WHO WE ARETHE BEGINNING
We’re a passionate bunch.
Always have been.
Not only passionate about building the best,
most innovative and high-performance
products, but passionate about doing
everything we can to create the best possible
cycling experience.
Simply put, we care.
We care about our products, we care about
our customers and we care about each other,
and this simple but important statement has
earned us legions of fans around the world
and, here, four decades in, it still informs
everything we do, everyday.
We rose from our beginnings as a maker of camping packs and bags to become
the most innovative, forward thinking company in the bicycling industry.
From our first cycling product, a radically different bike trailer…
To the first production
oversized aluminum frames…
To the radical HeadShok and Lefty products…
To new industry standards like BB30 and 1.5 headtubes…
To our legendary teams like Volvo Cannondale, Saeco and Liquigas…
Cannondale has consistently been a force of creative change in the
industry. We learn from our successes and we learn even more from our
failures. We don’t rest on our laurels. We constantly strive to out do
ourselves and we never cease in our efforts to create the perfect ride.
Cannondale was founded in 1971
in Georgetown, Connecticut, by
Joe Montgomery. The company
name came from a train station on
the Cannondale line across the road
from the company headquarters –
which was then located in a loft
above a pickle factory.
Cannondale’s initial products were camping packs and bags,
panniers, and the world's first bicycle-towed trailer, the Bugger.
A simple but profound innovation, the Bugger enhanced the
cycling experience and serves as inspiration to this day.
In 1983, Cannondale kick-started started a revolution of alternative frame
materials when we introduced our first bicycle, the ST-500 touring bike.
The oversized, TIG-welded aluminum
frames shocked the world with their
light weight, efficient stiffness and
crazy fat-tubed look. Mountain and road
racing bikes followed next year, and the
aluminum era was under way.
Since those first revolutionary products, Cannondale has continually
challenged and evolved the bicycle industry with innovation after
innovation, constantly pushing the envelope of technology and design
in the quest for the best possible performance.
A key part of Cannondale’s stream of innovation has been the ability to test and
prove new products and ideas. From the start, the Q-Lab and ESAL facilities at the
Bedford, Pennsylvania facility defined the state-of-the-art for bicycle testing,
examining not only our own frames and components, but every component on the
bike to our own rigorous standards, which usually far exceed the industry norms.
1989, Following rapid growth and enthusiasm for their new bikes in
the U.S., Cannondale Europe opens in Oldenzaal, Nederlands.
In 1991, Cannondale introduces the industry’s first production suspension
mountain bike, the E.S.T. (Elevated Suspension Technology). Interestingly, it
was rear suspension only. Front suspension was handled by a Girvin Flexstem.
In 1992, Cannondale revolutionized front suspension with the HeadShok,
an in-headtube, needle bearing suspension fork. The patented technology
developed for that original fork can still be found, in radically updated
form, in the current Lefty and HeadShok products.
In 1993, Cannondale introduces the Super V dual suspension bike, one
of the most original (and most widely imitated) bike designs in history.
It wins design and engineering awards from publications ranging from
Business Week to Popular Mechanics.
In 1994, the most successful mountain bike team in history is launched. Featuring legendary
riders like Tinker Juarez, Myles Rockwell, Missy Giove, Anne Caroline Chausson and
Cadel Evans, in their eight years, Volvo Cannondale won 11 World Championships,
17 World Cup titles, 16 National Championships, 89 World Cup wins, 33 NORBA wins,
2 Olympic games and 2 Pan-Am Games Gold medals. And that's just the wins.
AND THE INNOVATIONS KEPT COMING:
1994 - The Coda Magic crankset: these hollow ultralight, super-stiff
cranks also pioneered the external bearing BB design now used by
Shimano, FSA, SRAM and others.
1995 - The first front suspension road bike, the 2.8 Silk Road,
featuring the HeadShok SR fork.
1996 - The Super V DH downhill specific dual-suspension bike,
featuring the Moto 120 inverted dual crown fork, named Best
Downhill Bike Ever by Mountain Bike Action.
1997 - The radical Raven dual suspension bike, which
uses carbon halves bonded along an aluminum spine.
1997 - The wild Fulcrum DH bike. A “team only” race bike,
it featured a unique jack-shaft drivetrain and one of the
first “virtual pivot” suspensions in a mountain bike.
In 1997, Cannondale became the first U.S. manufacturer to sponsor a European Pro
road team, supplying bikes to the Saeco pro cycling team. It was a very good move.
In their first year, the team won the Giro d’Italia, and superstar sprinter Mario
Cipollini won two stages of the Tour de France and spent 4 days in the yellow jersey.
