With its new duo of long-travel bikes, Cannondale returns to the cross-country/trail bike battlefield dominated by the likes of Specialized, Marin and Giant. The all-mountain Moto and the trail-oriented Rize see Cannondale finally deploy its landing craft to secure a beachhead in this hotly contested arena.

But it’s not a totally successful assault. On the one hand, the Moto has Cannondale though the dunes and heading for the nearest town. It perfectly executes Cannondale’s System Integration idea – treating the bike as a whole rather than as a collection of plugged-together parts.

On first ride impressions, the 160mm travel Moto is a killer bike, a great all-mountain tool that can actually climb respectably and absolutely nail it on the downs and on undulating singletrack.

The Moto’s not the lightest tool in the box, but for its class, the 6.3lb (2.86kg) frame weight is respectable, and is a serious piece of kit for the more gravity-orientated rider. It’ll be bouncing mademoiselles on its knee by teatime.

Read the rest of this article at BikeRadar.com…

198′S THOUGHTS

I have never really been a fan of the Cannondale brand…especially now since they sold out to Dorel (parent company of Pacific/GT/Schwinn, etc.) which has a history of ruining good bikes.

My main reason for not liking Cannondale is their extensive use of proprietary parts. Their idea of treating the whole bike as a unit is a good one, but not when it comes at the expense of the users. I do not like bike brands telling me which parts I have to use. I have some issues with Specialized bikes for this same reason.

The lefty fork…I know a lot of cross country racer types love them, but I can’t stand it. I rode the $6,600.00 carbon Rush with full X.0 and you could not get me off that bike fast enough. The Lefty fork felt like the elastomer forks of the olden days. It was just mushy and the brake cable routing made the cable hit the tire frequently. Not to mention, I can get handmade bikes that ride a whole lot better for a whole lot less than $6,600.

It is good to see Fox shocks back on most of their line-up, but I would have liked to see one on the Rize. I think you can get away with the lefty on shorter travel bikes, but when you get into the 5″+ range…you really need to have a more established fork. I know a lot of people will defend the Lefty…it does have a small but very loyal following. But after riding several of them, I can assure you that I will never own one

It will be interesting to see what happens to Cannondale with the Dorel buyout…we all know what they did to the rest of their “bikeshop brands.”

Article on the Dorel/Cannondale deal on PR Newswire.