Cannondale yea or nea?

[cyberknight]

The BB is not a driving reason behind my bike choices nor indeed any specific component

Though colour is

 

[Wetdog]

I have 2 Cannondale, a Cad 10 and a Synapse Aluminium and I wouldn't swap for the World. The Cad is my fav bike, every time I ride it it's exactly the same. The bottom brackets are a pain but I would try one and see how it feels, then try the others if possible.

 

[vickster]

Though colour is

Obviously and absolutely, have to like the look of the bike. A BB isn't exactly exciting...although I did select a gunmetal hope one for the Genesis for the purpose of colour coordination

 

[vickster]

Sorry, running the risk of hijacking the OP's thread. My apologies.

Liking the look of these Victor, especially their names! Probably a little more kudos on the club run than a bike from a mainstream producer. The geometry is very similar to the Synapse. Head tube 0.1cm longer on the Cannondale! in the 51cm frame.

Which model do you have, if you don't mind me asking? Have my eye on the 'Imnotanumber' or the more expensive 'Hammerandtongs.' But, experience tells me that it's probably not worth paying another £1000 for the top of the range model.

Who is Victor?

I have the older Pave (bought in 2011), a bit under used. I don't think I've ridden it this year

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-pearson-pave-10-38821/

I think the imnotanumber replaced it. The other is a different race oriented beast

 

[dim]

a friend was looking at buying a new Cannondale CAAD 12 for £1300 .... after much deliberation, he ended up buying a Canyon Ultimate C/F with 105 ....

both nice bikes, and I've never ridden any of those, but what I can say, is the the Canyon is quality

 

[themosquitoking]

The BB is not a driving reason behind my bike choices nor indeed any specific component

Though colour is

I seem to remember something about SRAM hoods too.

 

[vickster]

Yes I prefer SRAM but the range not specific component...and that's only cos Shimano are rubbish ergonomically for me

 

[Milkfloat]

I have a Synapse, have had a creaky bottom bracket, resolved it and would still buy another 'dale.

 

[Adam4868]

I have a CAAD with 105 which I love,never had a issue with bb.But that is probably going to change now I've said that ! I've demoted it to my everyday/winter bike now.Still love riding it

 

[dim]

seems like a common problem on some bikes

I follow a guy on Strava who is fit and fast. His Scott foil had a prob with the bottom bracket and could not be fixed

Scott replaced the bike with a higher spec foil model with Di2 .... he is smashing Strava records now so he is well pleased

giant seem ok (unless I missed anything on the forums) .... no complaints about bottom brackets yet

 

[Shortandcrisp]

Who is Victor?

I have the older Pave (bought in 2011), a bit under used. I don't think I've ridden it this year

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-pearson-pave-10-38821/

I think the imnotanumber replaced it. The other is a different race oriented beast

Sorry. Different fella entirely! Thanks for the reply. All the road bike frames through aluminium to the higher grade carbon seem to have exactly the same geometry.

 

[vickster]

I'm not a fella

 

[smutchin]

A BB isn't exactly exciting...

True - just about the most exciting thing a BB can do is not fail prematurely. And I imagine this only becomes a consideration when buying a bike if you have previously owned a bike with BB30 and had problems with it.

I've ridden lots of bikes with pressfit BBs but have had no experience of owning one long-term. And I've certainly never owned a Cannondale. As I understand it, the specific problem with BB30 (Cannondale's proprietary pressfit standard), is that it requires very precise engineering of the bottom bracket shell, and if the bearings aren't seated perfectly, they will wear prematurely and be liable to creaking.

However, my current main bike uses PF86, which is Shimano's take on pressfit, with the bearings seated in composite cups rather than pressed directly into the frame. This supposedly allows for greater tolerance of a less than perfect finish on the BB shell and claims to eliminate the problems of BB30 (and BB90/95 and other pressfit bottom brackets where the bearings are pressed directly into the frame). I've certainly not had any problems with it so far but I've done less than 1,000km on the bike so I wouldn't expect it to be showing any signs of wear for a long time yet.

As for the supposed advantages of pressfit bottom brackets, my understanding is that Trek introduced BB90 to allow them to use a wider bottom bracket shell (and therefore allow things like fatter downtubes etc) without having to increase the length of the spindle. Cannondale's BB30 uses the same shell width as an external BB but has a much fatter spindle (30mm as opposed to 24mm, hence the name) which is supposedly stiffer and is designed to work with Cannondale's Hollowgram chainset. I don't think weight saving is the main motivation for the design in either case, although it is true that pressfit BBs are slightly lighter than external ones. Frames with pressfit are also cheaper to manufacture. Beyond that, my knowledge of bottom bracket standards gets a bit hazy - there are just so many of them nowadays that it's hard to keep up. (To go back to the OP, I think Trek have abandoned BB90 now and use PF86 instead, but it's worth checking.)

I've always been perfectly happy with external BBs - they're reliable and very easy to replace when they wear out. I will be interested to see how the PF86 fares in the long term, but I already know that I am going to need to buy yet another frickin' special tool to replace it when the time eventually comes.

 

[adscrim]

On the lookout for a new bike and had narrowed it down to a Cannondale Synapse 105 carbon or a Cannondale CAAD 12. Both nice bikes but went to a local bike shop and they told me to steer clear of the Cannondale because of the bottom bracket bearing problems. He suggested i try a Trek Emonda ALR which on viewing is another sound choice. Any advice lads, i cycle about 5000kms per year mainly for fitness with the odd charity cycle thrown in and the option of interclub league racing next year. Currently on a cheap B'TWIN which is grand but really need something lighter for the hills.

I've got an alu synapse 105 that I've ridden almost every weekday, and trained on through two winters, with the original BB30 bottom bracket still going strong. I've also got a boardman that I used as a summer bike for 5 years and the BB30 bottom bracket still appears to be in pretty good shape.
I'd buy another synapse without a second thought.

 

[Globalti]

The problem with BB30 is not the bearings moving in the shell as is usually supposed; it's the axle flexing microscopically inside the inner bearing races. This can be cured by smearing bearing fit compound on the machined area of the BB axle where it sits inside the bearings.