Cannondale road bike
The Cannondale road bike is produced by the
American bicycle manufacturer, Cannondale which has it's headquarters in
Bethel, Connecticut, and was originally manufactured in Bedford, Pennsylvania USA, although now production has moved to Taiwan and Vietnam. The
company was founded by Joe Montgomery in the year 1971. The company
originally started to produce bicycle trailers that were suitable for
bicycle touring. Now the company has become more well known for its high end cannondale road bikes, specializing in
aluminium frames they quickly became pioneers of this technology but have since begun developing carbon fiber composite frames.
The Cannondale road bike is mainly used for bicycle
touring; this is a recreational activity that involves
cycling, site seeing, and riding around mountain areas, generally exploring
outdoor areas. The cycle used for touring has some
specific characteristics such as a longer wheelbase, which increases stability, larger width tyres and a tread pattern that is
durable for a longer amount of time. The tyres are designed to withstand heat and cold and
offer better control over a wider variety of surfaces including sand or stoney terrain.
The aluminium originally used in the Cannondale road bike was the Optimo
aluminium which is a mixture of silicon and magnesium,
the silicon content is higher than that of the magnesium. This mix ratio allows the aluminum to have more
elongating properties and tensile strength. Because of these higher
stretching properties the frames are less susceptible to breakages or cracking, resulting in frames that are super-stiff and super-efficient.
The Cannondale road bike with the Cannondale Advanced Aluminum
Design was introduced with the S-bend aluminium seat for
extra comfort. There are other models that are designed to be ridden along roads,
mountains or just used for recreation purposes. Some are imaginatively named as, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, whilst others have more understandable names such as Slice, Synapse, Rush, Moto
and many others. All the different models are designed with special features based on the
usage.
Cannondale developed a special suspension fork which was named the Lefty. There are 88 needle bearings used to reduce friction which makes the travel a lot smoother. The bearings are telescoped inside the tube of the fork, this helps to cut down on static friction. The Lefty is generally found on many of Cannondale's high-end models due to the price, which is significantly more costly than traditional forks.
The Cannondale road bike has since become a firm favorite on the mountain biking circuit and has in recent years notched up some impressive results in international cycle racing events. The Cannondale cycle company have also gone on to become one of the biggest sponsors of mountain bike sporting events around the world.
