Cannondale New Carbon Frame
 

I saw it, lifted it, "rode" it (not really, just felt it under me on the showroom floor for few feet = felt smooth) yesterday at my local LBS. It's not really out yet, but the Cannondale rep happened to be there showing off what's coming up and he had this new Cannondale CF (Slevio ??), all black, matte color. Looked neat but lame as far as looks, I wonder how it'll really ride, we'll see. It' ll retail around $ 4,500.00
I'd just thought I'd share.
Corsaire :)

The frameset is $4,500? Or is that a complete build?

Wel, I was talking about the complete bike, built.

Corsaire :)

Somewhere, I think I saw pics. Is this thing just literally covered in "marketing" decals??

Here's the pic http://www.bikeauthority.com/bikesneakpeak.html

I was able to test ride one for a short distance. I liked it better than the Six/13, which was much harsher and bouncier. The geometry was pretty stable and neutral. I didn't really try any hard sprints though, so I can't comment on the stiffness. This may be shocking to some of you, but it was my first ride on an all-carbon bike, so it's also hard for me to compare it to other carbon bikes. However, I liked it overall in the short time I rode it; there was nothing that was a major turn off.

Looks pretty bland for $4500. I could build a much better bike with a superior aftermarket carbon frame for an astoundingly less amount of money. Like around $1000 less. And it would weigh the same. As much as I love to support American products, I would have to honestly say, I am not very impressed. Oh well, we'll see how well they do when they hit the market. You never know, they may sell like hotcakes.

i kinda like how it looks. well..the seat tube, anyway. kind of like how the only part of any trek bike i like is the cool aero seat tube on the standard madone models. the rest of it looks sort of like a specialized roubaix. who knows, though.. they've probably put a boat load of R&D into the thing, and you have to assume they know what they're doing. the feedback they're getting from dealer demos is probably going to dictate alot of changes before it ever goes on sale, which is a heckuva lot more than most companies would do before selling a bike.

well - it isn't like Cannondale is actually manufacturing it themselves, so it might be less money than we think.

Seeing how nobody has ridden it yet, how do you know you could build a better one? Bikes are more than just paint.

Unless that frame can out perform almost everything on the road, which I doubt, then yes. And no, it's not the paint. But, there are an absolute ton of high quality carbon frames out there which allow the building of a high end bike for much less than the ones with a fancy logo and popular name.

My point, considering what it is, for $4500, the least they could do is give it a decent paint job. Otherwise, I could find a blank nude frame that performs just as good (or better) for less money.

I think what peole are forgetting is that the vast majority of carbon frames are now made in Aisa, with exception the few super high-end models. But, even they are slowly getting swallowed up by Asias lower cost of labor, and rising level of quality assurance.

Heck, even Colnago is slowly moving the majority of their production to Taiwan.

http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/7695.0.html

:cry: Say it ain't so!

Thanks for the link to the article though. I skimmed it over, it was very interesting; I'll have to go back and read it more thoroughly. The part about Chinese workers making 40 cents an hour was thought provoking though.

It's actually a Taiwanese product, though of course from an American company.
From the brief ride I got on our sales rep's it was pretty decent. I'll still take my Bianchi over it though. They'll sell alright because they have the name.

well, yeah, alot of them are made in asia, but you do have to consider that most of those are built to very strict manufacturers specs. i seriously, seriously doubt that a reputable company would farm out their manufacturing to an overseas company without keeping a close eye on manufacturing and QC issues.
my brother works for a very large, very recognizeable golf company(i worked there, too), and when they outsource to other countries, he is the one who goes and makes sure everything is running smooth and, more importantly, by the books.

this is part of the reason why i would be skeptical about buying an unlabeled frame, simply because you just don't know what went into its design and manufacturing the way you would if you bought, say, that cannondale. at the very least, you know you're buying a top-notch piece of equipment with full customer support regardless of where it was built. you know they took the time and put in the hours to make sure it was just right before they put them on the market.
that's not to say that i think unbranded frames are junk. they could be way better than anything else on the market. you'd just never know it for sure. i just think it's a little hit-or-miss, given the possibility that the guy selling them in the US probably doesn't know much beyond what the chinese maker told him as far as what went into its design and production. what happens when blank carbon frame guy decides he'd rather do something else with his time, liquidates his inventory, then two months later your frame cracks?

You have made an excellent point. In my case, I took the time, and really bugged theheck out of the guy I bought mine from, and got all kinds of data showing their stress testing process, and strength requirements, before I even considered it. The fact is, if you know that it was made in "X" factory that other name brands are made, then it is a good bet they use similar design and QC to make the blanks they sell aftermarket. If they don't, then they know people will be leary of purchasing the name brands that come out of the same factory. That's why, when I found out which other brands they made, I was assured the same QC were used on the frame I bought, just differantly designed.

As with anything, do your research before making a purchase. If you don't want to, then just go spend as much money as you can at the LBS and hope they will give the service and warranty you may need if something breaks. ie, buy the Cannondale.

It's called the Synapse.

Cannondale goes to great lengths on their website to explain why compact geometry is inferior to standard, so I'm suprised they're selling a bike with a sloping top tube. Are you absolutely certain that it isn't made by Cannondale?

it says cannondale on the downtube.

look REAL close. flat black on satin black.

That's an oxymoron isn't it

Yeah, matte, flat black, with the words Synapse and Cannondale barely readable, very BORING.
(I'm talking LOOKS here, don't flame now.) Performance wise, who knows, gotta ride it when I get a chance. So far I love the looks of the ORBEA (a real drool)!

Corsaire :)

old- "Handmade in the USA"
new- "Triaxial Hourglass"

I met a guy who installed weather radars (doppler thing). He was laughing how every tv station uses the exact same thing, but they all have different high tech sounding names.

triaxial hourglass... hmmm, hafta get used to that one

What beats the hell out of me though is that, with rare few exceptions, all manufacturers can't come up, when is about CF bikes, with a color other than black or off of it. What a lack of creativity and imagination!
Corsaire :(

Heck, even Colnago is slowly moving the majority of their production to Taiwan.

http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/7695.0.html[/QUOTE]


I live in Italy, and I had the chance to visit Colnago. They will never move their production to Taiwan. Have you ever seen a carbon frame inside? There's a huge difference between a "Colnago made" carbon frame and one from Taiwan or China. At Colnago, they will arrive with two new entry-level bikes, and only for European market. They always say "No Carbon from China"

Copied from original article,

"Five years ago, I never would have thought I would be announcing plans to build bicycles in Taiwan,"
Colnago said.

But over the past 24 months, the game has truly changed for bike makers.

----------------------
Considering comments like the above, it's possible that Colnago policy is no longer the same as the time you visited the company. It would be nice to have you contact them for confirming either way.

I for one think that C'dale looks hot...but I do question why the hell they are making a semi-compact frame when they have shunned anything but standard? It seems to me that C'Dale has finally realized that compact is in fact cheaper to make over traditional designs, hell even with the CAAD7 any size above 55cm has a sloping top tube. less material used in carbon layups = less manufacturing cost.