Cannondale bike build

A co-worker recently pro-dealed a shiny new Cannondale Six-13 Pro 1 bike and asked me to put it together in time for Bike To Work Day. This was my first time putting together a Cannondale straight out of the box and I have to say compared to many other brands I've worked on - including several considered to be more prestigious than Cannondale - I was mighty impressed. Granted, this bike isn't the sort of bike I'd ever purchase since I'm an out of shape non-racer aiming to do P-B-P but in terms of actual manufacturing quality and attention to detail it's a great bike. You can take issue all you want with the design of Cannondale's bikes but anyone who questions the actual quality of workmanship doesn't know what they're talking about.

The first thing I noticed is that the bars and shifters came separately. Most production bikes are shipped with the levers mounted and the bars taped. This can be a good or bad thing. If you're a shop with little concern for quality it's a good thing as it saves a lot of time in assembly. Time is money and any shop that forgets this (and that's many of them) is doomed for the dustbin. If you're a fanatic for details it's a blessing as you can position the levers where you want them, cut the cable housing to the correct length, and do a clean job on taping the bars. In many ways this makes everything go faster. Much less frustrating than getting a 50cm bike with the bars already taped only to realize they used the same length of brake housing that you'd find on a 64cm bike!

Next came the seat tube. This is always a good place to check for quality. With more and more carbon seatposts coming on the market having a perfectly smooth, clean seat tube is vital. If I'm putting a carbon post on a bike I always take a cotton ball and rub it along the inside of the seat tube. This will help me located any minor burrs. When I did this with the Cannondale there was nothing left in the seat tube. My fine grit sanding paper stayed in the tool box. This is a big improvement over bikes from some of the most renown European builders that had seat tubes so filled with paint that you couldn't get a seatpost in them with a hammer. I've even seen some where the seat tube wasn't even round due to overheating.

The FSA crankset and MegaExo bottom bracket came pre-installed as did the FSA headset and stem. Both were perfectly adjusted right out of the box. Tires were already mounted to the Ksyrium wheels and they even took the time to align the Hutchinson label with the valve stem. Again, not the sort of detail you see on most production bikes.

The only part that was pre-installed and required any actual adjustment was the outer limit screw of the rear derailleur which required a 3/4 turn to get the pulley perfectly in alignment with the cog. Beyond that everything else was perfectly dialed in.

For those unaware, Cannondale is the only bike company that still does almost all of their work in the US (the Synapse being the one exception). While the Taiwanese are phenomenal when it comes to manufacturing, their assembly jobs often display a workman-like competency. Everything works, but the little visual touches are absent. The Cannondale by comparison was clearly assembled by people who truly take pride in their work. I don't think the Asians will ever reach that level and for that reason I hope companies like Cannondale continue to maintain operations in the US.