With the same rear triangle as its little brother "Scalpel", Cannondale has a "Zero-Pivot" system which, as the name suggests, dispenses with a pivot with bearing at the rear on the carbon models. They work with vertically flexible seat and chain stays, which together with the rear shock give the bikes 100 millimetres of travel. Only the two aluminum models do not come without a pivot. As aluminum is not made for flexible use and would break, bearings have been installed in the seat stay. Two bearings were used on both sides. This allows Cannondale to prevent them from wedging together - single bearings have this disadvantage. This does add a little extra weight, but Cannondale makes no compromises here.

Torsionally stiff, lightweight frame
Thanks to a 444 millimeter short chainstay, you have the same wheelbase as the 26-inch Scalpel, which makes the bike extremely light. This was made possible in part thanks to the missing strut (seatstay bridge) in front of the seat tube. It provides the necessary space for the large wheels. However, to avoid losing torsional stiffness, Cannondale works with a kind of clamping bracket at the height of the suspension linkage. This clamps a 15-millimeter hollow thru-axle together with the seat stays. Together with the one-piece suspension linkage, the "X12" thru-axle at the rear and a bottom bracket area, Cannondale has tried to achieve maximum stiffness. This is Cannondale's way of compensating for the lack of stiffness of the bikes, as the large bikes cannot yet keep up with their smaller counterparts. Despite all these "stiffening" elements, Cannondale claims a frame weight of just 1900 grams without the shock. This is a great value for a 29er fully. Thanks to system integration - in-house components such as the crankset, BB30 bottom bracket, pressed-in headset and Lefty suspension fork are installed - the total weight of the top model "Scalpel 29er Carbon 1" is a low 10.5 kilograms.

Deep front, linear spring characteristic
Cannondale has designed a special spacer to reduce the standover height. This is placed above the head tube but below the upper fork crown and brings the frame one centimeter further down at the front. Thanks to an S-shaped spring characteristic, which is nicely linear in the mid-travel range, the rider has the feeling of having more than the 100 millimeters of travel at the rear. Together with the proven, hypersensitive 100-millimeter Lefty, this comes very close to the desired trail bike concept. Nevertheless, the rider does not have to do without powerful propulsion. Thanks to the aforementioned stiffness and a highly progressive spring characteristic in the sag range, every pedal rotation is converted directly into propulsion. Towards the end of the suspension travel range, the spring characteristic curve points steeply upwards once again, ensuring that the rider does not bottom out even in rough terrain.

With the new "Scalpel 29", Cannondale presents a 29er bike that is difficult to compete with: agile and stiff like a 26-inch bike, but with large wheels for smooth running and super traction.

www.cannondale.com