Cannondale Joins Europe’s Big-Wheel Revolution – Eurobike 2011
“Ignore the fact that Europe has the largest concentration of lift-access trails. Ignore the Continent’s massively popular Enduro and Megavalanche events and let me show you our new line of XC 29ers.”
Such was the theme of Eurobike 2011, and Cannondale was surfing the big-wheel wave at the Expo like everyone else with a full lineup of dual-suspension Scalpel 29ers – no doubt, capitalizing on its US affiliation with the genre. But don’t flee this page until you check out French Enduro ace Jerome Clementz’s Claymore and the new full-carbon Jekyll all-mountain scorcher that Mark Weir has been campaigning on in North American soil. Cannondale has its sights set on the aggressive trail/AM segment and they are gaining traction.
Jerome Clementz’s Claymore Enduro Racer
Cannondale’s Claymore is built from massively oversized hydroformed aluminum tubes and fitted with wide-stance rocker arms and main swingarm pivot, and double bearings at the dropout clevis to arrest even the thought of lateral flex. The DYAD RT2 pull-shock is made-by Fox, and it remotely switches from 110 to 180 millimeters of rear-wheel-travel. Stock Claymore-1 models come with Fox 36 TALAS forks and a SRAM X.9/Shimano XT hybrid 2-by-10 drivetrain. Clementz is a SRAM guy, so his racer is decked out in X.0 and RockShox, and by the looks of his 39-tooth single chainring X.0 setup – Jerome is a very fast SRAM guy.
![Jerome Clementz Claymore]()
Jerome’s Claymore details: (clockwise) The Claymore frame cuts a clean profile for a 180-millimeter all-mountain bike. An angled seat tube adds tire clearance necessary for its short-ish, 43.3-millimeter (17-inch) chainstays • Wide-stance rocker link pivot locations with hollow, 15-millimeter axles are mighty stiff in torsion • Made-by-Fox pull shock keeps the weight low in the frame and makes for one-click short-travel climbing action • Watch for Jerome Clementz and the Green Machine in next year’s European Enduro series.
Jekyll Carbon 1
The dual-suspension trailbike that began life as Cannondale’s 120-millmeter-travel orphan has grown up to be a fleet-footed ready-for-anything AM/Trailbike. The Jeykll Carbon 1 frame has internal cable routing, wide-stance rocker pivots, decent stand-over clearance, modern trail geometry (67.8-degree head angle and 73.6-degree seat angle) and an ISCG -03 chain guide mount waiting for that moment when you get serious about descending. Suspension is by Cannondale’s remote travel-adjust, Fox-built DYAD RT2 in the rear (90mm to 150mm) and a Kashima TALAS 32 150 fork. With through-axles on both ends, the Jekyll is the real deal.
![Jekyll]()
Jekyll Carbon 1 Details: (clockwise) The Jekyll’s carbon chassis is refreshingly void of the ridges, swooping curves and other needless gothic automotive styling treatments that plague molded-plastic bicycles • The pioneer of the 1.5 head tube standard adds internal cable and hose routing to its carbon frames • The stainless steel chainstay protector seems like an afterthought, but the SRAM 38 x 24 wide-range gearing is brilliant • Curving dropouts make sense for carbon fiber manufacturing and the 142/12-millimeter rear axle makes sense on mountain bikes in general.
Scalpel 29er Carbon 1
We thought long ago that Cannondale’s Lefty was doomed to the sporting goods shelves of Wal-Mart disguised as a pogo stick, but the 29er has breathed new life into the one-legged, needle-bearing front-suspension strut. The dual-crown strut is laterally stiff and it steers with authority – two qualities that big-wheel bikes lack. Behind the 100-millimeter-stroke carbon Lefty is a beautiful carbon frame with matching rear-wheel travel. Carbon gave Cannondale engineers the freedom to eliminate the pivot at the rear dropout, which gives the Scalpel 29er an elegant profile. Drivetrain is SRAM XX two-by-ten with a special SRAM-built chainring spider adapted to Cannondale’s Hollowgram crank. DT Swiss Tricon wheels with Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25 tires top off an excellent 29er trail spec.
