The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation is a major American bicycle manufacturer, headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut USA with manufacturing and assembly facilities in Taichung, Taiwan.
History
The company was founded in 1971 by Joe Montgomery to manufacture backpacks and bags for camping and later bicycle trailers for bicycle touring. Today, Cannondale produces many different types of high-end bicycles, which used to be hand made in USA, specializing in aluminum (rather than steel, titanium or carbon fiber) frames, a technology in which they were pioneers. The name of the company was taken from the Cannondale Metro North train station in Wilton, Connecticut.
In the late 1990s Cannondale attempted to move into the motorsports business, producing a line of off-road motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. According to an interview with Cannondale Communications Director, Tom Armstrong, the company was unable to drive down the cost of their motor vehicles fast enough. Sales took off when the company was still losing money on each motorbike they shipped. This gap drove the company to seek bankruptcy protection in 2003, and to sell off the motorsport division. Cannondale's bicycle division was purchased in 2003 by Pegasus Capital Advisors, which supported the company's renewed focus on bicycle production. In February 2008, Cannondale was purchased from Pegasus Capital Advisors by Dorel Industries. In April 2009 it was announced that all production would be transferred to Taiwan.
Ownership
Originally a privately-held company, Cannondale became a $22 million IPO in 1995. The business continued as a publicly traded company until declaring bankruptcy on January 29, 2003. Cannondale's full assets were then purchased at auction by Pegasus Partners II, L.P.. The motor-sports IP, manufacturing equipment and inventory were quickly sold off as the company returned its focus to bicycle manufacture. In March 2007, Cannondale announced that basketball superstar LeBron James had become an owner of the company.
In February 2008, Dorel Industries, a diversified consumer products company, announced the purchase of Cannondale from Pegasus for approximately $200 million. Dorel is a Canadian distributor of bicycles made in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China for sale under many historic U.S. cycle brands, including Schwinn, Mongoose, Roadmaster, and GT.
Products
Bicycle Frames
Cannondale began manufacturing aluminum racing and touring frames in 1983, with mountain bike frames added later. The earlier models sported oversized aluminum tubes for increased stiffness, resulting in frames that were super-stiff and super-efficient. Later, carbon fiber composite frames were developed.
Cannondale's bicycle frame components were made in its factory in Bedford, Pennsylvania, and are now made in factories in Taiwan and Vietnam.
2008 Manufactured Models
Mountain
Full Suspension (Soft Tail)
- Judge (Frame only) (Downhill)
- Perp (Free Ride)
- Gemini (Downhill / Free Ride)
- Prophet (All-Mountain)
- Rush (XC Race/All-Mountain)
- Scalpel (XC Race)
- Rize (All-Mountain/2009 Model)
- Moto (Enduro/2009 Model)
Hardtail
- 29er 1 Caffeine, 29er 2 Caffeine, 29er 3 Caffeine, 29er 4 Caffeine
- Chase 1 , Chase 2 (Dirt Jumping)
- F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9 (All Terrain)
- Taurine
Road
- Slice (Triathlon)
- SystemSix (Racing)
- SuperSix (Racing)
- Six13 (Racing)
- Capo (Track Racing)
- CAAD9 (Racing)
- CAAD8 (Racing/Training)
- Cyclocross (Cyclocross Racing)
- Synapse (Racing)
Recreation
- Road Warrior (Recreation)
- Comfort (Recreation)
- Adventure (Recreation)
- Daytripper (Recreation)
Urban
- Street (Recreation)
- Bad Boy (Commuting)
- Capo (Single Speed)
Specialty
- Touring (Multi-day/week Adventures)
- Tandem (Built for two people)
CAAD design and manufacturing
The first road frame from Cannondale was produced in 1983. It sold for $350 and included the frame and fork. The fork was steel with helical reinforcement ribs inside the steel steering tube. The frame was instantly recognized for the oversized down tube and enlarged head tube. The seatstays and chainstays were ovalized to reduce flex. Unlike steel frames, there were no lugs: the aluminum tubes were mitered, hand welded, and then heat treated.
