Trust Cannondale to come up with this concept. Some very interesting ideas for the daily commute. Lets just hope some of them trickle down to Joe public and don't stay exclusively for the silly rich.

Why does it have Avid code brakes, a light city bike does NOT need the power of a code! an elexir would be lighter, cheaper, more reliable, and look better....

This looks quite a nice bit of kit, but... i can't think of anything that all this extra technology will achieve and bring to the user as a recognised and needed advantage over what already exists? (apart from being able to mend a puncture in the rear tube easier, and for people who can't be bothered to clean and lube their chains)

I like the idea of the enclosed drivetrain, but apart from that what benfits (other than looking interesting) does this design bring? Not being negative, I genuinely would like to know if it offers a real step forward.

Canny Jock

I was thinking the exact same thing :) A very interesting design methinks, which also looks very outlandish.

However, as a structural engineer my personal opinion is that it's structurally unsound. I don't mean that it's going to fall apart but a conventional bike has seat stays for a reason (to create a stiff triangle at the back). The fact that it doesn't have them puts a lot of stress on the bottom bracket area which has to be beefed up to take the extra load.

The asymetric rear chain stay also means you have to beef the joint up some more between the chain stay and the bottom bracket area so the whole bike doesn't bend unecessarily when you sit on it/turn round a corner. In this respect I'm not sure if it represents a great idea (from an engineering perspective) but have to admit I quite like the look of it !!

The same goes for the forks. Cannondale do a lot of single arm forks and you can see just how much thicker they need to be to stop the wheels/forks from bending sideways when you go round bends etc. This probably isn't a problem for a commuter but adds more mass to the bike.

Overall though, well done to Cannondale for pushing the boundaries and for making something rather unusual

Different? yep, better? IMO not really.

I assume that enclosing the drivetrain would create difficulties in removing the rear wheel. With a one sided chain stay, the need to remove the wheel is much less as you can change tyres etc.. with the wheel on the bike.

maybe that was the idea behind the rear 'righty'

It looks amputated...

Nice and cool and different and everything, but 4K? Only one person that I can think of on her has enough top end Cannondales to buy one (Xgreygoose)

Escargot

the lefty design is either stiffer or lighter than the 2 legged competition, most often it's both. It's also more expensive and suss action is arguable but structurally it is sound and really *really* stiff. Sometimes structures outperform our observational assessment.

The rear I'm less convinced on, except to say plenty of single pivot swing arm sus bikes out there and there's plenty of width in which to create an opposing moment, I suspect the use of a BB30 oversised shell will aid that

it's unique looking enough that at 2k I might be tempted

really think they should have thought themselves around using a belt drive though....

engineering for engineering's sake - pointless excercise by cannondale again

lefty fork- pointless

computeris fork thingy - pointless

this ,thing,- pointless

pointless for every reason other than - ooh look at how different we are, and how much money we can waste

Also.... dropping the seat stay makes a rack a bit more of a hassle to design and fit, and would require strengthening the seatpost/tube more and hence adding even more weight where a double triangle copes fine. Side panniers are a bit of a no-no too and would need a substantial bit of extra kit to fit them.

IMO Maybe cannondale need to accept that the double triangle frame is actually a fine design as it is and doesn't need re-designing at every opportunity.

clearly a cannondale its ugly as sin.heres a challenge for them design a nice looking cannondale

clearly you haven't used a lefty stAnBadBrainsMBC like most people who slag them off. Legin, I have two very lovely looking Cannondales so IMO you are wrong too.

to follow like a sheep the boring middle line is a waste of time and possibility, I bet you shop in next and fat face, fashion for people without style!

It's an excellent design! Very appealing visually.

However, two possible problems with the OnBike are:

- Pannier use: is it possible at all? And if so, how much load would the system manage? I understand that a bike produced in such limited quantities would almost invariably be more of a collectible jewel, a status symbol item than one of extended functionality and versatility. And it probably would carry quite a few times its current cost.

- All current dynamos (at this time of particular interest to me are the Schmidt 20 & 28 models), are incompatible with Lefty forks. Completely and utterly unacceptable! This obviously goes for all Lefty-equipped Cannondales. Cannondale, do team up with Schmidt Nabendynamo to manufacture Lefty-compatible hub generators! Pease, for goodness' sake, do it: Schmidt is willing to collaborate, why not you? At the moment, SON dynamos are compatible with all fork systems, but the Lefty! Hub dynamos advantages are numerous.

- Fenders. Fitting front fenders is tricky enough (you know, not all Cannondalers live in Los Angeles). And then there's the rear which most likely, won't accept any of the extant mudguards!

- In potential, the durability of the bicycle may be much compromised by its design properties. However, it mustn't necessarily be the case as quite a few of high-end racing motorcycles use one-sided swingarms as well.

All-in-all, a revolutionary idea, beautifully-engineerd, but with a few drwabacks in need to be addressed.

By the way, if you think, Cannondale, that your lefty-equipped CrossCountry bikes are used by XC-riders exclusively, you're mistaken. I, for instance, use my F1 primarily for touring, and the lack of a dynamo compatibility is a reason enough for me to consider turning to your competition.