Saeco, Cannondale and the famous “Red Train” sprint leadout for Cipo forever changed
professional cycling, proving to the world that oversized aluminum was the future.
In 2000 Cannondale shocks the world yet again by launching Cannondale
Motorsports. Despite being radically advanced, winning a “Bike of the Year” award
and a World 4-Stroke Quad Championship (many of the innovations we pioneered
are used on top motocross bikes today), a softening motorcycle market and slow
initial sales force Cannondale to seek bankruptcy protection in 2003.
2003 - The moto assets are split from the healthy bicycle division, which
continues as Cannondale Bicycle Corporation. While the motorsports effort was
a failure, it exemplified Cannondale’s innovative attitude, technical prowess, and
strength (we actually came out of bankruptcy with more bike dealers than we
started with, and delivered a stream of bicycle innovations)
2000 - The iconic Lefty, single-sided front
suspension system was introduced. Lighter,
Stronger, Stiffer and Smoother than any other
fork on the market, it’s still turning heads
11 years after its introduction. A year later we
introduce electronic suspension to the industry
with our ELO, Electronic Lockout Lefty.
2001 - We created the BB30 standard, along with the Hollowgram Si Crankset –
the lightest and stiffest crankset in the world. We later release BB30 as a free
standard to anyone who wants to use it, improving the industry.
2002 - The Gemini DH bike, Another “team only” engineering exercise, the Gemini
has an innovative twin-shock design that offers “square inches” of travel.
2002 - We introduce the Scalpel, the world’s lightest dual suspension design. It
went on to become the winningest dual-suspension design in World Cup history.
The current evolution Scalpel is still the world’s lightest dual-suspension frameset.
2003 – Gilberto Simoni wins Cannondale’s
second Giro d’Italia aboard his CAAD7.
2003 – The innovative carbon and aluminum road bike, the Six13, is launched and
promptly wins a stage of the Tour de France. Mechanics are forced to add weights to the
bike to reach the UCI’s minimum 6.8 kg (14.99 lb.) bike weight which leads to the infamous
Legalize My Cannondale campaign. Igor Astorloa wins the World Championships.
2004 – Damiano Cunego of the Saeco
Cannondale team wins the Giro d’Italia on his
CAAD8 (Cannondale’s 3rd and the last Grand
Tour won on an aluminum frame).
2005 - Faris Al-Sultan wins Cannondale’s
first Ironman World Championship on his
Ironman Slice Aero time trial bike.
2006 – Cannondale launches its first full carbon road bike, the Synapse. With
its S.A.V.E micro-suspension technology, it represents a new “Performance”
category of road bike, blending race performance with all-day comfort.
2007 – We team up with the Liquigas pro cycling
team and win our fourth Giro d’Italia.
Mauricio Soler of the Barloworld Cannondale
team rides his Cannondale SystemSix to the
King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour de
France.
2008 – Cannondale introduces a pair of now legendary full carbon bikes:
the SuperSix road bike and Slice time trial machine.
2009 – Cannondale launches the Flash, the lightest, stiffest, smoothest mountain
bike hardtail ever created (complete bike weight 16.6 lbs-7.54 kg). It is the first
frame ever tested that exceeds 100 Nm/deg/kg in stiffness-to-weight testing.
2009 – Triathlete Chrissie Wellington wins the Kona
Ironman World Championship aboard her Slice Hi-Mod
aero bike, setting a new course record in the process.
Cyclocross stars Marco Aurelio Fontana and Tim
Johnson win the Italian and US national championships,
respectively, on their CAAD9 cross bikes.
Which brings us to
2010…and Cannondale is on a roll.
Ivan Basso wins Cannondale’s 5th Giro d’Italia and Vincenzo Nibali wins our
first Vuelta a España, netting Cannondale two of the three Grand Tours.
Mirinda Carfrae wins our second consecutive Ironman World Championship
The 2010 bike line is bursting with revolutionary innovation. We introduced the
OverMountain family of bikes, Claymore, Jekyll and Scarlet, which can morph
from short travel trail bikes to aggressive long travel bikes at the flick of a switch.
The all new Scalpel - the lightest,
stiffest, smoothest dual suspension
bike on the planet.
The most advanced
cyclocross bike ever created,
the new full carbon SuperX
And the jaw-dropping CAAD10, the
most advanced aluminum road frame
in the world - lighter, stiffer and
smoother than most carbon bikes.
With products, teams and employees like this, the future of
Cannondale and the future of cycling are looking very bright indeed.