Geo Cruise

I have an interesting problem. I suffer from an interesting disorder called Agoraphobia, in layman's term it is essentially a fear of leaving the house, I do get out, but it is not always easy. Currently I am modifying my road bike to be a temporary touring bike, I am interested in shopping around bikes, I have a friend in town here that has a shop and I would by from him, loyalty is a big thing with me, though my favoured ride would be the trek, but he doesn't have that line because the have a trek specific store in town, I was wondering what people thought of the cannondales? I cannon hang out at his shop and chat it up with everyone till I know everything I want to so I need to get opinions elsewhere. I would want to modify the to bar end shifters and I will be hooking up a BoB to the back, and I would be putting in crossbar levers as well. Any one ride these bikes that could help me learn more?

next summer I am going to do a series of week long tours within the province but the year after that I wish to do a Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay tour and play up publicity on agoraphobia... We don't get much because we are all afraid to go out LOL. I would be riding alone carrying all my needs. The modified Road bike I hope will last next summer and I will get a proper touring bike for the long northern tour. I live on disability and wish to so people that that doesn't mean we are useless. Though I must admit it will take all my strength.

10 Wheels

Good touring bikes.

I have the Cannondale T-1.
Put 6,000 miles on it.
Here it is with 56 lbs of gear:

Tentacle Master

I have opinions of the Cannondale Touring bikes but having never ridden one , I'll keep them to myself, mostley. I will say that many riders including myself prefer steel. Just my 2 cents. Also, have you seen the gulf of Mexico? I go there all the time living in Texas, its rather repulsive. I once went on a cruise to the Caribbean which has some crystal clear waters, but once I got back into the Gulf Area and docked Galveston I threw up in my mouth a little. Nasty water lol. You probably wont go as west as Texas, but its pretty ugly everywhere, what with the circulating waters and the Mississippi dumping into it. I recommend hitting florida and cruisin the Atlantic coast.

Geo Cruise

Awesome, nice packing job, I dont see them too often packed so neatly with that much weight. I like the lower braze-ons on under the down tube. Do you ever worry about the shifter lever set? I like the idea of bar ends simply because I can strip them and rebuild them on the side oof the road usually if anything goes wrong which is a rarity with them, the shifter lefter set I have now worries me because all the plastic parts and the complexity may make it difficult to make road side repairs. What hubs does it use?

10 Wheels

The Gulf Coast is a Great Place to live and ride year round. Been here 32 years.

Geo Cruise

My tour would start at the Gulf because i would be following the route of the Underground Railway where slaves were hidden and shuttled to Canada before the Emancipation Proclamation and could live freely in Canada. and then tI would just extend it to a body of water thay is part of the Arctic Ocean, to be a good goal to end the tour.

LeeG

Geo, I haven't ridden a Cannondale touring bike in over 20yrs but when they came out I was very impressed as they were much more solid frames than the steel bikes of that era. Since that time steel bikes with larger diameter tubing have become common. They're good bikes. If that's the only choice you had you really aren't missing out, they're a good value.

Geo Cruise

Thank you for the info, I have no real mistrust in Aluminum frames, as an engineer I can tell you that things can be made out of many different types of material the failure rate is usually always in the design of the bike frame in the instance rather than the simple fact of Aluminum or Chromoly I know we buil a popsicle bridge in my sctructural engineer class one semester they weighed in at 7.4 kilograms and we able to hold over 82 kgs of ball bearings on the span without failure, I forget what we got it up to until she finally gave way though. So if engineered properly which is something I know Cannondales are known for can make the material used a moot point at times.

thecrunge

I own a 1998 Cannondale T1000 and am really happy with it. After all these years it's still a very reliable and solid bike. Some say that the aluminum frame has a somewhat harsh ride, but I think it's perfectly fine (though I've never owned a steel tourer and so can't compare the two). I think ride quality has alot to do with tire width. Also they have a life time warranty on the frame, which is a bonus.

Your trip sounds amazing! I hope you'll make a journal of it!

