There are few moments that can truly rock the foundations of American professional cyclocross. One such moment occurred just moments ago, when it was announced that the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com professional cyclocross team would no longer be astride Cannondale’s famed aluminum cyclocross frames that have become synonymous in recent years with domestic cyclocross success. In their stead, however, will stand the new crown jewel of Cannondale’s cyclocross line, the Cannondale SuperX.
Countless hours of development have gone into the Cannondale SuperX, thanks in no small part to the input of Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com riders Tim Johnson, Jeremy Powers and Jamey Driscoll and team director Stu Thorne. The Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com team has provided invaluable feedback, through extensive field testing in America’s harshest cyclocross conditions, that has shaped the production of the Cannondale SuperX. While this will be the first year that the team is bucking their traditional aluminum for its carbon fiber brethren, Johnson, Powers and Driscoll will be as comfortable now as when Johnson first rolled out his CAAD9 Cannondale cyclocross machine in 2006.
While Cannondale is already a company that has based itself on achieving landmark lows when it comes to bicycle weights, they may have outdone themselves with the Cannondale SuperX. With a claimed weight that tips the scales at a mere 1060 grams, and only 1400 grams including the fork, the Cannondale SuperX shaves an astounding 600 grams off of Cannondale’s previous cyclocross offerings. As team director Stu Thorne put it, “We’ve built some sweet, light cross bikes in the past, but the new rig takes the cake.”
Cannondale cut no corners to get the weight down on a frame that the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com will put on display across the nation once the cyclocross season kicks off in full this coming September. A completely new fork accounts for a significant amount of weight loss, thanks to the addition of a tapered steerer tube for added stiffness and a weight reduction, and the switch to carbon fiber, renowned for its lightness as well as its stiffness and compliance, does its part to achieve a masterpiece of engineering. While many companies may have had offerings featuring carbon fiber in the past, Cannondale elected to take its time, refining its use of the material in the road market, and unveiling a polished and complete finished product that should be a world-beater from the get go.
For the SuperX, Cannondale melds the groundbreaking “HammerTime” carbon, which uses technology initially developed by the Japanese military for ballistic armor and perfected by Cannondale’s Flash mountain bike line, and combines it with the race-proven geometry that the Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com has come to know and love through its aluminum cyclocross series. Another important design feature added with racers in mind is an ovalized top tube that will make shouldering the bike as comfortable as possible.
The buzz surrounding the Cannondale SuperX is sure to be intense, and Cannondale’s Cannondale SuperX is equally sure to turn the world of cyclocross on its head. Luckily, Cannondale has the able bodies of Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com’s Tim Johnson, Jeremy Powers and Jamey Driscoll to ensure that it’s maiden season is a successful one.
