? It doesn't take many engineers to figure out how to stick a Cannondale sticker on a generic Dorel frame.

ok. once again. 2:20 about THE WELDS.

"these bikes then go into the sanding process. if there are any imperfections in the welds the stress will accumulate in that location thus creating weak spots so that sanding process insures that there is a nice, smooth, transition between the tubes where the weld is concerned (?hard to hear that last word)"

#!

I suspect the debt from the failed motorcycle experiment did them in. And the holding company that bought them wasn't trying to turn them around, just sell 'em off. That was always the plan. Like I said, I think they were successful as a bicycle company and sucked as a motorcycle company. If not for that bad decision they'd have been fine as an "East Coast Specialized" type of company.