Ohmannuel

Bikerjp, some people are not fans of the new red cranks but I think it looks sick.

bikerjp

I like it too, but looks aside I'm impressed how it shifts even with my old rival derailleur. Better shifting than on the stock force crank. Quick and positive and seems to "engage" faster. As soon as I have the money I'm upgrading the derailleurs and shifters.

NWS Alpine

The new red cranks are incredible for the price. Most just aren't a fan of the silver outer chainring.

jesspal

I am trying to have my Rival crank replaced due to a warranty issue. If it happens, I may ebay the new Rival crank and replace with a Red crank.

vanno.velo

Squaw Peak, Utah

hyperlitebordr

I just drank the kool-aid, hopefully I'll get some pics up in the next couple days

jesspal

Great pic

Ohmannuel

Vanno, That is one sexy bike! I wanted the Matte Black Caad so bad but it was just not meant to be
Good news though, I finally finished my build! I'll post a picture tomorrow!

Ohmannuel

Finally (2 months to build)

FPSDavid

What wheels?

Ohmannuel

They're from China, yishun. He had a group buy about a year or two ago. They are still going strong and I've had not one issue with them. Heck of a wheelset (I go from 155lbs to 175lbs).

LordLivingston

Hi all, I'm back in the saddle after almost 20 years off. I picked up my 2013 CAAD10 105 tonight and put 20 inaugural miles on it - I'm in love!

Pinkbullet3

Upload the picture to imgur.com, click on the picture to obtain the link, and then place the link into [img][/img] tags:

Ohmannuel

Good for you Livingston! Enjoy the miles.
I put some miles in myself now I have like 20 tweaks to make lol

jesspal

Not in love with the orange, but looks great.

TheCappy

I just picked up a new 2011 CAAD10 5 blk/wht, for $1250 from the PX in Rammstein. I'm station in Italy and our PX doesn't sell any road bikes. I was going to special order a 2013 Rival, but at that price I couldn't pass it up. As I have never rode on a SRAM equipped bike I don't know what I'm missing. They were also selling the 2012/13 CAAD8 5 for $1200. Easiest decision I ever made. It's in the local Outdoor Recreation(REI) on post to get a proper tune up as the PX is like a Wal-Mart, and I don't have any tools here to do it myself. This is my first road bike since I was like 10-12 y/o. The mountain bike bug hit me hard in the early 90's, but now that I'm in my 30's and my body takes enough abuse from Airborne Infantry, I think a road bike is more to my liking. Not to say that road/racing isn't body taxing. I can't wait to get back to Italy next week to ride in some nicer/warmer weather.

Banzai

That's right, ladies and gentlemen; the beginnings of the Dorel takeover. I was shocked whilst on a recent TDY to Europe to see CAAD10s (and some nicer MTBs) at the PX.

For those who don't know, the PX is the military's version of Wal-Mart. In the U.S. you see the standard Wal-Mart bike lineup, Wal-Mart clothing, etc etc. It is in no way superior to Wal-Mart, and survives simply based on an exclusivity contract with DoD. And now Dorel has pushed the bikes that they said would never be in big box stores into a big box store. This means that they're also satisfied with Wal-Mart type employees assembling, tuning, and selling their supposedly elite CAAD10.

If anyone knows how the Fuji brand name ended up languishing in the rubbish bin for years (and has only barely begun to crawl back) this is how it started.

For what it's worth, I had already decided that my next bike would not be a CAAD whatever. I LOVE my CAAD9. Absolutely adore it. I rode a 10 at the behest of the bike shop owner here (who for some reason was trying to pitch a frame trade-in to me??) and I was not impressed. The auditory feedback was all wrong, and the top and down tubes felt correspondingly very thin and hollow, compared to my much more solid-feeling CAAD9. I think that the 10 might be reaching "beer-canning" structural proportions.

NWS Alpine

Everyone has their own opinion but almost every review would disagree with your statement on the 10 being worse than the 9. It sounds like you more or less have already wrote of the 10 because it wasn't made in Amurika.

Banzai

That would be incorrect. I have no such Jingo-ism when it comes to the location of manufacture. Interesting assumption that you drew from my assessment of the construction of the frame though. I'm not certain how you jumped to that, rather than addressing the observations on their salient points.

As for "reviews"...most reviews are pure marketing drivel.