Also, if you don't mind, here's a link to a technique that I think will help with your phobia. It certainly helped with mine! www.rogercallahan.com/home.php

Tentacle Master

Indeed, Cannondale touring bikes are popular choices and loved by many, but I suggest you test ride a variety. When I worked a bike shop that sold Jamis I didn't immediately jump on the opportunity to by my Aurora Elite even with the hefty employee discount. I traveled about 400 miles to different major cities that had different brand touring bikes in their shop, not many places stock touring bikes. I test rode 3 different AEs before I finally said yes, and by that time there were only 8 left in my size in al the Jamis warehouses in the country. Don't wanna diss Cannondales, cough cough aluminum cough cough, but do explore all your options. On the other hand if your buddy at that shop can hook you up with a fat discount I would recommend the Touring 2, according to my 2010 list of touring bikes, a bit more bang for your buck. Speaking of 2010, if your gonna get a 2010 touring bike I WOULD HURRY. they don't make that many and they may run out of your size! I bought mine bike around this time of the year too and again there were only 8 left in my size. YOu could wait and see what the 2011 models look like but have your friend call his warehouses and see whats left.

prathmann

Guess I'm not sure exactly what you're asking about - do you currently have a Cannondale road frame that you'll be using for touring or are you thinking of buying a Cannondale touring bike?

In any event, I think they make very good touring bikes, but clearly the touring geometry frames have some advantages. I'd tend to stick with a rack/pannier arrangement rather than a trailer to avoid the extra weight and packing issues. Here's a picture of my '89 Cannondale R900 (close-coupled crit. racing geometry) being used for a fully-loaded bike camping trip down the Calif. coast:



Yes, it has lots of toe-overlap, will only take tires up to 25mm wide, and doesn't have full fender clearance, but it has worked fine on a variety of tours, including some that went off road for awhile. Current mileage is 115,000 and still going strong.

cyccommute 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with aluminum for bicycle frames. Try and find a production model (no customs) steel mountain bike...I'll wait If aluminum is tough enough for hardcore mountain biking, it'll take most anything that touring can throw at it.

Of the 29 bikes I've owned 9 of them have been steel. I've broken 4 frames...2 steel and 2 aluminum. If you are counting, that's 2 failures out of 9 bikes (22% failure rate) for steel and 2 failures out of 20 bikes for aluminum (10% failure rate). All of the failures, by the way, have been on hard ridden mountain bikes.

I have a 2003 Cannondale T800 that has many miles on it. It's a great bike with a long successful pedigree. The materials and the tubing diameters do a wonderful job handling touring loads. In fact the bike rides better with a load than without.

eofelis 

(I just bought a new 13" steel frame Jamis Dragon complete mountain bike....)

Tentacle Master

Lol no one can take a joke. Still....Test ride, test ride, test ride.

prathmann

Agreed. And if the primary function is to be as a loaded touring bike then the test rides should include loading it down with the expected amount of weight.

cyccommute 

Sorry but when people go around dissing a very good touring bike just because it isn't steel, I get a little testy. When it comes to touring bikes, aluminum (and Cannondale) is the option.

LHT in Madison

I have a friend that has three old Cannondales and is considering buying a fourth, but his are all older from 7 speed days. Owning three and looking for a fourth is a pretty good endorsement.

I have another friend that owns a Cannondale but he bought a Trek 520 a few years ago because he specifically wanted a steel frame to absorb the road vibration better. His Cannondale is now in storage. I asked why he bought the 520 when he does not tour and does not even have a rack on the bike, he said it was the only steel frame bike sold by Trek, he lives in a small town where the only bike shop is a Trek shop. He is a high mileage rider and has over 20,000 miles on his Trek. I think about 5,000 of those miles are this year.

