Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

you get t hat far - in fact, it rea rs its Yes , it's a four-st roke , and it has a h eavy feel that w ill give your upper h ead as soon a s you pull away fro m bod y a w ork out o n t ight tracks , but th e truck . At v ery low en gine speeds, you ca n a lso cut ins ide the g roove if s uc h as those us ed wh en putt i ng you so d es ire , e ve n in sha rp turns. across th e p its , t he C annon d ale easily - very Th at sai d, th e MX400 is also o ne easil y - dies and stalls. It can of t he m o st · st abl e b ik es we've ridden al so happen on th e trac k , like when a in qu it e som e t ime , sta y ing arrow - to u g h p ositio n - ba tt le or y o u r t iring s t raig h t a n d in spirin g co nfi d e nc e b ody cau se a lapse in concentrati o n , wh en trav ers ing c ros sgra i n , S up er- but rath er than following in st inct a n d c ro ss wh o ops o r e ven when c u t ti ng goi n g for th e cl u tc h when th is hap - acros s ruts at an angle. It h as a pre- p ens , it 's best to k e ep r p m s st ea d y d ic ta b le feel in the a ir, a n d la n d s so ft - and roll the throttl e on . Aga in , th e Iy , a nd e ve n t hough we want t o t r y p roblem is most e v iden t wh en simply stiffer coil s in the fork , th e su spensi on riding fro m t h e pits t o the track . is extremely We know thi s i s b eg inni ng to im p ressiv e overall. so und like a light-flywheel matter , b ut So, what about t h e m o t o r ? W e ll , we like t h e t hing , but b efore we go o n b i t un c on v e nt i o n al , a nd tha t yo u 'll have t o add a few n ew too ls t o you r It's alive! Cannondale's MX400 is the fi rst four-stroke motocrosser t o come standard w ith a n alum in um perimeter fra me. not grab fo r the cl utch) ; and C annon- we fee l com pell ed to m en t ion a fa irly ca n say t ha t so me of its ha rdwa re is a it feels d ifferent ( he nce our advice t o about it s performa n ce o n the tra ck , da le ' s ex p la nation suppo rts this in tu - major gl itch tha t is exh ibi ted b e fo re it io n . T ech s say it 's a glitc h in t he bo x . T hough Ca n no ndale's extens ive p ress c o v e rag e has made u s fa milia r with the bike's appeara nce for qu ite some time, we 're still am azed at what La Po rt e also spun a fe w la p s for us ) . After just a few circu its each on the b ike , all came back co mplain i ng about a stink -bug feel , b u t wh en a a fine -looking mach ine it is . The softer shock spring was installed , that b eau ti fu ll y w elded frame , flow ing lines di sappeared and the bike assumed a and rich red co lor call to m in d a level feel. The rear suspens ion a lso D u c at i or Ferrari , and the bike feels continued to function just fin e, though co mfortable when you throw a leg in t he futu re, we'd like to try redress- over the sea t. ing the high -back feel b y running It also feels lar g e , with a thick m id - stiffer fo rk springs . section and a tall -feeling sea t height, At an y rate , the softer rear p retty q ua li t ies that some w ill no d o ubt .find m uch d id t h e j o b, a n d t h e tall feel trou bli ng , b ut t hat we re welcome by t h a t was evident in t h e pi ts pretty a ll three of our t e st e r s (we had o ne muc h disappears o n th e track , thanks ve t pro an d t w o experienced novic es in pa r t to a re latively low cen ter of spend considera b le t ime o n t he bi ke, gra vi ty t h at makes it easy to throw and fo rmer W o rl d C h ampion D anny the bike f rom side t o si de in corners. As a m ot orcycl e aficionado, y ou probabl y have a pretty good rea d on the motorcycle industry's (albei t div ided ) opinion of the MX400, But since Cannon dale was building bicy cle s long befo re it even tho ught about the idea of manufactu ring a motorized two -wheel er, we decid ed to talk to Zapata Espinoza, editor of Mountain Bike magazine, to get an idea of what bicycl ists thought of the move, What is your perc eption of Cannon dale, the bicycl e company? The leader in technological innovation, Of all the bicycle manufacturers , Cannondale is the one tha t consistentl y comes up with exciting new technology, again and again, The MX400 is making news for severa l untraditional feat ures, but Cannondale is also known for introducing novel concepts, such as a one- sid ed fork and a j ack- shaft downhill bike , Is Cannondale's technology all fla sh, or is it also functiona l? That's th e curious th ing about Cann cndale. It started in '83 with the Pong Bike - a machined-aluminum conce pt bike designed by Al ex Pong . Cann ondal e commits to crazy th ing s and has th em fall through, The y have a legacy of flash , and th ey'v e taken it on the chin a few times. But it' s with those chances th at they'v e gotte n to the point where they are now - able to build a new motorcycl e from the ground up . What is the bicy cle industry's take on Cannond ale putting attention and resources into building a motorcycle? Forward- thi nki ng bicyclists und erstand and ap preciate it. The maj ority of bike geeks continue to have this festering sense of contem pt for m otorcy cles, failing to recognize the im pact that motorcycl e tec hnolo gy has had in furth erin g mountain bik e tec hnology, They snick er, even thou gh they have to accept - begrudgingly - the inroads motorcycl e tech nology has made for th eir sport, Th ey see it as Cann ondale selling out , wh ic h is just absurd. Cann onda le is a public com pany, and as I und erstand it, they had a responsibility to their shareho ld ers to make it m or e profi tab le with the flattening out of th e bicycl e industry - to becom e less of a bicycle company and