New cannondale SYSTEMSIX road frame!

Back by popular demand, the general all-things Road forum!

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DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:32 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

pyrahna wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:29 pm
Completly unrelated to bicycles story that illistrates the above engineering problem/challenge. At one point in time I worked for a company that was sponsored by Budweiser and the Head Brewmeister came to our company to do a beer testing / lesson in beer making. It was a lot more interesting than I would of guessed going in. One of the stories he told was at the end of every month a random 6 pack of Budweiser beer was shipped in to headquarters in St. Louis and the top brass would drink about a shot of beer from each brewery to make sure they all tasted the same. Even with all the modern controls in factories they still found the occasional batch that was different and had to drop the production for that period of time and fix the problem.
Ha, that's a great story pyrahna! Lots of funny (ha ha) stuff sometimes goes on behind the scenes in manufacturing.

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

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CAAD8FRED
Posts: 465
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:52 pm

by CAAD8FRED

Hey Damon
How long do you think the SystemSix will stay on top as fastest aero bike under the current UCI rules?

bikesrdangerousmmk
Posts: 249
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:54 am

by bikesrdangerousmmk

Any possibility of more customization in the near future for frame colors like Trek and Orbea (possibly even the other components like crankset, saddle, tires for those of us not crazy about fsa)? That would pretty much guarantee that Dale would be my next pick up.

DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
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Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

CAAD8FRED wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:20 pm
Hey Damon
How long do you think the SystemSix will stay on top as fastest aero bike under the current UCI rules?
Hi CAAD8FRED,

We were worried until the latest launches. Trek says their new bike is a bit slower than their old one, which we beat. Specialized says their new bike is faster than their old one, but not by much. We beat the old one and it would be interesting to test their new one. Not too worried about the others.

Interesting about current UCI rules. dropping the 3:1 rule really only frees up the fork and stays (not main tubes), yet we have the lowest drag road bike with 3:1 fork and less than 3:1 stays. Based on wind tunnel experiments with two different fork designs, adding chord beyond 3:1 didn't make the forks any faster, but did increase unwanted side force.

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

mrlobber
Posts: 1928
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:36 am
Location: Where the permanent autumn is

by mrlobber

DamonRinard wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:01 am
We were worried until the latest launches. Trek says their new bike is a bit slower than their old one, which we beat. Specialized says their new bike is faster than their old one, but not by much. We beat the old one and it would be interesting to test their new one. Not too worried about the others.
Not about the upcoming S5 Disc either? (or you know things about it we still do not? :D )
Minimum bike categories required in the stable:
Aero bike | GC bike | GC rim bike | Climbing bike | Climbing rim bike | Classics bike | Gravel bike | TT bike | Indoors bike

willmac
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2016 11:33 am

by willmac

bikesrdangerousmmk wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:13 pm
Any possibility of more customization in the near future for frame colors like Trek and Orbea (possibly even the other components like crankset, saddle, tires for those of us not crazy about fsa)? That would pretty much guarantee that Dale would be my next pick up.
This. The only thing I kind of get peeved at with Cannondale is one colour per model. It would be great if we could choose a couple of options. Base colour, accents and sticker colours for instance.

DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:32 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

mrlobber wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:33 am
Not about the upcoming S5 Disc either? (or you know things about it we still do not? :D )
Hi mrlobber,

Ah, I'd forgotten about them. I've been gone long enough that project hadn't started, so I really know nothing. Will be interesting to see it!

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:32 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

willmac wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:14 am
bikesrdangerousmmk wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:13 pm
Any possibility of more customization in the near future for frame colors like Trek and Orbea (possibly even the other components like crankset, saddle, tires for those of us not crazy about fsa)? That would pretty much guarantee that Dale would be my next pick up.
This. The only thing I kind of get peeved at with Cannondale is one colour per model. It would be great if we could choose a couple of options. Base colour, accents and sticker colours for instance.
Hi willmac,

Sorry, I forgot to answer bikesrdangerousmmk's question. Color & graphics aren't really my department, but I know it's logistically tough to manage too many colors. And dealers don't like too many options, because it seems like we "never" have the one customers ask for. Separate stickers seems like a good idea though. Hopefully we'll bring some options in the future, but nothing's planned for this model year.

Since color options are more likely with higher volumes, I should mention we're not making very many SystemSixes. We expect to sell out. So if you're thinking of one, act quickly, even if it might not be your favorite color.

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

mag
Posts: 616
Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:23 pm

by mag

@DamonRinard Please tell your responsible colleagues about the existence of custom paint programs (Trek, Orbea, Bianchi, Ridley ...) and how nice it could be... :-D

willmac
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2016 11:33 am

by willmac

Hi Damon, firstly, thanks for taking the time to come on these forums and not only give the odd bit of marketing jargon but to genuinlely appear to read and respond to what is read.

In regards to the colorways, I think what Dan and I were saying is that rather than dealers and Cannondale having to guess, allow customers to order from your website, have it painted to suit from a selection of options and then delivered to your dealer. The same as what Trek does. I understand you can’t do it with your current run but it would be a really nice thing to consider for the next run. You could even limit it to a certain amount of frames and people who register interest get access first. There’s a lot of ways to do it without having to commit significant outlay upfront or have surplus stock at end of season.

Just something to think about

Will

CAAD8FRED
Posts: 465
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:52 pm

by CAAD8FRED

Hey Damon

Have you or anyone else in engineering considered “non-mainstream” companies with aero bikes like Factor or Ceepo?

DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:32 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

Hi Folks,

Thanks for your comments and input. Paint options request received loud and clear.

As you can probably guess, this is something we've been discussing internally, and while I can make no promises, I'll pass along your comments to the relevant people here at Cannondale HQ.

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

DamonRinard
in the industry
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:32 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

by DamonRinard

CAAD8FRED wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:59 pm
...“non-mainstream” companies with aero bikes...
Hi CAAD8FRED,

Sure. However it's tough to justify buying even more bikes and spending even more wind tunnel time to include bikes that are less likely to affect Cannondale sales; after all, we do need to make money or eventually we go out of business.

However, based on experience, we find that aero "styled" bikes rarely have class-leading aero performance. Yes, there's a chance a small brand has exceptionally low drag, but it's a very small chance. I even remember one brand's "aero" bike had higher drag then their climbing bike! TOUR Magazine even published a slower time in their course simulation.

Making an "aero" bike is easy; making a low drag bike is very hard. Unfortunately for the small guys, it takes serious engineering resources to do it right.

Cheers,
Damon
Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager, Road Bikes
Cycling Sports Group, Cannondale
Ex-Kestrel, ex-Velomax, ex-Trek, ex-Cervelo

bikesrdangerousmmk
Posts: 249
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:54 am

by bikesrdangerousmmk

DamonRinard wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:06 pm
Hi Folks,

Thanks for your comments and input. Paint options request received loud and clear.

As you can probably guess, this is something we've been discussing internally, and while I can make no promises, I'll pass along your comments to the relevant people here at Cannondale HQ.

Cheers,
Damon
:thumbup:

by Weenie


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CAAD8FRED
Posts: 465
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:52 pm

by CAAD8FRED

Cannondale Japan has a custom division but it’s very expensive compared to non custom models.

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