Cannondale Scalpel Team Pro Review

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Written by drbob on January 12, 2010 – 9:38 am -

by charles

Cannondale’s top of the heap XC Scalpel Team edition gets dirty. Doubt everything about the bike from the funky fork to a rear end missing at least two joints, but like everything else, a ride tells the story.

Cannondale is “that other American brand”. Frankly they’ve always done a better job designing and building bikes than they have at marketing them. That’s a bold statement coming from a goober like me, especially when you consider that, along with prototype testing or R&D, a company’s marketing guys usually run the media show…

But please understand that I don’t mean it as a swipe at Cannondale. Frankly, if a few companies engineers (the ones that actually have engineers that is…) spent more time in original thought focused on what works better, rather than in playing catch up to a marketing departments ideas about what sells, well, they would be Cannondale. Some of the best examples of that have consistently been in their development on the Mountain side, and the Scalpel Team is no exception.
Cannondale Scalpel Team Pro

The easiest thing to note here, and the first thing every casual passer-by notices is the Lefty fork. It’s been in the product range long enough that nobody (with any brains) is calling it a fashion fork (especially guys trying to design something competitive). The latest version on the Scalpel, the Lefty Speed Carbon SL is a relatively close cousin the Max Carbon (tested by Mtbr site manger Gregg on the Rize) and represent the best of the bunch and offer fantastic performance.

An easy assumption from people (including me) was that this tech simply can’t offer the stability that comes from a standard two legger… And that’s generally speaking, wrong. In fact anything in the Lefty SL weight class is less stiff… In twist flex and in front to back flex. And that’s when you loosely define the term “weight class”.
Even if it tracked worse than it’s heavier competition (and it doesn’t), the weight of the SL sits at 2.5 pounds. For weight weenie types like me, it makes for an interesting problem because we’re so used to making excuses for the lack of performance on fly weight parts that we frankly don’t know what to do when something is this light and then outperforms other things…

The FAT tube cross section and materials combine for a fork that gives exceptional stiffness.
And does so without reservation or conditions like “better than you would expect for a single leg fork”.

The stiffness and tracking of the Lefty Speed Carbon is great compared to forks in the all mountain weight range.
It makes sense that compression and rebound have to be in one side on the lefty… But it’s that way on lots of two sided forks as well.

Another benefit of the massive cross section of the Lefty fork tube is that engineers have a lot of space to work inside compared to double leg forks that try and stick all of their damping into a smaller tube.

That extra room not only provides more volume for damping hardware, it also allows for the use of needle bearing actuation…

This coupled with better volume for damping makes for the smoothest operation XC fork on the market (just a personal opinion). And the structure also gets credit for some of the stiffness of the Lefty…

Swing around back and like the lefty, it looks a bit like something is missing here too…
Cannondale Scalpel Team Pro

The linkage at the back of most bike designs is, well, gone.

And I can honestly say that the combination of no pivots and the fact that Cannondale expect solid hunks of carbon to flex properly up and down, while not being sloppy as all hell side to side was nuts. I was thinking it would either be a glorified hard tail or be a noodle.

Part of the design that allows the Scalpel’s booty to work is pretty plain to see. Skinny stays top to bottom mean that they control both the point of flex as well as the direction…

And no pivots at the rear drops means nothing to gunk up.

Here in AZ it’s mostly dust, but pick your off road poison depending on geography and whatever it is, it’s not fouling up bearings or bushings that don’t exist…
And this lack of linkage / pivot points at the rear wheel also means that the stays are flexing in tandem more so than designs that do allow more freedom of movement. There is hardly any torsion twist that allows the rear wheel to track out of line in hard fast cornering or while the rear suspension is super active.

The link at the shock is pretty basic. Nothing overly special here. One of the neater features is that the tidy overall design makes this the easiest to clean Full Suspension mountain bike ever…

OK so that’s not really a big thing to lots of people but keeping things maintained is a pain in the ass…
The rear end actuates on the uber common Fox Float RP23. This one at 100MM travel with ProPedal. It’s basically a firm and soft setting with 3 subsets versus a standard lock out.

Lock out needs no explanation and ProPedal is pretty dang easy. The numbers are associated with variable degree’s of damping stiffness.

Now honestly I’ve set this bike up and don’t use much but active (lever to soft) and position 2. But for guys that ride lots of different places, this adjustment feature will have it’s advantages allowing on the fly dial in once your sag is properly set. For me, Lockout and single setting is enough.

