Oh Yeah!

Take a look at my first 'cross bike!!!

It's the 2008 Cannondale X6, in stock and shipping soon. Jeff's also getting one, but his is back ordered. We'll be totally ready for winter riding!

I basically went with a brand I know when ordering the ‘cross bike and didn’t worry about doing tons of comparison shopping; however, there are a lot of great options, so it was fun to consider them a little. After drooling over frames and build it up yourself components (for example the Chile con Crosso since I love the name!) I started to focus on ‘out of the box’ brands available locally.

Cannondale was an obvious choice as I have good experiences with the brand. I already ride a road bike CAAD9 Optimo frame. The CAAD9 Optimo 'cross bike is equipped with low end components, full Tiagra. I wasn’t very interested in Tiagra, but it has been improved and actually felt pretty good on the bike I tested. Low end components are actually fine when you think about the terrain and conditions I’ll be subjecting it to.

Some of the bikes I considered were a Jake the Snake by Kona, Specialized, Trek XO, Bianchi Axis and Redline Conquest. Ultimately, the only other bikes seriously in the running with the Cannondale were the Fuji Cross Comp and Cross Pro. These had better components than the Cannondale, and were 10 speed, but you don’t get an American made frame. The Cannondales welded joins are just so smooth too. Even so, I was very tempted by the Ultegra/Dura Ace component mix. In fact, right up until I ordered, I thought I was going to get the 2007 Fuji Cross Pro. But, it turned out that was no longer available in the great 2007 color scheme and the new ones just didn’t grab my attention the way the Cannondale frame did.

Well, it wasn’t entirely down to vanity in the end. Besides knowing the brand from having a CAAD9 road frame, I reminded myself why I was buying the bike and made a practical decision without getting starry-eyed over fancy components.

Jeff’s reasoning brought him to the same conclusion that the Cannondales really had no drawbacks for us. We’re getting a good frame that we can always build up with other components in future. The 9 speed cogs will be easy to clean. It should just be an all round fun winter bike.

I’m really looking forward to picking it up. I’ve already chosen some Crank Bros. Candy pedals and have some Nike shoes on hold at the shop.