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Spy Shot! Cannondale 29er Scalpel Full Suspension Mountain Bike

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Cannondale had their near-production ready Scalpel 29er tucked away in their truck, and we’ve got your sneak peek!

 

It has 100mm front and rear travel, which means this is their first 100mm 29er fork (they are 90mm on their hardtails). It borrows the SAVE seatstays from the 26″ scalpel and pivotless dropout, but it does get a pivot at the front of the chainstays. The SAVE seatstays are designed to flex a little, but nothing like the Flexstays on the 2011 26″ Scalpel. Borrowing from the Jekyll, it gets 15mm thru axles for the main and link pivots and a Syntace X12 (x142) rear axle.

Lots more after the break…

 

Pressfit30 BB gives them a lighter, all carbon bottom bracket node.

 

It has an external headset cup at the top of the headtube that gives it a lower standover height. The design worked so well for them that the Scalpel 29er is the first 29er bike they’ll make in a Small size. Frame and shock weigh about 1900g (claimed) for a size large, which is what we weighed.

 

Headtube angle is 70 degrees and seat angle is 73.5 degrees. BB height is 335mm and chainstay length is 452mm. They worked closely with both Fox and Rockshox for rear shock tunes, and both will be offered on various trim levels.

 


Two carbon models will be offered, coming out in September/October. Prices TBD. Top model will have their Hollowgram SL cranks, and both will have the Lefty fork.

 

Most of the frame is monocoque high modulus carbon, but several construction methods are used throughout the frame. Johannes Huseby, Cannondale’s director of global product management, says this lets them build a lighter overall frame.

Bike weighed had SRAM X0, Stans wheels with DT hubs, Schwalbe Racing Ralph tires, Fizik seatpost and saddle. It came in at 21lbs 4oz. More pics coming soon, but had to get this up ASAP!

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17 Comments
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knut
knut
12 years ago

One word, SICK!! Better start saving..

Epic29r
Epic29r
12 years ago

good to see another 142/12 rear….can’t wait for the comparo to Epic29

Varaxis
Varaxis
12 years ago

1900g is just under 4.2 lbs or 4 lbs 3 oz. 21lbs and 4 oz for the entire build is crazy light for a 100mm FS 29er. The top of the line S-Works Epic is the only thing that comes close in complete bike weight and I think the SF100 was the lightest FS 29er frame until this.

Fairly clean looking. Full length cable housing probably adds quite a bit of weight, but I see it helps shield the downtube and the rear brake line follow the top-left side of the downtube. What happened to internal cable routing these days? Just slap on some real armor on the downtube, IMO.

greg
greg
12 years ago

Finally…
weight is impressive. this is coming from an Sworks Epic29 owner.
Glad they ditched their flex-bb-pivot thing as it was way too progressive, seriously hindering real rear suspension performance. no doubt that was the first thing Peter Denk binned when tackling this project.
cant “weight” to try it! (cheesy)

Squirrel
12 years ago

More images, info and exclusive video for the Scalpel 29 at http://www.bikemag.com/mantle/sneak-peek-cannondales-scalpel-29/

Beat you to it this time Tyler! 😉

-Squirrel

John
John
12 years ago

is not so , ibis 29er may look better

John
John
12 years ago

is not so nice… i mean

Kovas
12 years ago

Damn sexy.

Dare I say it… Tallboy killer.

archie
archie
12 years ago

“Cannondale’s director if global product management, says this let’s them…”
if = of
let’s = lets (since let’s means “let us”).

Great looking bike.

mtbboy
mtbboy
12 years ago

very nice….really only weight wenine…part is the new Stans Race Gold Wheels….something like 1200 grams if I remember correctly….add a pound of weight for me….I would crush those wheels

stratosrally
stratosrally
12 years ago

“if” weighs a bit less than “of”, but “let’s” gets some of that weigh back compared to “lets”.

So, the text of the article weighs more than it has to. Good catch, archie…

Awesome bike, BTW.

Could we get a shot of the bottom bracket area to see tire clearance?

stratosrally
stratosrally
12 years ago

Ah, crap – I got it backwards. The text weighs less than it would after the grammar was corrected.

I have ruined the entire thing by adding weight that wasn’t needed.

Just delete both of my posts and we’ll be better off!

Matt
Matt
12 years ago

Really Cannondale, a single pivot bike? Glad to see Dorel isn’t wasting money on frivolous stuff like R&D.

coop
12 years ago

The weight is off the hook with just xo parts! Look out epic,there is a new dog in town!And it’s loaded! Can’t wait to see the full race machine.And how much that puppy is going to cost,I bet it will be about my first born and my right arm!

hammerhed
hammerhed
12 years ago

Yeah, get ready: A ten thousand dollar mountain bike is on the way! Man, 21 pounds! Yeow.

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