EatPrayRide Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Good morning all and happy Monday... I hope you got to spend some good time on your bikes this weekend. I was wondering if you could assist me in making the decision of witch bike to buy a bit easier as i'm torn between the 2019 Cannondale Scalpel 3 and the Santa Cruz Blur with GX. Im definitely not a podium contender at this stage of my life and im not sure if ill ever be. I weigh in at 98kg and my height is 1.79m so ill definitely go for a large size frame. I'm currently riding a Scott Spark 910 and its a great bike however I went from always riding a hardtail to this bike and the geometry is just to laid back or relaxed for me if that makes sense. What are your opinions on the Cannondale and Santa Cruz geometry, components, price, maintenance and after market service? Please feel free to shed some light on this as I've never owned a Cannondale or a Santa Cruz. Here are links to both of the bikes: http://cyclelab.com/santa-cruz-blur-29-mountain-bike-carbon-fog/ http://cyclelab.com/cannondale-scalpel-si-carbon-3-29-mountain-bike-2019/ Thanks for reading the above and assisting me with this.
TomR Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Good morning all and happy Monday... I hope you got to spend some good time on your bikes this weekend. I was wondering if you could assist me in making the decision of witch bike to buy a bit easier as i'm torn between the 2019 Cannondale Scalpel 3 and the Santa Cruz Blur with GX. Im definitely not a podium contender at this stage of my life and im not sure if ill ever be. I weigh in at 98kg and my height is 1.79m so ill definitely go for a large size frame. I'm currently riding a Scott Spark 910 and its a great bike however I went from always riding a hardtail to this bike and the geometry is just to laid back or relaxed for me if that makes sense. What are your opinions on the Cannondale and Santa Cruz geometry, components, price, maintenance and after market service? Please feel free to shed some light on this as I've never owned a Cannondale or a Santa Cruz. Here are links to both of the bikes: http://cyclelab.com/santa-cruz-blur-29-mountain-bike-carbon-fog/ http://cyclelab.com/cannondale-scalpel-si-carbon-3-29-mountain-bike-2019/ Thanks for reading the above and assisting me with this. Hi! Two great choices... That new Lefty Ocho is an amazing looking fork, and gets some really good reviews. I am a Santa Cruz guy though. I have a few of their bikes and absolutely love the brand. I don’t have any experience with the agents from Cannondale, but the guys from Rush Sports are top notch. Personally I wouldn’t stray away from Fox suspension. They’re easy to service and they’re pretty robust. Santa Cruz frames are bullet proof, and being on the slightly heavier side they the blur is probably a better choice than the scalpel. If I was in the market for a new XC bike that can almost do everything I would only choose the Blur. The Scalpel is a great bike. Proper eye candy, but I couldn’t buy it. I’m also 1.79m and ride a large Santa Cruz frame. Good luck with the purchase.
DieselnDust Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Both great options and you won't go wrong with either.the key difference I picked up after riding both bikes is that the Santa Cruz feels harsher through pedally rough sections like rock gardens and rooty sections.Steering wise both feel well weighted and with the stock stems and bars for the size bike you need. I ride a medium so I would assume that XL packages are put together to achieve a similar feeling to steering input. Both frames feel very responsive under pedaling with minimal bob if set up correctly. Where the Cannondale excels is through rocky terrain. The BB is a little higher than for the Blur so you don;t have to time your pedaling quite as much with the Cannondale. The parts kit for both bikes is broadly similar with both bikes using Omnico serviced suspension units. After market service for the Cannondale is very good and the dealer network is bigger than for Santa Cruz. I wouldn't say that one is better then the other but having more dealers is an advantage because you can walk into any store and they be able to obtain spares for your Cannondale overnight. Rush sports have alienated dealers by have SC select dealers so the network for servicing SC bikes is much smaller. the Cannondale is probably easier to service in the long run. The suspension pivot bearigns are easily replaced whereas the Santa Cruz uses grease injection ports to regrease the bearings. This can be a nice feature BUT,....I have seen mechanics at stage races struggling to remove pivot bearings from SC bikes due to the bearing becoming seized in the frame. So maybe regreasing the pivot bearings isn't really enough and the bearing need to be removed from time to time to ensure that they don;t seize. So slightly more finicky but your LBS should be aware of this and do the required. the Pivot bearing kits are shockingly expensive though!! Geometry.....the Santa Cruz is slacker, lower and a little longer than the Cannondale. Seat tube angle is 74 degrees vs 73.5 for the Scalpel.69 degree head angle vs 69.5 degree head angle for the ScalpelFront centre is 728 vs 711. So the SC is closer to the Scott in geometry than the Scalpel. Now the decision for you which of these aspects ticks your boxes?
slickjay007 Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Try ride them both.... the one that feels the most comfortable on, choose that one. On paper they very similar spec'd so you need to follow your heart and your gut feel.
Clinton H Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Most of the Dale's in the classifieds all say new frame warranty , so if you got with them it seems you can get a new frame at least once a year . If you buy a Santa Cruz you'll likely have the same one for life .
dewaldsss Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 Both looks like awesome bikes!The cannondale can accommodate 2 water bottles in the triangle but I'm not a dale fan.Have you looked at the Canyon Lux? https://www.canyon.com/en-za/mtb/lux/lux-cf-sl-8-0-race-team.html
'Dale Posted October 8, 2018 Posted October 8, 2018 The Lefty is a lot of bike. Like a wild horse on cocaine.Sure you can handle it? Santa Cruz is for the over 50 crowd that used to surf when they still could.
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