You're riding a she? That's naughty! :-)

---

-----------------------------------------------------

That lefty fork is sooooo cool!

nice bike J

The Cannondale Prophet has that fork - and a similar set up - very nice bike

Lefty's rule. They work awesome. That really is quite a nice bike. I think you will really enjoy it. Take a few extra minutes this evening to read the owner's manual for the Lefty fork- it has a lot of interesting capabilities and is highly adjustable so you can do a lot with it. Very cool.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

yes, the technology seems quite advanced, and hopefully it will be better for the screw in my forearm. :)

It slices, it dices, it makes julienne fries!

Lol... it's a fork... and has less features and adjustablity than the comparable Fox, Manitou, Rock Shox, Spinner, Magura or RST forks, especially their stable platform forks (Fox now makes the internals for the highest-end Lefty). Additionally it's a proprietary Cannondale fork, at 3.9 pounds it's heavy and it requires a front wheel built specifically for a lefty fork so forget about using a spare wheel if yours breaks in a race (yes mountain bike races have "pits" now).

Because of those reasons you don't see very many of them at XTERRA or NORBA races.

If kittycat hasn't already decided on this bike I'd suggest looking at Specialized's bikes...

Oh... and if you stare at a Cannondale frame too hard it dents! That thin-walled Optimo stuff is great for road bikes, but gets banged up too easliy off the road. I think it's because they're committed to those heavy forks that they have to get the weight off the frame down to keep the overall weight down.

On the plus side, they're spec'ing their bikes with SRAM (although so is Specialized) which pretty much kicks Shimano's offerings in the ass now-a-days...

that is interesting. the reviews I've read (which were only 5 of them) said that the bike is light as hell and climbs really well, is stiff, blah, blah, blah.

the shop I sponsor carries cannondale, marin, but no specialized...

You stick with that bike. You will LOVE it. The easily accessible lockout on the fork is a great feature - I've heard only raves about the lefty. Yes, it's true you are stuck with a one sided hub - perhaps if you're doing full on races where you would have a wheel in a pit you should take this into consideration. Otherwise, don't sweat it.

There's also a Cdale model (f2000?) that still uses the headshock technology, which is super light and gets you around the one sided fork issue.

yes i really like that lockout feature--and I can get it at a good price. this will be my first mtb since high school and early college, so I'm not that advanced in it.

anyway, I don't plan on doing big jumping stuff and things like that--my arm can't take it. but i want to do off road tris, and some adventure racing. i'm assuming for the most part that the trails for events like that aren't too crazy.

anyway, the f2000 is probably much higher in price. i'm trying to keep it reasonable...(in other words, not drop over 2 g's on my first "adult" mtb).

I don't know if you are going to use it for xc racing, but I would seriously think twice about buying a hard tail.

Sounds like your choice is only Cannondale? If so, maybe a Scapel?

http://www.cannondale.com/...CUSA/model-6VP1.html

No doubt the lefty is really nice and Mavic makes a UST crossmax disk for the lefty.

What other choices do you have?

May I ask what the intended use for the bike is (sorry if you had a thread on this, already)? Just wondering why the hardtail - I was a hardtail hold-out for race bikes until this year. The new C-dale Rush is one of the bikes that changed my mind. If you didn't consider it, I would take a test ride, if possible.

The Lefty is a fine fork, btw.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

MTBR.com reviews are worthless ( which is where I assume you "read" the review)... read Mountain Bike action if you want some in-depth reviews on mountain bikes. You will get people here heap praise on the Lefty, just like you'll get people argue the superiority of Campy, but the reality is that other bikes are better suited and less expensive and more popular. If you can't go to a local MTB race look through magazines or pictures on Brightroom, for example, and you'll see that Cannondale is one of the least-popular bikes at races... there's a reason for that. Have you looked at a Giant? They tend to make a lot of bike for the money.

why would a single legged fork rule? Seems like it was designed different just to be different. What's wrong with symmetry?

my choices are cannondale and marin. i'm trying to stay 2 g's or less. my orginal budget was 1K...so I've up'd it significantly already, and don't won't go past 2K....

FWIW... I ride a Cannondale, though with a headshok, not a lefty. They make great bikes and I am happy with mine but if I had it to do over again I would probably go with a Specialized. The Cannondale proprietary stuff is just too much of a pain in the ass to find parts for if/when you need to replace something. You're locked into their stuff and they charge an arm and a leg for it.

$.02

"MTBR.com reviews are worthless ( which is where I assume you "read" the review)..."

I agree, but I wouldn't assume that - Kittycat isn't stupid.

"read Mountain Bike action if you want some in-depth reviews on mountain bikes."

That's a joke, right? They're better than they used to be, but still have a ways to go.

"Have you looked at a Giant? They tend to make a lot of bike for the money."

Totally agree, here - if you haven't ridden a Maestro suspension bike, you're cheating yourself. Again, as a former hardtail hold-out, the Giant Anthem shocked the hell out of me.

I also agree about the spec'ing of SRAM - amazing how virtually everyone's top-end mtb's this year have SRAM hung on them. Trigger shifters are on the way back from the big S, however - perhaps sooner than we all know..

I should note that I'm carrying both Giant and Cannondale. I turned down Specialized this week.

My return to mtb racing next year was going to be on a Cannondale F4000, but is now going to be on an Anthem. For what it's worth...

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Quote" i'm assuming for the most part that the trails for events like that aren't too crazy. "

They can be....If you can believe this, the Wisconsin Xterra course is more techinal and challenging than the Tahoe Xterra championship course. So it really depends on the course and your skill level.

But, even if the courses are challenging, you can still do them on a hardtail...it might tear you up a little though. I raced the last 3 XC seasons on a hardtail, but I'm upgrading to a full suspension next year - especially for longer courses and solos. Sometimes you can find more comfort on a hardtail if you play with the tire pressure.

i'm aware of their propietary parts, etc.

nobody is saying anything about marin. why is that?

marin's good too... just not at my LBS so I dont know much about them

shit--that is scary. i don't want a bike that leaves me beat up. maybe i should just suck it up and get the full suspension...

damn it. here i thought i had it down what i wanted. lol...

I believe in a recent $2,000 trailbike shootout the Marin Rock Springs came in second behind the Giant Reign... I just don't know enough about Marin bikes to comment.

Regarding the hard tail / FS debate: do you know specifically where you will be using this bike?

If comfort is an issue you have to get a FS bike... if performance is the issue then it's a closer call between FS and HT, depending on the type of trail.

check this out...

http://www.marinbikes.com/...specs_east_peak.html

http://www.marinbikes.com/...specs_rift_zone.html

i know the second one is a few hundred bucks more.

as of now I don't have my schedule picked out yet, so I can't tell you about the terrain. the one thing i have to be cautious about is my forearm...there is a big screw in it, as i mentioned earlier.

i know in shawnee state forest there are some events. those terrains are hilly, really weatherd, and some single track. no giant rocks to jump or anything (i'm not interested in that anyway), but it won't be easy peasy.