None of this changes the fact that Cannondale shed a lot of weight off an AL frame that was already very light, and that this feat could only be achieved in a limited number of ways. It doesn't change the acoustic impression of the material construction when you "ping" the tubes of the two respective bikes. It doesn't change the stories I've read of minor living room drops denting the heck out of the CAAD10, and it doesn't change the fact that you can go to the military Wal-Mart and buy one.

orionz06

Also doesn't change the fact that they are kick ass bikes. Lot's of people are putting lots of miles on them in lots of races around here without concern. Lots of stores are carrying them without issue. Get over it.

NWS Alpine

Your whole entire post is basically ranting about the Dorel takeover and how they are going to cheapen and destroy the brand.

The reviews you speak of are not marketing driven. There is countless feedback from regular users and racers who have logged many miles on these bikes. It's kind of hard to say cannondale is paying everyone.

There was one incident where a bike fell over and dented from hitting a coffee table. That same thing would have happened to a CAAD9 or many other bikes. To think otherwise would be ignorant. Your method of "pinging" the tubes seems to be highly scientific

The PX is a service to military members. This may allow them to get a quality product where otherwise not possible. Cannondale dealers would drop them if they were pushed into department stores in the US. Dorel already has a ton of higher profit margin bikes they sell in department stores.

Elduderino2412

When i took off the Lugano tires it made a world of difference. I only put conti gatorskins on, but they rolled so much better then the crap schwalbes.

Banzai

Wrong.

My entire post was discussing both the Dorel takeover and my impressions of the bike. Chronologically, my impressions were made prior to a trip to a PX in Germany where I saw the CAAD10 stocked there. Until that point, I was a believer that Dorel was doing a great job preserving the LBS exclusivity of the brand.

At no point did I rant. However, it has been my experience that many BF members describe opinions and posts they disagree with as "rants", which is a fascinating and academically dishonest means of re-framing the debate. A subtle shade of an ad-hominem argument, if you will.

Scientific or not, impressions are impressions. That and the fact that one can roughly calculate tube thickness by diameter and pitch, and an experienced ear tends to be a decent guage of the end calculated value. And there is the fact that material science dictates the limited means by which weight could be shed off an AL frame. The transition from 6061 to 6069 was done specifically to make tubes thinner in order to draw the weight down. 6069 has the accompanying penalty of being slightly more brittle, but does allow more aggressive tube drawing, hence the weight reduction achievement of the CAAD10. It is what it is, and time will tell if the design proves to be faulty or not.

Since I didn't cite specific reviews (and neither did you), the reviews I speak of are exactly marketing driven. When I say "reviews" I'm talking about website and magazines that pitch themselves as "reviews", not message board comments. And, no one said anything about Cannondale "paying" anyone. You continue to argue with me about things I haven't said, and I don't understand why.

Insofar as the PX is concerned; I think you have an idealized vision of what it is. First, you should probably know that I've been in the military for over 11 years, and have dealt with AAFES extensively both as a consumer and on an organizational level with Base activities. AAFES is a private corporation that barely qualifies as a "service". Without their contract giving them exclusive retail rights to military installations they would rapidly be driven under; they are unresponsive to customer needs, and will provide the minimum level of "services" that will allow them to turn a baseline profit. Trust me, the only time they go out of their way to compete to provide a "quality product" is where it is extremely possible to get one. If not threatened by a Target or a good Wal-Mart, they shrug their shoulders because they know the consumer won't go elsewhere.

Which brings one to the Rammstein PX, located in a place where it is VERY easy to go buy a quality product anywhere BUT the PX. That PX is fairly impressive because it must compete against the plentiful consumer opportunities on "the outside", and because there are lots of military members too afraid to stray from the American retail experience.

I am, however, beginning to understand why this thread describes itself as a "cult".

Elduderino2412

If that's not a rant, then my definition of the word is all wrong.

DGlenday

Please can you point us to those "reviews".

I have asked for CAAD9 vs CAAD10 comparisons in this thread several times, but no one here seems to have a clue.

Until I see either an experience-based or a detailed objective comparison, I'm going to continue to say that my 9 is better than your 10 simply because my welds look infinitely better



(And yes on an unrelated note, I do appreciate the fact that the manufacture and purchase of my 9 put bread on some American families' tables.)