more of a technology co mpany . They tri ed som e other ideas, like high-performance wheel chairs, whi ch didn't work out, but they co ntin ue to look for new op portuniti es. Being Ameri can bikes, they've always focused on hi gher-end product compared to some of the companies that have their stuff made in the or ient. They introduced their first suspens ion bike in 1990 , at the Durango World s, where they've had a rear-suspension bik e that I rode with a coil- spring shoc k , and ever since they been ahead of the curve, Sometimes they go into that curve a litt le too hot, but they alway s pull through. Anything else? One thing I always bring up is J oe and Scott Montgome ry [Joe is the com pany 's founder and president] : they dr ive that com pany , and all the peopl e at Cannonda le dri ve so hard. They're j ust as competitive with new bicycle stuff as ever, on the road and in the dirt . I don't know where they come up with the time. Cannondale had a lot of co mpany personnel on han d at its official press introduct ion of the 200 1 MX400 at Elsinore MX T rack , and we button- holed a couple of them (Vice President of Produc t Development Mario Galasso, and team ri der and chief tester Keith J ohn son) for separate interviews on wha t it's like to for a bic ycle company to enter the motor cycl e market, The following quotes are excerpts: Mario Galasso • "We 've got a real strong team on the bicycle side right now - and the motorcycle side - but because of what the company's try ing to do with the motorsports stuff, I spend probably 90 per cent of my time on the motorcycles." • "When I first came to Cann ond ale, Chris (0'A luisio, for mer pro road racer and current head engineer on the Cannondale motorcycle project] kind of took me under his wing ...I kne w his motorcycle background, and I always rode motorcy cles growi ng up , and we always joked about doi ng the motorcycle, And the ti mi ng was rig ht .• "The way the project sta rted , was when the '97 CRs came out, and everyo ne was raggi ng on the m for how harsh they were, It was kind of deja vu because we got the same ki nds of com m ents about ou r aluminum-framed bicycles...We started work ing on a Head Shok [Cann ond ale's bicycle for k] motorcycle fork t o work with the stiff alumi num fr ame. One thing led to- another, and we met some people who introduced us to some engine peop le, and before we knew it we were doing the whole th ing." • "The YZs [fou r-strokes ] weren't out yet when we started the projec t. Bartolini and J ohansson were raci ng [the prototyp e/factory bike] in Europe, and Henry did Vegas and was go ing to start to do the out door stuff. Yam aha was ju st beginn ing to get talke d about, but we were actu ally benc h -marking everything - Husabergs, two-strokes, four-strokes. " • "T he goal from the beginn ing was to m ake dri vable, trac table pow er in a nimble two-s tro ke chassis, Husabergs at the t im e were light and stuff, but they didn't handl e very well and had ki nd of weird geometry. Th e 250 two-strokes, for th e average guy, were really too mu ch bik e. We want ed to buil d a bike that cate red to every one - that could be tun ed for a guy like Keith , but a guy like me could go faster on it than I could on a 250, We didn't want to build a four -stroke that had all the four -stroke charact eristic s." • "T he bicycle market was starti ng to flatt en out in Eu rope and here, so it was a business decision, and to put another leg under the stool and give the company some stabi li ty. When certain things fluctuate throughout the season, we've got mor e than on e market to help even thi ngs out." • "We could go through each [unconventional tec hnologica l feat ure] and why we did it, but mainly, we didn't want to make a 'me-too.' ...Bein g new to it and go ing up agai nst tho se guys who are so established. we couldn't j ust come out w ith 'me-too ' things, If the Japanese came out with some of th is stuff, people might raise the ir eyebrows and think it was goofy, but fo r us, becaus e we're sm all and try ing to be different, they kind of say, 'Well, yea h, maybe." • "When yo u get to start wi th a clean sheet , yo u get to loo k at some th ing s. The Ja panese make exce lle nt bik es, and I' m sure t hey ' ve got some similar ideas, but they kind of have to wor k off of platforms , but we didn't have one, so our platform is very differentiated ." Ke ith J ohnson • "You always thi nk you're at a po int where you think you 're there, but between [that poi nt] and now, I j ust look back and see all the progr ess we'v e m ade since then...You don't reall y realize [the prog ress yo u've made] until you loo k back to where yo u were six. seven months ago ." • "When they brou ght the m otor in -house and decid ed to build it themselves, tha t was a pretty big und erta king . It took quit e a bit out o f th em , and it too k quite a whil e to get bac k to where they were," • "It was ju st a lot of little th ing s that set us bac k - never reall y any m ajor th ings , but th ings that k ind of took som e time." • "N ow I'm getti ng m ore involved in 2002 , 2003. That's the stuff that I'm work ing on now . I'm more involved in getting thing s from my mind, onto paper, onto th e bike.. .1 don 't actuall y draw th e plans; I show them what I want , g ive them a rough guess timate of what it look s lik e, and they take measurements and make it. " • "We hav e a bi ke that we're worki ng on now that will be like the 2003 bi ke, It' s a little bit different, really uni que, and th ey have a lot of othe r projects they're wor kin g on tha t are k ind of hush-hush." c ue . e n e _ s • S E PTEM B E R 6 , 2000 33

• Cover