Flash

Cannondale has launched the Flash, its lightest and stiffest ever hardtail. Made from high modulus carbon fibre with a tube-to-tube construction process as used on its flagship road bikes, Cannondale has gone all out to optimise every aspect of the frame to ensure it’s as light as possible.

Cannondale’s BB30 bottom bracket forms the backbone of the frame and is a wide junction for the flared and oversized seat tube. There’s an oversized head tube with Cannondale’s Lefty fork plugged into place. Continuous carbon fibres flow from the top tube into the chainstays to remove excess material and increase the lateral stiffness. Straight skinny Thinline seat stays, rather than the curvy affairs Cannondale’s have traditionally been seen with, offer stacks of tyre and mud clearance. Additional weight savings have been achieved with a direct mount for the front derailleur and carbon cable stops.

However comfort too has been a consideration for the designers despite the apparent quest for outright stiffness, and so an hourglass-shaped SAVE (Synapse Active Vibration Elimination) seat tube is intended to offer some ‘give’. This same technology is also employed in the chainstays. All this lack of weight leaves the frame with extremely thin tube walls so to address the possibility of trail debris damaging the frame, the lower section of the down tube is fitted with stone impact protection. And in areas where there’s increased stress an ‘anti-delaminating mesh’ is used.

And the weight? That’ll be just 950g…

Cannondale will offer various levels of build starting from £1,999, with the frame has optimised for 2×10 drivetrains. There’ll be five carbon models and also three aluminium versions.

Rize One20

Following the launch of the Rize last year, a 130mm linkage driven single pivot design, Cannondale will now offer 140mm and 120mm versions based on the same design. The One20 provides 120mm of travel achieved via a custom length Fox. The frame is made from hydroformed 6061 aluminium finished with something Cannondale calls ‘Twisted Faceted Surfaces’, an approach which certainly gives the bike a unique look.

A key feature of the One20 is that the suspension linkages will be specific to the smaller sizes. Standover clearance has been optimised for each size too. For all-day epics there’s space in the frame for a water bottle. The frame gets the company’s rapidly-being-adopted BB30 bottom bracket with a one-piece 3D forged seat tube and oversized head tube. Prices start at £1,499.

More at www.cannondale.com