Legal-style disclaimer: I am only relating my personal opinions and experiences here. I have videotaped and photographic evidence to back up what I'm saying. My intent is not to slander or libel Cannondale or its dealers---it is to warn fellow riders of what I feel to be unsafe features in Cannondale products I have personally owned.
For another perspective, read the Crack N' Fail site. Update 21 April 2003: This site has been taken down.... saying "This site is no longer available as an agreement has been made with Cannondale". Insert paranoid X-Files music here!
There are plenty of reasons to buy a Cannondale: the ads, the team, the T-shirts, the wacky technology. There are only two reasons not to buy them: the bikes themselves, and the company that stands - or doesn't stand, as the case may be - behind them. Keep reading to learn about the two crappy Cannondales I bought and what happened to them.
Experience #1: I purchased a Cannondale SR500 road bike with 105 components in 1986. I have put thousands of miles on this bike, with no problems except for the fact that the frame is in no way straight, and the manufacturer has continually refused to stand behind the product or to assist me in having the frame straightened. The rear wheel must be placed at an angle to make the bike ride in a straight line. Furthermore, the original DuPont Imron paint chipped at the slightest provocation, including one time where I brushed the back of my hand against the top tube in ten-degree weather. If this were the only problem I'd had with Cannondale, though, I wouldn't complain. A lot of manufacturers knowingly sell crooked frames. It's not right, but it is commonplace. I was turned from a mere dissatisfied customer into a Cannondale-hater by:
Experience #2: I purchased a Cannondale M800 "Beast of the East" from Bicycle One in Gahanna, Ohio, for $595. It seemed to be a decent bike, and given that it had XT components I thought it would be a good deal. Unfortunately, the first downhill I took on it nearly killed me. The rear brakes didn't work! At any speed above a walking pace, the brakes simply refused to operate safely. I thought that perhaps the cheesy-looking "CODA" house-brand cantilevers were to blame, so I bought an XT V-brake and installed it. They didn't work either. The frame was the culprit - the rear stays were flexing a full quarter of an inch when the brakes were applied. What did I do about it?
I thought that perhaps I had gotten a "lemon", two lemons actually if you count my twisted road frame, and that nobody else had the same problems. Then I searched the Web and began talking to other Cannondale owners. They told me that several Cannondale models, including the "Killer V", flexed and broke all the time, and that Cannondale had worked hard to hush up the fact that riders had been hurt on their bikes.
If you've read my columns, you know that I'm not in anyone's pay and that my primary concern is helping riders. I think that if you buy a Cannondale you are running the risk of serious injury. Please don't do it. Buy a Klein, a Voodoo, a Bianchi, a Schwinn, whatever you want, but for your own safety do not buy a Cannondale. In my experience they make poor products and are not concerned with rider safety. I had some really scary times and wasted an entire riding season trying to work things out with Cannondale, only to be frustrated over and over again by a company that acknowledged a defect in their frame but refused to act on it. Don't make the same mistake I did--JB.