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Cannondale Revives Rush as a 29er, Makes Scalpel Even Lighter & Brings Full Featured $600 Mountain Bikes

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2014 Cannondale Rush 29er full suspension mountain bike

After years of focus on the high end bikes like Scalpel and Trigger, Cannondale’s mountain bike lineup get a bit more attention paid to the mid-level segment.

For 2014, the big news is a complete revamp of the Rush. The original Rush had a solid run from 2007 to 2010, then it was replaced by the Rize. That became the RZ, which is going away for 2014. In its place is the new Rush. It’s a 29er-only, linkage-driven single pivot 100mm travel suspension bike. It’s a heavily butted frame with double-pass smooth welds and cartridge bearings throughout.

It’s meant to be a super simple bike to set up and ride and offer race-able performance. They started with the Scalpel’s XC weapon geometry and slackened it enough to make it a bit more playful without giving up the speed. In the words of Cannondale’s global product marketing director Murray Washburn, they designed it to be a bike you’d hop onto and say “F&#k yeah, this is great. Mountain biking is awesome!”

2014 Cannondale Rush 29er full suspension mountain bike

The base model gets a Deore/Alivio blend with Rockshox Recon Gold TK fork for $1,850. Above that is the Rush 1 for $2,180 with an XT/Deore mix. Both get house brand cockpits, Shimano M446 hydraulic brakes and WTB Nine Line tires, a tread they co-developed.

2014 Cannondale Rush 29er full suspension mountain bike

 

2014 Cannondale Rush 29er full suspension mountain bike

 

The suspension is pretty basic, but effective. Particularly for the price.

 

2014 Cannondale Rush 29er full suspension mountain bike

Complete bike weight is 30.56lbs (13.86kg).

2014-Cannondale-Trail-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike

The Trail 29er hardtail gets an option all the way down to $599 without giving up all the good stuff. You’ll find internal and external tubing manipulation and SAVE seatstays to smooth the ride.

2014-Cannondale-Trail-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike

The head tube is oversized, which gave them a bigger weld surface for wider top and down tubes, but is still built around 1-1/8″ steerer. Also available as a 26″ bike, with prices topping out around $959. Above that is the Trail SL, which includes a rigid singlespeed model that go $1,080 to $1,620.

2014-Cannondale-Tango-womens-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike

Last year’s new Tango SL women’s 29er gets morphed into a 2nd iteration without the “SL” suffix.

2014-Cannondale-Tango-womens-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike

It has a more traditional bent, sloping top tube, keeps the SAVE stays, but drops prices down to mirror the Trail.

2014 Cannondale Scalpel 29er full suspension mountain bike

The top end of the spectrum wasn’t totally forgotten. The carbon fiber Scalpels drop 100g off the already insanely light bike by replacing the alloy linkage for carbon fiber. The frames also get stealth dropper post routing.

2014 Cannondale Scalpel 29er full suspension mountain bike

 

The linkage connecting the seatstays to the frame goes from alloy to carbon.

2014 Cannondale Scalpel 29er full suspension mountain bike

This one’s a pre-production model, but the routing will enter the seat tube just above the lower pivot.

2014 Cannondale Scalpel 29er full suspension mountain bike

The Black Inc version gets the Reverb Stealth, ENVE/Chris King wheels, ENVE handlebar and their Hollowgram SiSL2 crankset comes in at just 23.13lbs (10.49kg). It’s yours for just $10,800, if you can get one. Stock will be limited.

Not shown, the Trigger 29ers get revised spec for the current alloy models, and there’s a carbon version coming. Washburn says it’s a ways off. For 2014, there will be two models each for alloy and carbon. The alloy frame and shock are the same, with all models running the DYAD dual travel shock, but the alloy models will switch to a 130mm Rockshox Revelation with 50mm offsets. Only the carbon ones get to keep the Lefty SuperMax.

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33 Comments
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jon jon
jon jon
10 years ago

hey cannondale, santa cruz called, they want their heckler back

Tywin
Tywin
10 years ago

@jonjon – Yeah man, totally a Heckler. If you squint. Scratch that, maybe if you’ve got cataracts.

Scalpel looks sick, and the weight is impressive, damn. The Rush is a pretty sweet bike for the price/weight too.

RoOkie
RoOkie
10 years ago

@ Jon Jon
Dont acuse an inovator of being a follower my friend…not even close

Claes
Claes
10 years ago

That´s heavyer than my Giant Anthem 29er w pedals, 9,6kg . Not impressive.

DeeEight
DeeEight
10 years ago

Given that Santa Cruz copied Cannondale’s use of single pivots… several years afterwards… that has me laughing.

Jake
Jake
10 years ago

Man, remember when the Rush was THE bike for marathon/24 hr racing???? It’s cool they brought it back and made it a super affordable everyman’s bike!

WV Cycling
10 years ago

Where is 30lb on the scale of obese —– to —– weight weenie for a full squishy 29er?

Topmounter
Topmounter
10 years ago

They should bring back the “Beast of the East”.

ayyggss
ayyggss
10 years ago

HEY cannondale !!! bring back the slack headangle !!!

Yetiman
Yetiman
10 years ago

If Batman had a bike, he will be riding The Scalpels Black Inc version.

John
John
10 years ago

“In the words of Cannondale’s global product marketing director Murray Washburn, they designed it to be a bike you’d hop onto and say “F&#k yeah, this is great. Mountain biking is awesome!”

I’m wondering if the high up peeps at C’dale are scratching their heads right now and saying, “F&#Kin-A, why is our global product marketing director giving out quotes like this?”

