April 27, 20105 Comments on Josh Duhamel rides a bicycle
Actor Josh Duhamel rides his bicycle in the rain.
October 7, 20099 Comments on Cannondale Hooligan
I saw this Cannondale Minivelo bike (or is it a BMX hybrid?) in a Taiwan bike magazine.
The Cannondale Hooligan has a beefy Al frame, a Lefty style fork, 20″ wheels. Available with a SRAM 3 speed hub or Sunrace 8 speed derailleur. The short wheelbase means twitchy handling, which is not so great for speedy mountain descents but is perfect for the urban environment Cannondale is targeting for this bike.
Best of all, this bike is apparently available in the United States.
June 19, 20082 Comments on Collab: G-Star RAW + Cannondale
Cannondale introduced the Special Edition “RAW” bicycle last March as a special edition collaboration with fashion label G-Star RAW. The bike features what Cannondale calls a “no-scratch” finish, which is perfect for stacking your bike on the train. 8 speed Alfine 8-speed internal hub gearing, integrated lights, internal cable routing, disc brakes, HeadShok front suspension, fenders and chainguard complete the urban utility of the Cannondale RAW.
Bicycle Design’s James T talked with Cannondale designer chief Torgny Fjeldskaar about this bike last January — Click here for more. More details about the Cannondale RAW here. Orangutan Studio blogged about it and reminded me of this bike.
March 13, 200818 Comments on Exclusive video: Cannondale ON urban folding bike
Last summer Cyclelicious reported on the Cannondale Jackknife folding bicycle. Cannondale announced that because of overwhelming interest from customers and the media, they decided to move forward from concept to reality with the production of the Cannondale ON bicycle.
Cyclelicious talked with Cannondale product manager Yngwie Malmsteen, who claimed the ON will fold to “fit a small carry on suitcase.” We were skeptical until Yngwie showed us this amazing video.
Find out more about the Cannondale ON urban bicycle (yes, it’s real) at Cannondale Community. Treehugger, via WIRED.
In other news, James reports that sales of “hybrid bikes” were up a healthy 6% in 2007 over the previous year. According to the research service he cites, “Consumers are taking to bikes like never before, and they’ve got good reason. The expense of maintaining, fueling and parking a car is making them think twice about all those short trips to the grocery store, and even the commute to work.” In spite of recession (or perhaps because of it?), “one sector of the economy that did surprisingly well in 2007 was bicycle sales.” Something that may take some wind out of that trend, though, is the news that prices are expected to increase this year on everything throughout the bike industry — from semi-finished product suppliers; component makers up to bike manufacturers. The prices are expected to be raised by at least 10 to 15%!
February 5, 20082 Comments on Canada buys Cannondale, Sugoi
Dorel Industries Inc announced the acquisition of Cannondale Bicycle Corporation of Bethel, CT. Dorel — which owns the U.S. based Pacific Cycles which in turn markets Schwinn, GT Bicycle, Mongoose, Pacific, Dyno, Murray, RoadMaster, PowerLite and InSTEP brands of bicycle products — also announced the creation of an Independent Bicycle Dealers division to differentiate the Cannondale and GT bikes from the mass merchant retail products that the other brands primarily focus on, with Cannondale the “crown jewel” of this new division. Sugoi Performance Apparel (which is already Canadian, but who’s paying attention) is also included in the purchase from the investment group that currently owns Cannondale and Sugoi. Pacific Cycles will be a stand alone division focusing on the mass merchant channel. The purchase price will be somewhere around US$200 million.
Dorel stated they are seeking acquisitions of of similar high quality, performance bicycle companies to join this new IBD group.
“Dorel recognizes that doing business with the IBD and mass merchant categories is two very different things and requires distinct strategies and specialized people selling the best products for those channels. We clearly realize this and are making the necessary adjustments to best meet the needs of our customers,” said Dorel President and CEO Martin Schwartz.
Cannondale’s insane foray into motorcycles bankrupted the company in 2003. After the sale of company assets in a bankruptcy auction, the company sold off its motorcycles operations and was able to turn itself around with a renewed focus on bicycle design and production.
Margins are signficantly higher than mass market bicycles, but Dorel also recognizes that dealing with the IBD channel is “vastly different” from the mass market. “We need to focus much more on quality and innovation,” said Schwartz. “Relationships and personal contact are much more important for the independent bike dealers.”
Cannondale’s manufacturing and assembly currently is done in the United States and Europe; Dorel’s management said they’ll look at how much to move to Asia. With Cannondale’s acquisition and the current business from GT, Dorel hopes to be the number three player in the IBD channel behind Trek and Giant.
Via; props also to Jennifer for the heads up.
August 30, 200717 Comments on Cannondale folding bicycle
Cannondale designer Chris Dodman shows off the prototype folding bicycle at Eurobike 2007. This is a full size bike with 26″ inche wheels that folds back so the front wheel overlaps the rear wheel. That beefy chainguard you see is also an integrated chainstay and rear wheel rocker, providing all of the support for the rear wheel. The non-drive side is completely empty.
This bicycle has SRAM’s iMotion 9 speed hub which has been modified for the unique characteristics of this folder.
Like the rear wheel, the front wheel is supported on one side with a one-sided “fork,” kind of like the Lefty fork, except this one is a “Righty.” This enables more compact folding of the bike.
According to the German cycling magazine Aktiv Radfahren, production of this bike is dependent on dealer response to this prototype.
Read more also at Bike Radar, where they talk about urban bike offerings from Cannondale (including the new Hooligan) and Bianchi.