Disco Stu: 2012 Cannondale

Blogging has been sporadic as of late...I just haven't been biking much, and since this is a blog about biking (and yes, beer), there's not much to write about. Now that my knee is better (pain free and full range of motion, but not full strength yet), I can now start catching up on projects around the house (painting, re-doing some floors, exterior work, etc, etc..). Sooooo, I have to live vicariously through others, but it seems that a lot of my fellow bloggers have also reduced their blogging activity. That leaves me to get excited about biking through my wife.

Working in a bike shop, she has the perk of viewing next year's bikes before the general public. 4 weeks ago, she was flown down to Utah to view next year's Cannondale bikes, leaving Lil' D and myself to fend for ourselves. It all went down at Deer Valley resort, outside of Park City (about an hour from Salt Lake City).

Mountains surrounding Salt Lake City Airport.

Deer Valley Resort.

These retailer shows consist of presentations, seminars and of course, bike demos. Sonia signed up for two demos, both of them on mountain bikes. The only road demos were for Cannondale Super Six's, and she didn't feel like trying to keep up full on Type A roadies.

Day 1 demo she tried a Jekyll, their"over-mountain" bike, featuring 150mm travel front and rear. One of the cool things with this bike is the ability to switch between fully open rear travel and a semi open mode of 90mm travel. As soon as she started riding there was only one way to go...up. With the bike in 90mm, it climbed amazingly well. Coming back down the hill, she kept the bike in 90mm mode and found it to be surprisingly nimble.

2012 Jekylls.

Scalpel 100 29er.

Day 2, she got to try the eye candy bike of next year's lineup (and a new bike), the scalpel 100 29er. Full carbon frame, 100mm of travel and a spec that would leave anyone drooling. For this ride, she decided to take the chairlift up the hill (cheater!) and boot on down on some nice, twisty, turny singletrack. Being a 26 mtb rider, her impression of the scalpel was much like anyone else trying a 29er for the first time...rolls over obstacles no problem, is fast rolling, but is slow to accelerate. When she did encounter any rough terrain, she noted that the suspension handled like her 120mm 26" bike. For herself, Sonia thinks she would stick to a 26er due to the stop and go nature of trails like Outback or some of the technical trails at Camp Fortune.