The profanity doesn’t bother me in the least and I cuss like a sailor myself, but no way would I want my main marketing honch to be out there saying this kinda sh*t

Bart
10 years ago

Cannondale needs to stop using a forks with a full 1.5″ steer tube on their more entry level bikes.

burt
burt
10 years ago

Anyone know if the SS will have BB30?

Fabricio
Fabricio
10 years ago

2 hydraulic controls is too much for me, one for the Reverb and other for the Lefty, too many hydraulic lines and messing around for bleeding things, apart of the 2 brakes.

Chunky
Chunky
10 years ago

They should have 650b’s the original Rush. That was such a fantastic bike, and still is.

Ck
Ck
10 years ago

I agree with Bart. Putting that steerer standard on an entry-level bike is stupid. Fork upgrades will be a massive hassle when you need deal with crap like this and Giant’s OverDrive 2.

slippy
slippy
10 years ago

+1 John

Its totally immature. Their sponsored riders can say stuff like that. It doesn’t mesh with Cannondale’s image either.

Max
Max
10 years ago

And yet again, Cannondale sells a bike that’s a fork upgrade away from being fantastic, but they sell it with 1.5″ steerer, thus guaranteeing that that fork will have 20% of the resale value of a 1-1/8″ or tapered steerer. Give it up, Cannondale. 1.5″ is not happening.

Josh
Josh
10 years ago

Looking forward to the Rush! CAAD or CDA frame?

Stan
Stan
10 years ago

@ John: Relax, it’s the bike industry. Everyone wears *gasp* shorts too!

SmooveP
SmooveP
10 years ago

I’m sure the profanity was approved after many focus groups.

Runningrunningjump
Runningrunningjump
10 years ago

There are few cannondales I have not either ridden, owned, or built for people, or in the case of the original rush: all three.

Put simply, it was and still is one of the finest frames ever designed. Least we not forget its father the prophet! (The rush was originally called the prophet SL).

It is a travesty they have called this bike the rush. It is not a rush. Sorry cannondale, I love you to bits and have a garage full of them to prove it! But this is a mistake. This is a RZ100/29. The original rize was a fantastic bike (ridden , not owned) but it was not as efficient as the rush, nor as capable as the prophet, and twice as many moving parts as either. They changed it to the RZ as there was a company already using the name rize. 130mm wasn’t cool, so they switched to 120 and 140. The 140 was great! Just as everyone wanted 160. The 120 was an ok bike, but weighed the same as the 140, so it was pointless, because is was too heavy to be an true XC weapon. Just like this new bike:

Heavy. No good for true XC
Multi pivot. No good for endurance
Short travel. No good for all mountain

Sorry guys. You’ve missed the mark. By some margin.

Andrew
Andrew
10 years ago

The RZ in the 120mm travel was an utter dog! thank goodness it is gone. As for the Scalpel, by today’s race 29r standards that really is not light… Trek, Specialized, Scott, Rocky mountain, all of these brands have bikes that weigh just slightly over 22lbs out of the box… in the case of Rocky Mountains Element 999 RSL also considerably cheaper.

JimmyZ
JimmyZ
10 years ago

forget about the 1.5 steer tube, and the fork’s resale value. What if you don’t like the stem? This is where my brain fails.

Guy
Guy
10 years ago

Hey Andrew,

NONE of those bikes are 23lbs with a dropper post! The Scalpel is 22lbs out of the box with carbon wheels. It’s pretty easy to get sub 22 with pedals and NONE of those bikes you mention are at that weight.

droit
droit
10 years ago

If the above comments about the 1.5 steerer are about the Trail 29er you might want to read the print.
Looking at the picture and reading the description I believe they built the bike with an oversized head tube but a 1-1/8 fork.
“built around 1-1/8″ steerer.”

Big Cow
10 years ago

hey santa cruz, cannondale called and they want their super v back

ricardo
ricardo
10 years ago

What the hell is this bike ?i say ,nothing ,specialized has the camber ,trek has the fuel ex and cannondale does not have anything in 29er wheels with 120mm ,call rush to a rz is to call stupid to all people ,i remember amazing bike designs like the first rush ,super v, raven ,jeckyll first generation ,etc etc ,cannondale has moved production to asia ,and perhpas a lot of ideas ,excellent designs and frame quality,paint and horrendus weld termination , this is the cannondale that ive bought since 2000 ,no its not ,only marketing and massive sales like Dorel wants …

Stephen
Stephen
10 years ago

Wow,all you guys need to stop living in the past….lol….REALLY!

Sean
Sean
10 years ago

personally i believe Cannondale is just starting to get re-established after all of the quad and dirt bike crap that they tried to pull a few years ago and it was a wash. i think this year is going to be a breakout year and the bikes feels amazing. i have personally ridden over 100 different Cannondales, they are exceptional bikes and feel amazing and what most don’t understand is thet are the innovators of much of what you see in mountain biking today the bikes are always appealing to look at and speak for it self in the handling. i have ridden probably 1 bike in every line of cannondales 2013 line and they all road incredible , cant speak for some of the other bikes i have tried over the years. i have had the oppertunity to ride some 2014 bikes as well and the feel is amazing even from the bottom end trail 29er 7. from what others are saying about 1.5 headtubes it seems like only on the highend bikes are they doing this. my lbs has the trail 2,3,4,5,6,7 on the floor and everything from five up uses a 1″ 1/8

jason
jason
10 years ago

Got a 29er scalpel black inc comin in three week boys all i will say it is the best bike i have seen so dream on.

Aj
Aj
10 years ago

That weight on black inc is with dropper post and tubes installed.

Gilmore
Gilmore
10 years ago

Cannondale trail5 29er is the best!

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