![Scalpel 29]()
Scalpel 29er Carbon 1 Details: (clockwise) Cannondale seems to have tagged the 29er dual-suspension bike quite well. It was one of the sweetest lookers at Eurobike • Clamp-type fittings secure the Scalpel’s hollow, 15-millimeter pivot axle. The arch around the front of the seat tube eliminated the seat stay bridge and makes room for the rear tire at full compression • The Carbon Lefty makes sense on a 29er where steering stiffness is more important than suspension travel • The Scalpel’s no-pivot rear end features a 12-millimeter through-axle.
![Cannondale details]()
(Left) SRAM’s Truvativ division worked out the XX 2-by spider to adapt Hollowgram cranks to the SRAM drivetrain. (Right) The X12 through-axle system and post-type caliper mounts are well integrated to the carbon fiber Scalpel dropout.
Visit Cannondale to delve further into its all-mountain and trail segment – and if you dare, have a look at its growing 29er lineup. You may be impressed. Send Pinkbike your comments. We’d like to know.
Such was the theme of Eurobike 2011, and Cannondale was surfing the big-wheel wave at the Expo like everyone else with a full lineup of dual-suspension Scalpel 29ers – no doubt, capitalizing on its US affiliation with the genre. But don’t flee this page until you check out French Enduro ace Jerome Clementz’s Claymore and the new full-carbon Jekyll all-mountain scorcher that Mark Weir has been campaigning on in North American soil. Cannondale has its sights set on the aggressive trail/AM segment and they are gaining traction.
Jerome Clementz’s Claymore Enduro Racer
Cannondale’s Claymore is built from massively oversized hydroformed aluminum tubes and fitted with wide-stance rocker arms and main swingarm pivot, and double bearings at the dropout clevis to arrest even the thought of lateral flex. The DYAD RT2 pull-shock is made-by Fox, and it remotely switches from 110 to 180 millimeters of rear-wheel-travel. Stock Claymore-1 models come with Fox 36 TALAS forks and a SRAM X.9/Shimano XT hybrid 2-by-10 drivetrain. Clementz is a SRAM guy, so his racer is decked out in X.0 and RockShox, and by the looks of his 39-tooth single chainring X.0 setup – Jerome is a very fast SRAM guy.
Jekyll Carbon 1
The dual-suspension trailbike that began life as Cannondale’s 120-millmeter-travel orphan has grown up to be a fleet-footed ready-for-anything AM/Trailbike. The Jeykll Carbon 1 frame has internal cable routing, wide-stance rocker pivots, decent stand-over clearance, modern trail geometry (67.8-degree head angle and 73.6-degree seat angle) and an ISCG -03 chain guide mount waiting for that moment when you get serious about descending. Suspension is by Cannondale’s remote travel-adjust, Fox-built DYAD RT2 in the rear (90mm to 150mm) and a Kashima TALAS 32 150 fork. With through-axles on both ends, the Jekyll is the real deal.
Scalpel 29er Carbon 1
We thought long ago that Cannondale’s Lefty was doomed to the sporting goods shelves of Wal-Mart disguised as a pogo stick, but the 29er has breathed new life into the one-legged, needle-bearing front-suspension strut. The dual-crown strut is laterally stiff and it steers with authority – two qualities that big-wheel bikes lack. Behind the 100-millimeter-stroke carbon Lefty is a beautiful carbon frame with matching rear-wheel travel. Carbon gave Cannondale engineers the freedom to eliminate the pivot at the rear dropout, which gives the Scalpel 29er an elegant profile. Drivetrain is SRAM XX two-by-ten with a special SRAM-built chainring spider adapted to Cannondale’s Hollowgram crank. DT Swiss Tricon wheels with Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25 tires top off an excellent 29er trail spec.
