WHO WE ARETHE BEGINNING

We’re a passionate bunch.

Always have been.

Not only passionate about building the best,

most innovative and high-performance

products, but passionate about doing

everything we can to create the best possible

cycling experience.

Simply put, we care.

We care about our products, we care about

our customers and we care about each other,

and this simple but important statement has

earned us legions of fans around the world

and, here, four decades in, it still informs

everything we do, everyday.

We rose from our beginnings as a maker of camping packs and bags to become

the most innovative, forward thinking company in the bicycling industry.

From our first cycling product, a radically different bike trailer…

To the first production

oversized aluminum frames…

To the radical HeadShok and Lefty products…

To new industry standards like BB30 and 1.5 headtubes…

To our legendary teams like Volvo Cannondale, Saeco and Liquigas…

Cannondale has consistently been a force of creative change in the

industry. We learn from our successes and we learn even more from our

failures. We don’t rest on our laurels. We constantly strive to out do

ourselves and we never cease in our efforts to create the perfect ride.

Cannondale was founded in 1971

in Georgetown, Connecticut, by

Joe Montgomery. The company

name came from a train station on

the Cannondale line across the road

from the company headquarters –

which was then located in a loft

above a pickle factory.

Cannondale’s initial products were camping packs and bags,

panniers, and the world's first bicycle-towed trailer, the Bugger.

A simple but profound innovation, the Bugger enhanced the

cycling experience and serves as inspiration to this day.

In 1983, Cannondale kick-started started a revolution of alternative frame

materials when we introduced our first bicycle, the ST-500 touring bike.

The oversized, TIG-welded aluminum

frames shocked the world with their

light weight, efficient stiffness and

crazy fat-tubed look. Mountain and road

racing bikes followed next year, and the

aluminum era was under way.

Since those first revolutionary products, Cannondale has continually

challenged and evolved the bicycle industry with innovation after

innovation, constantly pushing the envelope of technology and design

in the quest for the best possible performance.

A key part of Cannondale’s stream of innovation has been the ability to test and

prove new products and ideas. From the start, the Q-Lab and ESAL facilities at the

Bedford, Pennsylvania facility defined the state-of-the-art for bicycle testing,

examining not only our own frames and components, but every component on the

bike to our own rigorous standards, which usually far exceed the industry norms.

1989, Following rapid growth and enthusiasm for their new bikes in

the U.S., Cannondale Europe opens in Oldenzaal, Nederlands.

In 1991, Cannondale introduces the industry’s first production suspension

mountain bike, the E.S.T. (Elevated Suspension Technology). Interestingly, it

was rear suspension only. Front suspension was handled by a Girvin Flexstem.

In 1992, Cannondale revolutionized front suspension with the HeadShok,

an in-headtube, needle bearing suspension fork. The patented technology

developed for that original fork can still be found, in radically updated

form, in the current Lefty and HeadShok products.

In 1993, Cannondale introduces the Super V dual suspension bike, one

of the most original (and most widely imitated) bike designs in history.

It wins design and engineering awards from publications ranging from

Business Week to Popular Mechanics.

In 1994, the most successful mountain bike team in history is launched. Featuring legendary

riders like Tinker Juarez, Myles Rockwell, Missy Giove, Anne Caroline Chausson and

Cadel Evans, in their eight years, Volvo Cannondale won 11 World Championships,

17 World Cup titles, 16 National Championships, 89 World Cup wins, 33 NORBA wins,

2 Olympic games and 2 Pan-Am Games Gold medals. And that's just the wins.

AND THE INNOVATIONS KEPT COMING:

1994 - The Coda Magic crankset: these hollow ultralight, super-stiff

cranks also pioneered the external bearing BB design now used by

Shimano, FSA, SRAM and others.

1995 - The first front suspension road bike, the 2.8 Silk Road,

featuring the HeadShok SR fork.

1996 - The Super V DH downhill specific dual-suspension bike,

featuring the Moto 120 inverted dual crown fork, named Best

Downhill Bike Ever by Mountain Bike Action.

1997 - The radical Raven dual suspension bike, which

uses carbon halves bonded along an aluminum spine.

1997 - The wild Fulcrum DH bike. A “team only” race bike,

it featured a unique jack-shaft drivetrain and one of the

first “virtual pivot” suspensions in a mountain bike.

In 1997, Cannondale became the first U.S. manufacturer to sponsor a European Pro

road team, supplying bikes to the Saeco pro cycling team. It was a very good move.

In their first year, the team won the Giro d’Italia, and superstar sprinter Mario

Cipollini won two stages of the Tour de France and spent 4 days in the yellow jersey.