If you follow through with your plan to go to northern Canada, schedule will be critical.

redbike72

I have a 5 year old T2000 Cannondale with about 30,000 kms on it. It's rides well loaded or empty and so far has had no structural issues.
I like it. I don't think you can too far wrong with a modern aluminum or steel touring frame. It comes down to what feels good for you.
Don't be afraid to test ride all manner of bikes. Your perfect bike might be the most unlikely one.
Good luck with the ride.

BigBlueToe

I've heard excellent reviews of the Cannondale tourers. I woudn't worry about the aluminum. I heard the "common wisdom" that aluminum road bikes were non-compliant and uncomfortalbe, but my aluminum Allez is very comfortable. I think aluminum is a non-issue if the bike is well designed and built. Cannondale has a good reputation for quality.

My LHT also rides better loaded than empty. On a recent tour I unloaded the bike at the campground, then rode 4 miles to a restaurant for dinner. I was suprised by how harsh the ride was and how rough the road was. I had ridden the same road an hour previously with the loaded bike and it hadn't seemed that bad. When I loaded up the bike and left the campground the next morning I noticed again how much smoother the ride was - on the same road.

staehpj1

Cannondales are very nice bikes IMO.

robow

I sometimes think Cannondale still gets a bad rap from some of their first aluminum bikes with the down tubes the diameter of a small coffee can, yea, they were crazy stiff and very uncomfortable on rough roads. Trek's first bonded aluminum bikes also had that aluminum "buzzy" harsh ride as well, owned both so I know. Scroll forward and today's designs are so much more compliant and comfortable. Worry less about the material and more about the fit and you'll do just fine. JMO

fietsbob

My main grumble with cannondale is they have a much nicer touring bike that they Export to the rest of the world , but not sell in the states, [and probably Canada].

like a fully equipped tubus rack sks fenderd Rohloff hubbed shock forked 26" wheel rough road world travel bike.
but all US gets is the 700c wheeled stuff they have been selling for 20 years, and they are stripped down..

want all the other stuff? the dealer sells at keystone, or may take 10% off so markup at point of sale is only 90%..

they even replied when I asked why, uS is not a serious Cycle market, implying the Brits and Germans are,
so they can buy a line of bikes unavailable to US'

Could it be tied into their having 4 weeks of paid vacation time over there ,

as opposed to made to feel being lucky if you have a job to come back to, after 2.?

. . . . . . . . . .

FWIW having a stiff oversized aluminum tube structure is the key to aluminum frames that work in the long run,
flexing will invite cracking.

It's why No aluminum springs are made.

so the stiff frame is a long lasting frame when its made of aluminum,
a stiff frame will handle predictably when its loaded down,
so for touring that's Fine.

CHAS

May buy the Cannondale touring bike when I am considering a $4500 semi-custom steel. They have a great reputation and they look great.

The Gulf beaches of the Pensacola and Navarre area are beautiful Much of it is protected National Seashore. Most of my family spent the 4th of July near Destin. That is also a beautiful area.

Geo Cruise

Wow okay this is essentially what I have now. I am hoping I can squeeze some 700c 28mm tires on but I don't know. I have no eyelets or Braze-On's for racks I have a rack on it fasted by clamps. It's a aluminum frame that is solid but not made for touring hence I just wanted to know who Cannondale riders liked their bikes. Because I cannot afford to buy now I live on disability and it is a tight budget I am on. But I had read a lot of good things about the Cannondales, but when it comes down too it I would value the opinion of a every day rider who's logged a lot of time on the bike to a reviewer who has one for a day to test. I have a no name frame right now, at least that frame 's name is long gone but I built the bike because the frame was solid and it became charcoal in colour because my buddy who is in autobody was painting a car and used the left over paint and sprayed down my frame LOL it was free and she looked new. but you sit quite high on my current bike, the centre of gravity is very high and I the geometry is so tight I have little room to play with even if I were to modify it.

Geo Cruise

It is difficult to accept you bias towards Cromoly over aluminum when you are actively trying to sell touring bikes on these forums judging by your signiture, my trust is in the riders not the sales men, overwise I could learn eveything I know about everying by buying a magazine and reading the ads.