So now that my Tsunami has gone to the recycle bin in the sky (or maybe lawn or wall art, not sure yet)...I had to get a new bike. Being the bike geek that I am, I'm always looking at bike geometries and what might work when it comes to getting another bike or a back up bike.
With this in mind, the Cannondale CAAD series of frames has always been on my short list of bikes to look at. They have been around forever, the frame has been refined and on a cost/performance ratio they are "Very" hard to beat.
So after my crash yesterday, my wife told me to "Just go buy another bike" ... taking her advice like and good husband would do, I went out after cleaning myself up and checked out a few bikes to replace my beloved Tsunami.
I looked at the Scott Foil 40, CAAD 10 series and was considering the Felt F series of road bikes. I would have loved to picked up a Scott Foil, but nobody had one in my size and I just couldn't justify the extra expense over the Cannondale. The Felt bikes would have fit a little better (shorter head tube), but the parts for the price just isn't there.
So...I came home with a new Cannondal CAAD10 (4) Rival equipped bike.
I did replace a few of the stock parts with some that I already had including:
- Thompson 0 degree seat post
- Thompson -17 degree (110mm length) stem
- Pro Vibe 7 round bars
- A set of 32 spoke Open Pro wheels laced up to my Powertap for training
I also bought a new Specialized Romin saddle since my saddle was also killed in the crash and I've wanted to try one out for a while knowing the size and shape would work for me.
Today I was able to take the bike out for it's maiden voyage, a 47 mile ride with 3300 feet of climbing. I didn't do any huge accelerations, but did do some tempo climbing and just worked on getting the fit dialed in while checking out how the new ride handled and felt on the road. One addition I'm waiting for is a new top cap for the headset from "Slam that stem . com" that will have a stack height of about 2mm giving me the lowest possible handlebar set up for this bike.
The bike it's self is lighter than I anticipated weighing in at 17.13 pounds according to my fish scale. That's with my Powertap wheelset, bottle cages and Garmin 500 computer mounted. Not bad for an $1800 bike. With my race wheels it will be just over 16 pounds and if I want to upgrade in the future, taking another pound or two off will be very easy with a few parts swaps.
The initial feel of the bike was one of solidity...it feels like a bike built for big power guys, but has the ability to work for smaller climbers as well. There isn't a whole lot of flex in the frame or fork and out of the saddle efforts seem to propel the bike forward as would be expected for a stiff aluminum frame.
Road noise was still there as is expected on an aluminum frame, but is muted a little due to the tube manipulation Cannondale has done with the bike. Basically it's not a silky smooth ride, but it's not super harsh either. Completing 60-70 mile races, or 100 mile training rides in the summer won't be a big deal where I feel beat up by the bike, as other bikes I've had rode harsher. The frame gives enough feedback to let you know what's going on with the road, but not enough to beat you to death.
Climbing was solid, but not spectacular...then again, is anything spectacular climbing wise for somebody just under 200 pounds? Part of this is getting the position dialed in which will happen over time, but out of the saddle efforts where position isn't as important were very good...over rollers it would shoot up and over with no problem.
I haven't done any full on sprints yet...so I can't really comment on that, but given the solid nature of the bike I expect them to be good.
Handling wise the bike is a little twitchy at speeds over 40mph, at least more so than I'm used to. Since my last bike was a custom frame I had it made with stability in mind...so it was very stable at speed. The Cannondale holds a line fine, but small movements can make a big difference, so learning the characteristics of the bike at speed will be important.
Cornering was solid and the bike held lines without issue.
My only real complaint would be I'd like a 1cm shorter head tube and 2cm shorter seat tube to accommodate riders that are on the fringe of bike fit. This is a minor squabble and part of that is just the look and feel that Cannondale was after with the bike.
Overall...the CADD series of bikes from Cannondale seem to be the workhorses of their lineup. They are solid, dependable, refined and just plain work for much less money than higher end carbon bikes.
I'm looking to many thousands of miles aboard the new Cannondale and hopefully a few wins along the way as well.
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