Saeco, Cannondale and the famous “Red Train” sprint leadout for Cipo forever changed

professional cycling, proving to the world that oversized aluminum was the future.

In 2000 Cannondale shocks the world yet again by launching Cannondale

Motorsports. Despite being radically advanced, winning a “Bike of the Year” award

and a World 4-Stroke Quad Championship (many of the innovations we pioneered

are used on top motocross bikes today), a softening motorcycle market and slow

initial sales force Cannondale to seek bankruptcy protection in 2003.

2003 - The moto assets are split from the healthy bicycle division, which

continues as Cannondale Bicycle Corporation. While the motorsports effort was

a failure, it exemplified Cannondale’s innovative attitude, technical prowess, and

strength (we actually came out of bankruptcy with more bike dealers than we

started with, and delivered a stream of bicycle innovations)

2000 - The iconic Lefty, single-sided front

suspension system was introduced. Lighter,

Stronger, Stiffer and Smoother than any other

fork on the market, it’s still turning heads

11 years after its introduction. A year later we

introduce electronic suspension to the industry

with our ELO, Electronic Lockout Lefty.

2001 - We created the BB30 standard, along with the Hollowgram Si Crankset –

the lightest and stiffest crankset in the world. We later release BB30 as a free

standard to anyone who wants to use it, improving the industry.

2002 - The Gemini DH bike, Another “team only” engineering exercise, the Gemini

has an innovative twin-shock design that offers “square inches” of travel.

2002 - We introduce the Scalpel, the world’s lightest dual suspension design. It

went on to become the winningest dual-suspension design in World Cup history.

The current evolution Scalpel is still the world’s lightest dual-suspension frameset.

2003 – Gilberto Simoni wins Cannondale’s

second Giro d’Italia aboard his CAAD7.

2003 – The innovative carbon and aluminum road bike, the Six13, is launched and

promptly wins a stage of the Tour de France. Mechanics are forced to add weights to the

bike to reach the UCI’s minimum 6.8 kg (14.99 lb.) bike weight which leads to the infamous

Legalize My Cannondale campaign. Igor Astorloa wins the World Championships.

2004 – Damiano Cunego of the Saeco

Cannondale team wins the Giro d’Italia on his

CAAD8 (Cannondale’s 3rd and the last Grand

Tour won on an aluminum frame).

2005 - Faris Al-Sultan wins Cannondale’s

first Ironman World Championship on his

Ironman Slice Aero time trial bike.

2006 – Cannondale launches its first full carbon road bike, the Synapse. With

its S.A.V.E micro-suspension technology, it represents a new “Performance”

category of road bike, blending race performance with all-day comfort.

2007 – We team up with the Liquigas pro cycling

team and win our fourth Giro d’Italia.

Mauricio Soler of the Barloworld Cannondale

team rides his Cannondale SystemSix to the

King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour de

France.

2008 – Cannondale introduces a pair of now legendary full carbon bikes:

the SuperSix road bike and Slice time trial machine.

2009 – Cannondale launches the Flash, the lightest, stiffest, smoothest mountain

bike hardtail ever created (complete bike weight 16.6 lbs-7.54 kg). It is the first

frame ever tested that exceeds 100 Nm/deg/kg in stiffness-to-weight testing.

2009 – Triathlete Chrissie Wellington wins the Kona

Ironman World Championship aboard her Slice Hi-Mod

aero bike, setting a new course record in the process.

Cyclocross stars Marco Aurelio Fontana and Tim

Johnson win the Italian and US national championships,

respectively, on their CAAD9 cross bikes.

Which brings us to

2010…and Cannondale is on a roll.

Ivan Basso wins Cannondale’s 5th Giro d’Italia and Vincenzo Nibali wins our

first Vuelta a España, netting Cannondale two of the three Grand Tours.

Mirinda Carfrae wins our second consecutive Ironman World Championship

The 2010 bike line is bursting with revolutionary innovation. We introduced the

OverMountain family of bikes, Claymore, Jekyll and Scarlet, which can morph

from short travel trail bikes to aggressive long travel bikes at the flick of a switch.

The all new Scalpel - the lightest,

stiffest, smoothest dual suspension

bike on the planet.

The most advanced

cyclocross bike ever created,

the new full carbon SuperX

And the jaw-dropping CAAD10, the

most advanced aluminum road frame

in the world - lighter, stiffer and

smoother than most carbon bikes.

With products, teams and employees like this, the future of

Cannondale and the future of cycling are looking very bright indeed.