Cannondale Scapel Si - Your thoughts

[AllAboutRides]

Hi there all Hubbers!

 

Anyone that can give me some thoughts and reviews on the Cannondale Scapel SI bikes?

 

This includes the Scapel 1 Carbon towards the Si Team bike.

 

Coming from another bike brand, this will be my first Cannondale with the all Lefty Shock ect.

 

Please share your positive and negative thoughts with me.

 

Cheers

[Ttocs]

Best value money can buy in those spec's, not a biased opinion as I don't ride one

[Serious Panda]

If I was sponsored or if money is not a factor I would say hell yes give me a Cannondale mtb but I would never pay for 1 out of my own pocket.

[jcza]

I got the 2017 Si3 late last year and have done approx 5000km including very muddy Sabie and Sani2C this year. The bike is fantastic and I don't have any regrets.

 

I have upgraded to Eagle and Lightbicycle carbon wheels. The Crests didn't last very long.

 

Lefty had a service and was upgraded. Not had a single issue with it.

 

Replaced pivot bolts at 4000km because I snapped one.

[BaGearA]

Excellent and proven bike , They could have built it around 100mm/110mm easily with today's tech 

 

90mm on the front sounds very harsh

[Serious Panda]

Excellent and proven bike , They could have built it around 100mm/110mm easily with today's tech 

 

90mm on the front sounds very harsh

 

Proven to break.

[Sharkie 2]

I got the 2017 Si3 late last year and have done approx 5000km including very muddy Sabie and Sani2C this year. The bike is fantastic and I don't have any regrets.

 

I have upgraded to Eagle and Lightbicycle carbon wheels. The Crests didn't last very long.

 

Lefty had a service and was upgraded. Not had a single issue with it.

 

Replaced pivot bolts at 4000km because I snapped one.

Wow you spent quite a bit already on your bike

[AllAboutRides]

Coming from a other brand, I would think it's quite difficult to get use to the LEFTY ???

['Dale]

Coming from a other brand, I would think it's quite difficult to get use to the LEFTY ???

Not at all

The gains - wow

That Lefty fork ????????

 

The remarks I have heard was about some complexity when it comes to front wheel mech replacement during races or something like that

I'm not tech minded or educated at all to explain clearly

[dave303e]

Well if you consider an MX bike which has top class front suspension that can handle 130+km/h and Jumps easy over 30m, none of them have tried a lefty configuration, more to the point some of the top manufacturers are now shifting to seperate function forks where one fork does rebound and the other fork does compression, with the theory that 2 halves don't always add up to 1. 

The lefty is far more rigid because it has a proper triple clamp(or double clamp in the lefty's case) which is a valid point and may make up for the performance to a certain extent, but really if it was better others would have replicated it in some way.

 

But ya up to you in the end, your dollar to spend however the F you want to...

[Vetseun]

PBP!

[Prince Albert Cycles]

I own a Flash with Lefty fork , bike is 4 years old has seen a lot of riding .

Had the fork serviced once after I thrashed it in ditch .

My Scalpel is 3 years old not a single problem .

Ride whatever bike you currently ride and check yourself ; do you ever look down on your fork ?

Neither do we that ride Lefties .

[dev null]

Just bought my son a Scalpel Si Carbon 1. Demo model at CWC at 70K.

 

I have a BMC FourStroke 02, and I am jealous already. Riding the Scalpel felt so effortless. Still to take her for some rough riding. Thing is, he will be able make use of the abilities of the Scalpel, while it will be wasted on me. He will do next year's XCO races with it, as well as XCM races.

 

Issues that bug me:

 

1. I can't service the Lefty myself

2. Can't quickly remove the front wheel. Why did they not design a caliper mounting which would allow the caliper to be swung out of the way quickly?

3. The press-fit BB. I hate press-fit BBs. It causes problems in the long run.

4. The paint on the chainstay gets easily chipped from stones. On the Carbon 1 they should have painted the chainstay black and not that day-glow orange-red. Chips in the paint job would be less noticeable if it was black.

5. The expensive crank. Would be a case of tissues if ever it would need to be replaced.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Moridin

[jcza]

Wow you spent quite a bit already on your bike

That's only items that require replacement. Not too bad for the mileage.

 

You can also add the following:

Stages

Saddle (didn't like the ProLogo)

Bigger chainring

Token cages

 

Who said cycling is cheap?

[Carmichael]

That's only items that require replacement. Not too bad for the mileage.

 

You can also add the following:

Stages

Saddle (didn't like the ProLogo)

Bigger chainring

Token cages

 

Who said cycling is cheap?

[Carmichael]

Riaan dis n awesome bike. Ek love myne. Lefty as good as it gets en nee jy wil nie omval nie. Al wat ek haat is die bb30!! Dit suck. Gaan dit verander binnekort.