Newbie that read the sticky.
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Man, that'll honestly take a little typing to answer...
The short answer is I did, and still do, love them. They are great bikes that took an undue beating by the media.
At the time the power was un-freaking-gawdly, the handling was stable as a bulldozer but not the best turning bike I've ever ridden, and the suspension... well, it was OK as delivered. They were a tad heavy, but not bad when compared to other e-start thumpers.
They had some 'teething' problems for sure but nothing that wasn't acknowledged by the factory and that couldn't be resolved fairly easily. When I got my first one we took it out of the crate, put it on a lift, disassembled it down to the frame and pulled the engine apart, then carefully & methodically re-built it. We did every update the factory knew about, and found some things that made it into later tech bulletins. That bike was (and still is) as reliable as a rock.
The other bike was a demo unit I picked up for next to nothing with the intentions of using it as a parts bike. It didn't run when I bought it, the guy that had it said he checked everything and it was just a P.O.S. Cannondale so he wanted rid of it. I got it home and replaced the fuel pump fuse, fired it up and went riding. It hasn't had the once over, so I never have really ridden it other than to just mess around with it around the house or to screw with peoples heads. See, I mapped it so that it is real mild and mellow up to about 8,000 RPM and then it gets a huge load of fuel and spark advance. It has a hit like Mike Tyson.
My race bike, on the other hand, is mapped to build power from 2,500 RPM (it idles at 2,200) in a nice linear way right up to the rev limiter, so it feels slow to some folks. That's why I mapped the other bike like I did...
At any rate, once I had my suspension guy get the shock and forks set up for me and my riding style it was great. I slid the forks up in the tree's a bit and shortened the chain so that the rear axle was just before dead center of the adjustment and got it where it turned well enough for me and never looked back. The bike fits me like nothing else I've ever ridden. Everything is right where it should be.
Had Cannondale not run out of money they would have turned the off road world on it's head by 2004 or 2005. They had some really wicked stuff on the drawing boards and in prototype stage that was really, really trick. As it was, they never really got the bike past what the Japanese would have called the pre-production prototype stage before they went broke.
Just to give you an idea, we now know that there were less than 4,000 total bikes and ATV's that were actually built and shipped. My '02 E440R (the enduro/hare scramble model) is number 68 of 92 built that year.
Pretty wild, huh?
I know, I know. TMI. I just really got involved with the bikes, the factory and the folks that built them.
The thing that is hilarious to me is that here we are, ten model years after the first 'Dale rolled off the (handbuilt) 'assembly' line and the Japanese marques are all impressed with themselves for offering aluminum framed fuel injected dirt bikes...
Bruce
The short answer is I did, and still do, love them. They are great bikes that took an undue beating by the media.
At the time the power was un-freaking-gawdly, the handling was stable as a bulldozer but not the best turning bike I've ever ridden, and the suspension... well, it was OK as delivered. They were a tad heavy, but not bad when compared to other e-start thumpers.
They had some 'teething' problems for sure but nothing that wasn't acknowledged by the factory and that couldn't be resolved fairly easily. When I got my first one we took it out of the crate, put it on a lift, disassembled it down to the frame and pulled the engine apart, then carefully & methodically re-built it. We did every update the factory knew about, and found some things that made it into later tech bulletins. That bike was (and still is) as reliable as a rock.
The other bike was a demo unit I picked up for next to nothing with the intentions of using it as a parts bike. It didn't run when I bought it, the guy that had it said he checked everything and it was just a P.O.S. Cannondale so he wanted rid of it. I got it home and replaced the fuel pump fuse, fired it up and went riding. It hasn't had the once over, so I never have really ridden it other than to just mess around with it around the house or to screw with peoples heads. See, I mapped it so that it is real mild and mellow up to about 8,000 RPM and then it gets a huge load of fuel and spark advance. It has a hit like Mike Tyson.
My race bike, on the other hand, is mapped to build power from 2,500 RPM (it idles at 2,200) in a nice linear way right up to the rev limiter, so it feels slow to some folks. That's why I mapped the other bike like I did...At any rate, once I had my suspension guy get the shock and forks set up for me and my riding style it was great. I slid the forks up in the tree's a bit and shortened the chain so that the rear axle was just before dead center of the adjustment and got it where it turned well enough for me and never looked back. The bike fits me like nothing else I've ever ridden. Everything is right where it should be.
Had Cannondale not run out of money they would have turned the off road world on it's head by 2004 or 2005. They had some really wicked stuff on the drawing boards and in prototype stage that was really, really trick. As it was, they never really got the bike past what the Japanese would have called the pre-production prototype stage before they went broke.
Just to give you an idea, we now know that there were less than 4,000 total bikes and ATV's that were actually built and shipped. My '02 E440R (the enduro/hare scramble model) is number 68 of 92 built that year.
Pretty wild, huh?
I know, I know. TMI. I just really got involved with the bikes, the factory and the folks that built them.
The thing that is hilarious to me is that here we are, ten model years after the first 'Dale rolled off the (handbuilt) 'assembly' line and the Japanese marques are all impressed with themselves for offering aluminum framed fuel injected dirt bikes...
Bruce
Last edited by RDY2GO!; Dec 3, 2008 at 01:08 AM.
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Joined: Nov 2005
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Sorry for the late welcome Bruce. I was gone most of last week. Its nice to see another old dude on here. Great looking family, and it sounds like you are really enjoying what you love to do. I'll have to go check out the pictures. Later man.
Great looking family, and it sounds like you are really enjoying what you love to do. I'll have to go check out the pictures. Later man.
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,433
From: Olympia WA
Man, that'll honestly take a little typing to answer...
The thing that is hilarious to me is that here we are, ten model years after the first 'Dale rolled off the (handbuilt) 'assembly' line and the Japanese marques are all impressed with themselves for offering aluminum framed fuel injected dirt bikes...
Bruce
The thing that is hilarious to me is that here we are, ten model years after the first 'Dale rolled off the (handbuilt) 'assembly' line and the Japanese marques are all impressed with themselves for offering aluminum framed fuel injected dirt bikes...
Bruce
I have a cannondale road bike thats 23+ and its still in really good condition most can't believe it that old. I have always liked the companies foward thinking-
I also really like their "open-ness" about parts and drawings- maps for diff conditions it is too bad they ran out of money, and fell to rumors.
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