Cannondale Bicycle Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation is a major American bicycle manufacturer, headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut USA and manufactured in Bedford, Pennsylvania USA. 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 bicycles, specializing in aluminum (rather than steel) frames at mass-market prices, a technology in which they were pioneers. (Regarding the development of aluminum frame bicycles, see also Gary Klein).

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. However, management was able to quickly sell the company off to a private equity group which supported the company's renewed focus on bicycle production. ^[1]

1 Ownership
2 Products
- 2.1 Bicycle Frames
3 CAAD frames
4 Carbon frames
- 4.1 Suspension Forks
- 4.2 Components
5 Innovations
6 Pro sponsorship
7 Top Competitors
8 External links
9 References

[edit] Ownership

Originally founded by Joe Montgomery Cannondale was a privately held company until a $22 million 1995 IPO^[2]. The business continued as a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: BIKEQ) until declaring bankruptcy on January 29, 2003^[3]. Cannondale's full assets were then purchased at auction by Pegasus Partners II, L.P.^[4]. The motor-sports IP, manufacturing equipment and inventory were quickly sold off as the company returned it's focus to bicycle manufacture.

[edit] Products

[edit] 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, but considered by some to be extremely uncomfortable. The road frames nonetheless gained popularity on the US criterium circuit, helped by its generous warranty policy.

[edit] CAAD frames

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 seat-stays and chain-stays 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. Optimo aluminum was developed in a partnership with Alcoa and was introduced to the market in 2002 with the CAAD7 road frame. The development process of the specific elements of the alloy took over 18 months, and Cannondale has exclusive use of this alloy in the bicycle industry.

Optimo aluminum is a 6000 series alloy that has superior properties to 6061, 6066, and 6069. Compared to 6061, Optimo's proprietary mix contains slightly more silicon and less magnesium, which results in higher ultimate tensile strength and higher elongation.

The Six13 model was introduced in 2004 which uses carbon tubed sections in the main triangle but still uses aluminum rear triangles, contrary to the usual practice of using carbon rear triangles and aluminum fronts. 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 (50cm) 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. ^[5]

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 years CAAD8 design.

[edit] Carbon frames

In 2005 Cannondale announced its first all-carbon frame in a model named "Synapse." This is also the first Cannondale road bicycle to be built outside of the United States, in China. The Six13 models are co-molded aluminum frames with carbon tob and down tubes.

[edit] Suspension Forks

Cannondale with 'Lefty' fork racing at Fort William, Scotland

Cannondale has also developed a suspension fork called the Lefty. It started with the "Headshok" forks. It uses 88 bearings to reduce friction for super smooth travel with the bearings telescoping inside the steerer tube of the fork. This eliminates flexing of the fork legs and also eliminates static friction or "stiction", which must be overcome before the fork begins to travel.

The "Lefty" is an unusual looking fork because it only has a left side or leg. It uses the same technology as the Headshok, but desire for greater amounts of travel led to the movement of the telescoping unit off to the side to allow room for the travel. The Leftys are lighter, stronger, and steer more precisely than any competitors forks with the same amount of travel. The Lefty is now seen on many of Cannondale's high-end models, such as all the Scalpels and the expensive models in F series, both cross-country lines. Continual efforts at weight reduction have provided models with a carbon fiber upper tube and a titanium spindle. The titanium spindle was later replaced with a lighter and stiffer forged aluminum version. The carbon fiber upper continues to be used on the highest end Lefties. In 2006 the bonded clamp technologies used on the carbon version was put to use on the aluminum upper tube models. This provided a reduction in weight and easier installation.

In recent years the travel of the Lefty has reached 140mm. This has allowed it to be placed on "all-mountain" bikes like the Prophet which also has 140mm or rear travel. To date one of the main drawbacks of the Lefty fork is the price, which is significantly more than traditional design dual stanchion forks. The availability of repair and rebuild components and experienced service technicians for Cannondale forks is much less widespread than Fox, Manitou and Marzocchi designs. This continues to limit the Lefty to mid and high end bikes.

[edit] Components

Cannondale developed a proprietary bottom bracket and crankset technology called Hollowgram which has been featured in its high-end bikes since 2001. The crank and bottom bracket set weigh 80 grams less and are 10% stiffer than Dura-Ace^[6]. The hollowgram bottom bracket shell can accept standard 68 mm english-threaded bottom bracket cartridges and external bearing cranksets through the use of an adapter. The aluminum Hollowgram crank is a two piece hollow shell that is bonded with aluminum glue. The Hollowgram bottom bracket axle is also hollow aluminum and oversized.

[edit] Innovations

Cannondale has brought a few concepts to market that have since become accepted industry standards. Cannondale was the first to produce a crankset that uses externally mounted bottom bracket bearings, years before other component manufacturers moved to this style.^[6] External bearings are now the most common type of bottom bracket for mid-level and higher bicycles. In 1992 Cannondale introduced the Headshok and the accompanying over-sized headtube. ^[7] In 2001 the OnePointFive standard emerged using the same headtube dimensions as the Headshok headtube.

[edit] Pro sponsorship

Cannondale's sponsorship of Division 1 road racing teams began with Mario Cipollini's Saeco team in the late 1990's, highlighted by Cipollini's four consecutive stage wins in the 1999 Tour de France. The team notably won the Giro d'Italia three times, in 1997 with Ivan Gotti, in 2003 with Gilberto Simoni and 2004 with Damiano Cunego. Saeco International Group, based in Bologna, manufactures coffee machines. In 2007 Cannondale will be sponsoring Liquigas.

In the mountain biking circuit, Cannondale sponsored the Volvo/Cannondale racing team (including world champions Anne-Caroline Chausson and Missy Giove), the Bear Naked/Cannondale racing team (formerly SoBe/Cannondale) and various individual 24 hour racers such as Bicycling Hall of Famer and US National 24 hour Champion Tinker Juarez. Other notable Cannondale sponsored riders include Olympic Silver medalist (and World Champion) Alison Sydor and Bronze medalist Christoph "Susi" Sauser, "Flyin" Brian Lopes, Cadel Evans, Kashi Leuchs, Libor "The Bouncing Czech" Karas, Lance Trappe, Aaron Chase, Myles Rockwell, Cedric Gracia, Roel Paulissen and Frederik Kessiakoff.

In triathlon they support challenged athletes like Sarah Reinertsen first amputee woman to finish the Ironman Hawaii and Rudy Garcia-Tolson 2004 Paralympics 200 IM gold medalist as well as the 2005 Ironman world champion Faris Al-Sultan who is not challenged.