Cannondale: It’s an idea
With all the hullabaloo in my last post about stuff being made in America and overseas, I turn to my recently acquired Cannondale frameset. I mentioned it in my March Round-Up post on April 2nd. It is about 17 years old. I was a young high school kid when these tubes were being welded and put together. Back then, I rode a white steel Bianchi Eros. Steel was still reigning supreme but it’s grip on the cycling world was starting to crumble. Aluminum, carbon fiber, and titanium were slowly inching their way into the mainstream.
The Bianchi was my second road bike after I outgrew my 48cm Panasonic DX-2000. I remember what it was like shopping for the Bianchi. It was a pretty expensive bike back then. I want to say it cost around $650 and it was considered to be a damn fine bike. There were higher end models but there were fewer above than below it. Cannondale bikes were one of the few that stood above it.
Cannondale stood right alongside Klein. Both made thin walled, large tubed aluminum frames. Every configuration I saw had nice parts on it. There were no dumpy aluminum framed bikes back then. The Kleins were especially snazzy with their fluorescent two color schemes. Those frames alone cost more than my whole Bianchi back then.
Aluminum framed bikes were quite a novelity. Everything we knew about them came mostly from trial and error. We build, we test, we sell, and then we improve. This was before the day of finite element analysis being available to every desktop computer user. Component and frame failure was not unheard of. Most, if not all, of the aluminum frames were built by hand. There was a lot of variation between one individual frame builder and another. You can see the hand sanding through the paint finishes that were too thin. Some welds weren’t exactly symmetrical. Working with aluminum is difficult because of the high temperatures required. Nowadays, everything is put together by machine that carefully hold the tubes in places and welds the joints. Temperatures and materials are carefully controlled. Go to Walmart and take a look at their bike racks. Nearly everyone one of them is a perfectly made aluminum frame.
My Cannondale isn’t so much a frame as it is a memento. It’s a souvenir of an idea that came from a certain time period. The frame represents American innovation and labor at a time when it could compete against all others. I’m sure most of you have heard of Cannondale shuttering their US frame production. All Cannondales will soon be made in Asia. Read the article and you will Cannondale will compete with what American business do best: innovation.
Being 17 years old, you could almost argue that this frame is obsolete with a 1″ headtube diameter. It’s only saving grace is the 130mm rear drop out spacing. To most, it would probably be worth nothing more than it’s scrap metal value.
Some American worker put this frame together and now this American will use it start a new build. Just how American of a bike can I make here? Can I buy American made cassettes and shifters? Is there an American made saddle that I can sit on while I ride this bike? I’m going to try and find out as I set out to find an American manufacturer for as many components as possible!
