Cannondale Bicycle Corporation

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. The Valiant Charger was a short wheelbase coupe variant of the Chrysler Australia Valiant. In the mountain biking circuit, Cannondale had sponsored the Volvo/Cannondale racing team (including world champions Anne-Caroline Chausson and Missy Giove), the SoBe/Cannondale racing team and various individual 24 hour racers such as Bicycling Hall of Famer and US National 24 hour Champion David "Tinker" Juarez. A Charger is large dish often placed under a dinner plate for aesthetic table presentation. More recently, the entire Saeco team raced a stage of the 2003 Tour de France wearing a Legalize my Cannondale chaingang cycling kit to protest the UCI's lower bound on bike weight which means that their six13 prototype team bikes were underweight and required the installation of additional weight. Cipollini's antics are legendary, including showing up to the stage start at the Tour de France dressed in a Julius Caesar-inspired toga complete with an olive wreath, riding on a carriage pulled by his teammates on bicycles.

The Saeco team is known for their pranks and antics. (Saeco International Group, based in Bologna manufactures coffee machines.). Saeco's Stefano Zanini won the US Pro Championship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA in 2003. Cannondale also currently sponsors numerous road racing teams, including the Saeco team (now Lampre-Caffita as of 2005) which has won the Giro d'Italia in 2003 with Gilberto Simoni and 2004 with Damiano Cunego.

The image of Mario Cipollini approaching the TV camera right after a win to say, 'Cannondale makes the best bikes!' propelled Cannondale's popularity among road racers. Cannondale's sponsorship in the Division I road racing circuit started with the sponsorship of Mario Cipollini's Saeco (cycling team) team in the late 1990's, memorable for Cipollini's 4 consecutive stage wins in the 1999 Tour de France. Both of these technologies are just now being utilized by other manufacturers with great acceptance, while they are a decade-old technology for Cannondale. As well as being the only company for years to use a 1.5" headtube diameter.

Cannondale was the first to produce a crankset that uses externally mounted bottom bracket bearings. The Leftys' are lighter, stronger and steer more precisely than any competitors forks with the same amount of travel. It uses the same technology of the Headshok, but wanting more travel led to moving the the telescoping unit off to the side to have enough room for the travel. The "Lefty" is an unusual looking fork, because it only has a left side or leg.

which is a tightness at the top of the travel that must be overcome to initiate travel, and also reduces overall performance. This eliminates flexing of the fork legs, and also eliminates "stiction". It uses bearings to reduce the friction for super smooth travel, the bearings telescope inside the steerer tube of the fork. It started with the "Headshok" forks.

Cannondale has also developed a suspension fork called the Lefty. 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 crank and bottom bracket set weigh 80 grams less than Dura-Ace. Cannondale also developed a proprietary bottom bracket technology called Hollowgram which is featured in its high-end bikes since 2001.

Because of the light weight riders would have to add weight to the bike for it to be permitted for competition use. Cannondale advertised its light weight frameset with the slogan "Legalize my Cannondale". It should also be noted that the Union Cycliste Internationale has established a 15 lb (6.8 kg) minimum weight limit. 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.

Its change in warranty policy has also been criticized. Cannondale has recently been criticized for its insistence on using aluminum instead of considering carbon fiber, which is emerging in popularity. Interestingly, this change coincided with the transformation of Team Saeco's (a Division 1/ProTour cycling team that rides on Cannondales) from being essentially a lead-out train for uber-sprinter Mario Cipollini to a more balanced team, with grand tour and all-around riders like Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego. The CAAD6 and CAAD7 models reversed the oversized aluminum tubing design and instead used better shaping to retain the efficiency and improve comfort.

Later editions of the CAAD series sported S-bend aluminum seat stays introduced in the CAAD3 model for improving comfort. It nonetheless gained popularity in the US criterium circuit, helped by its generous warranty policy. The earlier models sported oversized down tubes for increased stiffness and resulted in frames that are super-stiff and super-efficient, but considered by many to be extremely uncomfortable. Cannondale started its foray into aluminum racing frames in the 1980s with their CAAD series frames.

. Recent years saw Cannondale attempt to enter the motorcycle business and failing miserably, causing the company to declare bankruptcy to get rid of its motor sports division. (Regarding the development of aluminum frame bicycles, see also Gary Klein). 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.

The company was founded in 1971 by Joe Montgomery to manufacture backpacks and bags for camping and later bicycle trailers for bicycle touring. The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation NASDAQ: BIKEQ is a major American bicycle manufacturer, headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut USA and manufacturing in Bedford, Pennsylvania USA. Giant Manufacturing (Taiwan). Pacific Cycle (USA).

Specialized Bicycle Components (USA). Trek Bicycle Corporation (USA).