All Mountain

Welcome to the lodge, part 1: the Cannondale Rize

 

If you’ve picked up a bike magazine in the last month, you’ve probably seen one of Cannondale’s teaser ads telling you to check out “the lodge.” But, if you’re anything like me and pointed your browser there right away, you would have been disappointed to find out that all there was at the lodge was a deer telling you that something was coming soon. Not very exciting at all.

Well, this week Cannondale has taken the wraps off of the lodge, and it turns out that it’s a site with some juicy details on the recently announced Rize and Moto all-mountain bikes. Details on the Moto will follow soon, but for now we’ll focus on what we know about the Rize.

The Rize is being touted as the replacement for the versatile Prophet line, although with 130mm of travel, it would seem to be more comparable to the Rush. Probably the biggest news stemming from the release of the Rize is that it introduces linkage to Cannondale’s full suspension bikes in the form of a pivot in the carbon fiber seatstays. Previously, Cannondale has teased us with linkage concepts in the past, but when it came down to production bikes, single pivot always won out (take the Gemini, Prophet, Rush, and further back the Raven and Super V as examples). Hopefully, the Rize’s linkage will let the suspension be more active under braking, and less prone to bobbing under power.

Also noteworthy about the Rize is that the bike is the first platform for the new Lefty PBR fork. The fork uses SoloAir technology pinched from SRAM, which should help the damping feel of the fork, long a weak point of the Lefty line. The Lefty PBR is claimed to be the lightest 130mm fork on the market, and at a weight of only 2.9 lbs, which is light for even an 80mm XC race fork, we have little reason to doubt that claim. All mountain riding is really a great application for the Lefty, as despite its appearance it is easily one of the stiffest forks available.

Cannondale is offering the Rize in both carbon and aluminum frames. The top-rung Rize Carbon 1 weighs in at a claimed 24.1 lbs, which is outstanding for its class, but will put a pretty sizeable hole in your wallet at $5499 USD. Check out the aluminum versions if you want to save your money for other luxuries… like rent.

© 2008 Two Six Nation.