The Build kit is what you would expect when a company like Cannondale writes “TEAM” on it… (though I’m miffed that Mine didn’t come in pimp-green trim)
Very good Wheels from Mavic in the form of their Crossmax SLR Disc give very low weight and an easy upgrade to tubeless.

Frankly this overall design and concept is better suited to Mountain bikes than Mavic’s continued format use on the road (thankFULLy these are not “M-Sys”). Mavic have a great wheel here in all respects.
The Brakes and Shifting are handled by SRAM / Avid and show in Black-Bling…

The brakes are what they are. Juicy Ultimate with good modulation, weigh diddly, are easy to set up and maintain. great reach and pull adjustment as well…
The shifting actuation of the XO is very good and we’re all ready for XX that should snug things up further.

One of the other features that are a great example of Cannondale design are the SIsl Cranks. Cannondale brought the integrated BB30 system to the field and this is one of the better examples of Cannondale Engineering… (In fact, Cannondale actually sub out their engineering to lots of folks.)

Simplifying and combining parts in the right way can make them stronger and lighter.

That’s about as simple a way to put it as you can. Having oversized bearings sitting wider means they get to handle the load in a way that allows for a combination of a more stable (stiff) bottom end and that stability in load handling also means things take a little (or a lot relative to what other system you compare them) longer to wear out.

And of course it’s pretty damn expensive and time consuming to do the type of detailed machining involved in making a crank like the SL

The detail and design combine for the strength to weight.
And at the end of the day, all these little details that you might think are not much different or don’t save “that much” weight, start to add up…

The whole damn thing rolls in SUB 22 pounds with Look Quartz pedals right out of the box. No cutting the seat post, still running the triple. Still rolling the stock (and damn nice) Conti Race Kings with tubes.

Did I ride it?
After I sat staring at it wondering how bad it would look getting passed by anything without a motor… Yeah.
This is a make no bones about it Cross Country Race bike design., The Scalpel has it’s obvious focus at XC but simply functions well enough not to get cubby holed.
Phoenix Trail 100 isn’t anyone’s fast smooth path. The entire ride is either pointed up a hill or down (frequently both in rapid succession) and the path isn’t traditional “dirt”. It’s almost completely made up of rocks of variable size with the occasional patch of sand… Crashing here means landing on either a sharp rock or a Cactus (or more likely a Cactus growing out between two sharp rocks).

Frankly I should look more toward the all mountain side for an every-day ride, but I love light bikes and simply prefer to ask too much of Cross Country rigs. The Scalpel has no problem filling that roll (but with a definite tilt to XC).

There is a premium in this environment on tracking and control and also on starting and stopping quickly. Constant changes of pace are the norm… Don’t get me wrong, there are other trails around here where the terrain is fast and rolling and this would be a fantastic bike for that. The Scalpel doesn’t sacrifice in weight to many hard tails, but smoother than any hard tail.
The suspension here is a treat. The Speed Carbon Lefty doesn’t just surprise me. It’s surprised everyone that I heard a comment from. And if you’ve tried lefty in the past, I can say that the SL and Max are both better than anything you’ve tried in the past.

And that’s when it’s not even functioning properly…
Full disclosure, I had a little bit of a fork oil leak in the Lefty. On initial build, the top cap on the internal cylinder was left a bit loose and maybe a teaspoon of oil leaked. I noted that there was a little loose-play in lock out (a fairly easy sign) and also noticed the bottom of the fork and the front brake had a coating of oil. And the front brake wasn’t functioning (a REALLY easy sign).
The brakes sit just in the right place for oil to pay a visit.

So it was surgery time and this gave me a chance to see the guts of the fork and how simple the mechanism is inside (the take down is a pretty darn easy deal compared to most forks). After topping off the oil and making sure everything was tight, the fork was working better than great… [Juicy Ultimate brakes are also VERY easy to work on as swapping pads took no time]. Once fully filled, the fork was dead silent (instead of the very VERY slight squish/liquid traveling noise) and the compression was even more consistent and smooth through the range.

Combine the function and the 100mm Travel and the fact that the fork weighs nothing and you have a reasonable all mountain fork that forgot the extra pound of weight.

Or use set up the damping and use it as intended and you have an insane XC fork that leaves me drawing blanks if asked to name a fork I would prefer regardless of bike brand.

