Cannondale Bad Boy

Price Paid:  $1000.00 at Lokal store

Favorite Ride:
Early morning, deserted streets

Bike Setup:
Time Impact pedals, Magura HS-33 brakes, Ultegra cassette, Continental Grand prix tyres, Nokian W106 studded tyres in the winter (makes this street fighter turn into a tractor...), Cat eye Day lights. Frog honker...

Summary:
God bike for commuting, a few changes make it perfect. The mountain bike gears is no good on asphalt, fixed by changing to Ultegra cassette. Flipping the stem up side down gives a more suitable riding position (for me anyway). The stock Hutchinson tyres are crap, way to many snakebites. I switched to Continental grand prix 26x1 tyres, faster and more puncture resistant. Just remember to inflate to maximum pressure. I’ve come to term whit the seat after hundreds of miles of baboon ass... I’ve also changed to Magura hydraulic rim brakes (HS-33) for emergency stopping power, great feeling in them but a bit on the heavy side. The body on my rear hub split in two after about 4000km, but that is the only thing witch I have managed to break despite a number of crashes.

Strengths:
Fast, good looking, stiff frame. Durable, works in all weathers and seasons. Rely price worthy. It's a cannondale!

Weaknesses:
Stock tyres, and gearing. No disk brake mount limites you options. The deralliers tend to freze up if riding in cold and wet weather.

Similar Products Used:
Different mountain bikes and hybrids.

Price Paid:  $1150.00

Bike Setup:
11/23 Ultegra cassette with granny wheel plus 38 plus 48 chainset up front (the original ratios were far too low for my purposes, but I'd imagine they'd be more useful if you're planning on doing a lot of off-road riding); SPD clipless pedals; Ritchey bar ends; clip-on tribars. I also cut 1.5 inches off each end of the handlebars to improve aero position. Next buy will be a decent saddle.

Summary:
My racing bike was taking a hammering because I was riding it in all weather conditions and over some bad road surfaces, so I bought the Bad Boy as a winter/bad weather/training/commuter bike. While I can definitely feel its weight compared to my racing bike when riding with a road training group (but that's only to be expected given that it's more of an all-purpose machine and is much less fragile than the racing bike), I'm still very impressed with the Bad Boy's performance, versatility and feel. Looks and colour are great too.

Strengths:
Stiff frame, fast, very strong and durable, looks.

Weaknesses:
Horrible, cheap standard saddle (soon to be replaced!)

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $1000.00 at Seaspeed, Brussels

Favorite Ride:
Overijse

Bike Setup:
replaced original pedals by SPDs, had the original 26x1.0s replaced by 26x1.75 schwalbes. during summer, I put on 26x1.25s slicks

Summary:
Previous bike was stolen and I looked for a minimal bike with a decent complete group with which I could commute and during the weekends, go off-road.

This bike makes cycling much more fun and moreover, you don't find bikes as nice as this one in this pricerange - it's almost a piece of art.

When equiped with the 26x1.75 Schwalbes, this bike is excellent for cross-country. The position (my bike is size XL - I'm 1m90) is perfect, in my opinion, and from time to time, even my girlfriend rides it (she's 1m82). She too is convinced that this bike flies uphill :-).

Strengths:
minimalism, lightness, cycling-position, stiff!!!, polyvalence (town, off-road)

Weaknesses:
Bracket had to be replaced after 1200 km

Similar Products Used:
I now also have a scalpel 2000 :-)

Price Paid:  $890.00 at Velosport

Favorite Ride:
Cannondale Bad Boy

Bike Setup:
Selle Italia Flite saddle, soon to be installed Magura HS33 brakes and new Easton CT2 seatpost. Will get some Crank Bros Egg Beaters asap (now basic SPD clipless pedals). Deore bits changed to LX

Weinmann ZAC 2000 rims on Shimano Parallax hubs, Bontrager Revolt X tires (for winter, will put slicks back on as soon as spring comes)

Summary:
I am working as bike messenger in Helsinki, Finland. I direly needed new, fast durable bike. After doing some research, I decided on Cannondale BB. The other alternative would have been Marin Point Reyes, but am not too keen on disc brakes (they practically scream 'steal me!')

Strengths:
Light, very very fast, superb handling, climbs and accelerates. Reasonably durable

Weaknesses:
Crap saddle, too soft for my butt. Seatpost clamp does little to inspire confidence. Stem on the short side. Stock seatpost does not allow moving the saddle very far back.

Similar Products Used:
Various messenger bikes

Price Paid:  $900.00 at Lohman Amsterdam

Bike Setup:
Maccarozi front suspension.
Magura HS33 brakes
BBB bar ends
Cannondale SPD compatable pedals
IRC 2,1 knobbies for mountain biking
TUBUS rear panier

Summary:
This is a bike for almost every purpose. If I could only keep one of my five bikes I would choose this one. I've used it in the original setup for commuting and also for road cycling when I'd heart my shoulder and was not able to ride my roadbike. The only problem is that the gearing is not ideal for high speed road cycling.
I mounted front suspension, magura brakes and of course knobbies for mountain biking in Autria. As long as you don't need a fully, the bad boy performs great as a mountain bike!
Equipped with the superb TUBUS panniers and Schwalbe Marathon 1.5 tyres it's the perfect bike for a bike holiday.

I never had a bike that performs so good under so different conditions!

Strengths:
Frame

Weaknesses:
Poor Cassette