geronimo2000

Cycling Sports Group Recalls Cannondale Tandem Road Bicycles Due to Risk of Injury | CPSC.gov

Recall Summary

Name of product:
2014 Cannondale Tandem Bicycles

Hazard:
The bicycle fork can break and cause the riders to lose control, posing a risk of injury.

waynesulak

Interesting it involves only 80 bikes. We are a small group.

TandemGeek

Importer
Cycling Sports Group Inc., of Wilton, Conn.

Manufacturer
Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd., of Taiwan

Manufactured in
Taiwan

'nuff said...

waynesulak

Other than Wound Up are there any carbon forks made in the US? Enve? Nope, Calfee? Nope, Pateka? Nope. Seven ? I don't think so. Comotion? Nope. Santana? Nope.

I wish it were not so but there you have it. It would be great if the little US tandem frame makers like those mentioned above would joint venture to make a carbon tandem fork in the US that they could all sell.

Dean V

So American manufacturers don't have recalls?

Team Fab

It could have been a design flaw not a manufacturing problem.

waynesulak

The point above seems to be that foreign is not always bad and I agree. I have read from more than one US company that when having things made by good makers in the far east there is a real problem that what comes over in the shipping container is not always what they expect to see. Separate from actual manufacturing quality there appears to be communication and supervision issues related to out sourcing from very long distance.

twocicle

Why lump all of the above frame brands (most of those being 3rd party carbon forks) with Cannondale, when that fork is apparently all aluminum per the early report from TandemGeek.

From what info I could find, Serotta is (or was?) the only recent US mfr of carbon forks. Serotta was making these in CA, but I'm not sure of the current status.

dfcas

Seroota is gone, aren't they?

twocicle

it is hard to tell as their website is somewhat out of service (some pages still load). see the "current status" link above. the new parent company seemed to be doing its best to sink the brand.

dfcas

Serotta have been gone for some time. Mike Lopez runs the Poway carbon facility.

Chris_W

TG, I thought you were a bit beyond making broad generalizations like this?

Do you realize how many forks Kinesis makes and for how many different brands? I think the percentage recalled is extremely small.

I don't think the problem was caused by the manufacturer or the country of manufacture, maybe it was the Cannondale designers/engineers who made an error? The Cannondale employees could have been the ones based in the US, or in Cannondale's design office in Germany, who design many of their bikes, especially the road models.

So maybe it was the Americans' fault, or maybe the Germans', or maybe the Taiwanese's. Or maybe someone from another country who is working abroad. But does it matter?

TandemGeek

Let me be a little more clear as to where I stand....

Kinesis makes Cannondale-branded tandems, they're imported by Cycling Sports Group, which is a division of Dorel Industries. Cannondale as we knew it in the US no longer exists.

Want a Cannondale tandem, buy a used one made before production moved off-shore.

Better yet, buy a tandem from folks like these; yes, this is the entire workforce, from front-office staff, to owners and shop rats: Co-Motion Cycles

waynesulak

I see nothing wrong in searching out products made by my home country. Buying from the local grocer or manufacturer is like rooting for the home sports team and good for the local economy as well.

Buying local doesn't have to be about dislike of other counties.It can just be in favor your own country and economy wherever home is.

swiss_toni

This is missing the obvious point that to anyone not living in the USA - buying a US bike is buying something produced off-shore.

Using this logic any non-US based tandem team should not buy any bike manufactured in the USA.

PMK

So they had a little recall...does not sound like the steerer failed, rather the ability to turn was impaired.

If you own one get it taken care of.

Never rode an Asian Cannondale. Have owned a couple of USA Cannondale tandems and still own 3 Cannondale USA MTB's. The past is the past, and it seems unlikely that a bicycle company like Cannondale USA will ever come forward again. Cannondale USA made mistakes and it cost them. They sat poised to pull it off, but failed. I enjoy their bicycles, and even spent some time on the Cannondale motorcycle. A few better choices and we would be praising their USA technology and products today. Oh well...

Fast forward to reality of today, I have repaired a bunch of Cannondale single road bikes with some form of carbon damage. They are some of the lowest quality frames I have had the chance to work on. The Cervelos as of now are the best quality I have seen. Yes there are more brands available to break, but Cervelo was very high quality. Kind of compares the current Cannondale to the Co-Motion, similar to comparing a Cannondale carbon road frame to the Cervelo.

You buy what you can afford and regardless enjoy it for every turn of the cranks.

Get those forks fixed regardless if Kinesis made them or it was someone else..

PK

TandemGeek

No, they should avoid buying mass-produced frames/bikes from super-sized conglomerates if and when they can and should, instead, consider what they're planning on spending and shop around to see what might be available from the smaller, craft builders in either the new or used market regardless of where they are produced.

I'm an advocate for consumers and, IMHO, tandem consumers will be best served in the long run if they support the little guys building bikes because it's a passion not a commodity that rounds out their portfolio (period).

swiss_toni

Thanks for the heads up on this by the way. The bike shop in Germany where we got the bike has ordered a replacement fork and we will be taking the bike back to get it fitted ASAP.