Out back is a little different but still very good.
This isn’t an all mountain rear end. The Zero Pivot design sits where Cannondale want it to sit. Some place between a super plush linkage design and razor / hard tail precision.

To do that, you’re not going to get a silk pillow, but the 100mm of travel and the rear design soak up far more than you think they should given the tracking and control.

The Scalpel’s back end stays very well connected to the ground and the RP23 gets a full work out. The combination of control and bump soaking is really impressive. Once you go Tubeless, get your shock preload pressure right and add in the fine tuning selection that the Fox’s ProPedal gives you, you’ll have a ride than handles like a hard tail except the bumps go away…

The only XC condition where tossing in linkage would be a bit of a benefit and would be in fast and continual choppy sections where quicker smoother action under heavy, rapid fire compression and rebound becomes a little more critical due to a bit more limited travel of an XC bike. Frankly that same condition pummels other XC suspension designs where I am and just plain wigged out another companies compubrained unit. But I mention it to those that heard me talk about all mountain.

I’m happy to sacrifice the bit of extra smoothness for the overall better control and tracking that comes with the Zero Pivot design. Even then, it’s only because I’m asking an XC bike to do more than it reasonably should. If XC is your focus, you really loose nothing in the Zero Pivot system and simply gain tracking.

That the rear isn’t as incredible as the front is a compliment to the front not an insult to the back…
The Frame itself is solid. Full high Mod Carbon Fiber sits under the stock paint job.

I honestly wish they would show off the carbon a bit more, and a fellow weight weenie in Italy did enough work to give you a more clear view of what the co-mould frame looks like (along with modifying almost everything else on the bike)

The weight and stiffness that come with this package are a noticeable factor. Coupled with the SI cranks (and yeah, the top line wheels and race rubber) and it provides for an exceptionally quick platform that transfers power that is, in a word, “direct”. In fact, given the exceptionally light front end (and total package really), the geometry had me at times wishing I had chosen to be fit a little more forward and lower at the bars. Pulling the front end off the ground is easier on this bike than any other bike I have ever owned.

The frame here is stiff… Frankly I wish I could have this bike with a couple different forks just to do a better job of narrowing down exactly what’s what with regard to directional control. That said, I would not at all be surprised to find that the frame fork and rear end are each (stand alone) stiffer than competitive bikes in class.

Put the stiffness of these segments all together and unlike most things bicycle, “scalpel is a pretty damn appropriate name.

There’s so much feedback and so little slop anywhere that I’ve not been on anything else that handles like this bike. In fact I’ve been on dual suspension bikes with front and rear locked out that don’t react as quickly as the Scalpel does with its suspension fully active.
Not sure what else to say except that XC bikes in general are getting to be genuinely exceptional. There are a lot of great choices out there and lots of places to spend BIG money.

For me, after testing top line bikes from a few other companies, I’m not sure that there are more than a couple other bikes that rival the Scalpel Team. At the best part of $7000 it’s not going to be for everyone. It doesn’t look like an over the top amount of money when you look at the parts list and frame and fork spec, but this is a bike that simply should not be judged by it’s off the charts parts list.

The drawbacks are not many with the front end arguably the best in the biz and a rear end that moves more (up and down) and less (side to side) that anyone thinks it will. Mix in a who’s who of top parts and that leaves the only gripe I have sitting at the stem… I would LOVE for Cannondale to find a way to make this rig easier to swap stems, but a good dealer should frankly do this for you if they fit you a bit off and you need a change in the first month.

I would also like it more if a few other wheel manufacturers had lefty tech hubs. In fact it would be GREAT if Cannondale sold a slick hub set with a couple drilling patterns. It’s not like they lack the design and execution to do it!

The Scalpel Team is all about the way the frame and Fork operate and as you work down through the range, something less than the team is giving you the better part of all of its operational advantage, if not the cream0crop parts list.

29ers are the rage, but for ultimate quickness and control, there isn’t a 29er that behaves like this. Not everyone has the same flowing trails that allow 29 to shine. And while this bike has a slick enough, 100mm front end and good durability that allow it to take more tough things than lots of XC bikes should, make no mistake about it’s field of expertise…
T
he crazy part is that any day now you’ll see the next Scalpel… And while I am grinning from ear to ear about this one, there are proto forks in the works that will break the 1K barrier and still be more than competitive with stiffness. The frames are getting tweaked and suspension on the whole is getting better.