The Bad Boy isn’t a new kid on the block; Cannondale’s urban bike has been around for nearly 25 years. But for 2017, the American company refreshed the city bike with a belt drive, integrated LED lights, top tube 'armor' and more.
There are four bikes in the new Bad Boy lineup, which sports a minimalist aesthetic. With internal cable routing on the top-end models, and very cleverly routed cables and housing on the entry-level models, Cannondale kept things high and tight.
The famously left-brained company also pushed towards, you guessed it, Lefty forks on all models. Previously only top-end models possessed Lefty forks of the suspended kind, now all models are Lefty, but all are rigid.
Be seen
Although all available models come black on black on black, you’re not unseen atop the new Bad Boy. The design team added a set of reflective elements on the frame that help bring the bike to life under lit conditions.
In addition to the reflective components, the Bad Boys 1 and 2 have a set of USB-rechargeable integrated lights for the seatpost and fork. The new fork, coined the “Lightpipe Lefty”, has a top-to-bottom integrated white LED. This falls in to the category of “be seen”, rather the “be able to see” kind of light.
The top two models also have the seatpost integrated LED set-up for completing the rider visibility package.
Bad Boy joins the aluminati
As a final addition, Cannondale reached in to its bag of aluminum tricks and made an advancement in frame assembly techniques. In sticking with the industry-standard three-letter acronym, it's named the new construction method OPI (One-Piece Integrated).
It falls within the same Smartform protocol the company has been pushing in recent aluminum models, like that of the CAAD 12. For the Bad Boy this means a one-piece head tube and down tube, with a small gusset welded on the bottom of the head tube. The claim is that this is eliminating pieces and complexity.
The new lineup has 650b wheels with 40mm tires (35mm on the 3 and 4) and a crafty protective strip along the top tube to prevent dings when leaning the bike.
Bad Boy vs. the competition
The Bad Boy will find some pretty steep competition from bikes like the Specialized Sirrus and the Trek FX lineup.
Lighting, racks, fender mounts, accessory compatibility and serviceability are all major drivers when deciding on the ideal commuter or urban utility bike. Does the Bad Boy check all your boxes for your next urban/commuter bike?
The bikes are available now and range in price from $870 to $1,840. UK and Australian pricing was not immediately available.