Visit Cannondale to delve further into its all-mountain and trail segment – and if you dare, have a look at its growing 29er lineup. You may be impressed. Send Pinkbike your comments. We’d like to know.
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WTF are you talking about? Specialized uses FSR. Something designed in the 90's. They haven't come up with any new crap for DH since the 90's.
Intense uses the VPP, which was NOT created by Intense. Santa Cruz just the same. Turner uses DW link, which was NOT created by Turner. YETI is the ONLY one in that list that HAS come up with new designs without purchasing the rights to a design from a 3rd party in the last 11 years in the list of yours. Cannodale, just like GT, just like Yeti, HAVE come up with multiple new designs without having a 3rd party engineer design and license it to them. Know your history and tech before you make ignorant claims. It's more than common knowledge to know Specialized has been out of the engineering game patent wise for over a decade, and many of the other botique brands use PAID FOR designs by third parties.
O, to add to the list, Foes is another company that has been issued new suspension patents in the last decade. Just like Lapierre as well, and Canfield also. I can't think of too many other companies that actually have invented and patented a new tech in the last 10 years. Just because a bike company is a top botique brand, doesn't mean they invent squat. They just have the money to buy others tech, just like Yeti, Schwinn, Rotec, and Tomac did with the Lawwill design almost a decade and a bit ago.
BTW, C-dale stole the Headshok idea from Action-Tec, which made a 1.125" fork with the internals in the steer tube. www.actiontec.us/proshock.htm
MANITOU is who actually developed the 1.5 steerer standard so they could solve a 'non' problem in the industry, that of steerer tube failures on long travel single-crown forks. I say 'non' problem because it wasn't a problem for any fork maker OTHER than Manitou. See in the early part of the last decade, manitou quit using Easton supplied alloy tubes instead going with something cheaper (and weaker) and began having steerer tube failures as a result. Rather than use a better (more expensive) alloy tube again, they declared the 1 1/8 size to be obsolete for big travel forks and brought out a new steerer size. This was history repeating itself as the Evolution 1 1/4 steerer standard got created for the same lame ass reasoning, in that case Gary Fisher Bicycles had had a bad batch of steel tubing failing in their 1" steerer rigid forks (something nobody else suffered from) so poof... rather than correct a material fault, use more material instead to bring the strength back up. A bunch of brands signed onto the new size (about 2 dozen total) but Tioga quickly came out with the 1 1/8 oversize steerer standard as a compromise and it became the new standard.
Actually Moulton was producing mainstream headshok bikes from 1963
4.bp.blogspot.com/-jNhIELKzFOw/TYTpsUBs49I/AAAAAAAAAUc/WioLesvKO2g/s1600/Moulton%2Bmarch%2B2011%2B001.JPG
That said, it did thoroughly impress me. Feels like an sx 1 minute and a stumpy the next.
And what's your problem with production cost and r&d costs? Lefty pricetag is about $1000, and $1400 for the carbon model which is pretty much like high end Fox or DT fork.
I see the problem with the frames, although there is a 1 1/8 Lefty, still there is the headtube length which is pretty much important. If that would be solved in a different way, Lefty would be much more popular I think!
haters gonna hate
and last i checked, Cdales headsets werent expensive. nor were their steerer tubes (how often are you going to replace your steere??)
i LOVE the uninformed people on this site.
I'd run a set without question... because they are literally that good. Like said, they are Avalanche good, and Avalanche is literally, to this day, the pinnacle of suspension.
If you think about it, cars run 'single-sided' wheels (where the support is only on one side of the wheel).
And dead, you have obviously never ridden a lefty. Sure avy internals are far superior than anything, like I said, but lefties are also far superior in terms of function than 99% of forks on the market. Sure they don't get near avy's in terms of function, BUT, they beat just about everything else out there on the market.