Out in the open.
In C-dale's own words they started in 1971 making bike trailers and bike accessories. Not till 1983 did they introduce a bicycle. A touring bike. in '84 they introduced a racing model and a mt bike.
I love this bit: "Cannondale's reputation encouraged both bike dealers and customers to give the bicycles a try, and widespread industry skepticism quickly gave way to a host of imitators."
Um... but they were the ORIGINAL imitators of Gary Klein's work.
If ya pop over to Wiki on C-dale, ya see there isn't much more.
Now flip over to Klein. but before we do that.
There is a huge geographic bias. Gary might have started off at MIT (up the road in Boston for those not in the know or with a deliberate ignorance of Ivy Schools), but established the company in the middle of some of the most amazing roads and trails in the country, smack dab between Seattle and Portland, at the foot of Mt Rainer (West Coast for those geographically challenged). Cannondale is/was/has been (until the synapse crap being build in china) an East Coast institution. CT and PA specifically.
Now you see if you head to the Klein page at Wiki, its empty, sort of, with this one tid-bit:
Inventor Gary Klein can be considered the innovator of the oversized tube aluminum bicycle, which is now a feature of the cycling market. He first developed the concept in 1973 as part of the Independent Activities Period aluminum bicycle project at MIT, where he was an engineering student and bicycle racer, then took the concept commercial after graduation.
Developed the concept in 1973. Two years after Cannondale started making trailers and bags. And a full 10 years before they came out with their first Touring model.
10 years... who's on first? No doubt.
Popping over to the Klein Bikes web site History, it is a timeline.
Now here's the details. Klein's concept was flushed out in 1975 with some prototypes. 1976 batch sizes grew and partners bought out...
By 1980 custom frames were being built.
Mt bikes rolled out in '83
My QPro's roots were here:
1994
* Quantum Pro Criterium introduced, with Gradient 9320 frame tubing, Aeros composite fork. Weighing in at 3.9 pounds.
* Klein also introduced Micro dropouts, Mission Control 2 bar/stem combo, upgraded fork (no longer fitted to frame), and gradient chain stays.
So hows it all shake down?
Well design and construction. Stack the two up (c-dale and klein, based on the catagories listed in the Klein construction page)
Then ride them... stick with road bikes for the moment, cause Mt bikes, once you add suspension and big fat tires the geometry and build is less of an issue, less noticable.
I've ridden both... maybe not the best of C-dales, but at the time i rode the top frames back to back. And wow. talk about a freaking amazingly HUGE difference.
That New C-Dale fork? COME ON... that's MC2. MC2 was 12 years ago. Before MC2, there was Mission Control, with the same funamentals.
Am i a bit too passionate about it all? maybe. do i have a favorite? Absolutely.
But its based on experience.
Is Klein now a division of Trek? Yeah, that big 'evil' monster from Wisconsin bought up the company. And that maybe wasn't the worst thing for the brand. The bikes changed a little. But some of the changes were for the better.
Word on the street was that the Gerolsteiner boys didn't want to give up the Kleins because they bikes rode so much better than anything they had been on. The mechanics bitched up a storm for a few months while trying to figure out the micro-dropouts. But I'm sure Trek decided that its not financially smart to sponsor two road teams with bikes. Which is too bad.
Diggin through the Cyclingnews archives you see this: "world's best" Of course that was in 2002, but things haven't changed that much.
Cannondale certainly had much success with sponsoring a rather charismatic Italian Pro's Team, but the bikes never have had the same ride feel, or sophistication that Klein's stuff has.
Heck back in the CAAD3 days, my 1986 SL/SP paramount was one hell of a lot stiffer sprinting and riding than the C-dale. And yeah no fair. Comparing the Caad3 to a Klein... well, ya gotta have some basis, and unless they start throwing me frames to ride and test as a comparison (they being cannondale) i'm not likely to start changing my tune. So if anyone wants to pettition C-Dale to send me a Cross frame and a Six13 with 61 cm top tubes I would be more than happy to test out and compare head to head (with same parts back to back) and publish it as a freelance bit in one of the mags or just here online....
Klein is better than Cannondale... no question -at least in my opinion, and with my basis for evaluation.
5 comments:
Are they not completely different? Kleins are/were handmade and very expensive, whereas C-dales were always mass produced, low quality fit and finish, but about half the price for a frameset. At least back in the 90's.
I know I've told this story before, but a disgruntled former C-dale engineer told us their cost for a frame was about $60 and the decals cost about $70. He also said the Saeco guys sent over half the bikes back because the were not straight enough to ride no hands. That has been my experience, but I haven't ridden one in 10 years. My last MTB with the pepporoni fork actually rode pretty well.
Oh yes, they are completely different. But that's not the point in many people's eyes.
The time line issue (who was first), is the biggest. But the more challenging issue is the notion that c-dales are just as good.
I remember that pepperoni fork quite well. And like i said - mt bikes are much harder to discern quaility/geometry issues unless they get radically different.
The cost of aluminum was the biggest windfall for the bike builders. Steel has always been more expensive than Aluminum unless you process it like Klein did/does. Trek's Al frames were dirt cheap to make compared to the steel versions. And same for Giant and everyone else.
My feeling is that if you are building aluminum frames there are two ways to make them straight. Bond them like Trek and Raligh and Vitus did, or weld and heat treat in an alignment jig like Klein does.
Are Kleins still made in the US? It's too bad their bike line has decreased in size considerably.
yeah - they are still made in the USA. They moved the production from Chehalis to Waterloo 8-10 years ago, but still all in house in the USA.
stupid ass baggers on not having a 63 anymore, although a 61 might work, a 63 really would be better...
that and for some reason Gary never made a Cross bike. i'd kill for one, maybe kill a squirel or a deer or some urban/varmit...
Between Gary's initial development work at MIT and the move to production in Chehalis, he built frames and bikes in San Martin, CA, about 10 minutes from my house.
I built a road bike from from an early Chehalis frameset (how many did he make with rack fittings on the seatstay?).
I'd been away from riding for almost ten years, starting with shoulder/elbow injury, but I've just got the bike updated (seat/pedals/drive train) and back on the road about two weeks ago.
It's still as nice as anything I've ever ridden, if the engine can just get tuned up again.
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