The first frames were available in two colors: red and white, and painted with DuPont Imron paint. Cannondale achieved the distinction and goal of becoming the first high volume producer of aluminum frames, at a time when only steel frames were mass produced and aluminum was hand made in low volumes.
Cannondale marketed subsequent frames with the CAAD designation (for "Cannondale Advanced Aluminum Design"). The CAAD4 model introduced S-bend aluminum seat stays for improved comfort.
The Six13 model, which was introduced in 2004, uses carbon tube sections in the main triangle but still employs aluminum rear triangles. This arrangement is contrary to the usual industry practice of using carbon stay inserts and aluminum front triangle tubes. It should also be noted that the Union Cycliste Internationale has established a 6.8 kg (14.97 lb) minimum weight limit. Cannondale advertised this light weight frameset with the slogan "Legalize my Cannondale". In reality, only the smallest size (50 cm) of bike actually approached the 6.8 kg limit. Some in the bicycle industry considered this to be a creative marketing effort because Six13 frames in fact weighed the same as or more than competing frames from other manufacturers.
The current generation of Cannondale aluminum frame in the 2007 model year is known as CAAD9. CAAD9 is the continued evolution of Cannondale's welded aluminum frame design. CAAD 9 has reduced weight and increased stiffness over last year's CAAD8 design.
Cannondale has won numerous design awards including the "Publisher's Award for Innovation" from Bicycling magazine, "Technological Development of the Year Award" from VeloNews magazine, ""Best Of What's New" award from Popular Science, "Best New Products of the Year Award" from Business Week, "Design Recognition Award" from ID magazine, "Computer-Aided Design Award" from Design News magazine and a "Design and Engineering Award" from Popular Mechanics.
Cannondale mountain bikes have captured 11 World Championships, 17 World Cup Series overall titles, 16 National Championships and two Olympic medals. The company's road racing bikes have won eleven stages at the Tour de France, 27 stages at the Giro d'Italia, two Giro d'Italia overall victories, a Professional World Championship title, and two Italian National Championships. Cannondale sponsors the Siemens mobile/Cannondale and Saeco/Cannondale road racing teams, and selected regional amateur teams.
Carbon frames
2004 witnessed the launch of Cannondale's Six13, a composite carbon/alloy frame that featured an alloy head tube, staysets, and bottom bracket junction mechanically and chemically bonded to carbon seat, down, and top tubes. This was the company's first use of structural carbon composite material, and subsequent variants of the Six13 have used one to three carbon tubes depending on the price point of the model and the model year. Later, the Six13 line was expanded to include the Slice triathlon/time trial bike which employed similar alloy/carbon joinery with aerodynamically tapered tubes.
In 2005, Cannondale announced its first all-carbon frame: the "Synapse." At the time, Cannondale lacked the stateside facilities needed to produce such a frame. This fact, and Cannondale's decision to maintain the Synapse as its value-priced carbon model, ensured that all Synapse frames have been produced for Cannondale by an Asian carbon specialist.
Cannondale's SystemSix, which debuted in 2007, represented a more committed embrace of structural carbon than the company's previous flagship roadbike, the Six13. The new bike's entire front triangle, including the oversized asymmetrical head tube, was fabricated from carbon fiber. Furthermore, Cannondale's Pennsylvania factory was upgraded with carbon storage, cutting, and layup equipment in order to prepare the company's workers and physical plant for the SystemSix's more complex carbon assemblies.
The new equipment also provided the infrastructure needed to produce full carbon frames, which debuted on the SuperSix race bike.
As of 2008, Cannondale's carbon/alloy road frames include the Six13 and the SystemSix. The company's full carbon road offerings include several variants of the Synapse and the SuperSix, Cannondale's first U.S. manufactured carbon road model.
Cannondale also offers several carbon variants of its hardtail and full suspension mountain bikes.
Suspension Forks
Cannondale has also developed a suspension fork called the Lefty. It started with the "Headshok" (aka "Fatty") forks. It uses 88 needle bearings to reduce friction for smooth travel with the bearings telescoping inside the steerer tube of the fo
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