But it's not just the weight that has been reduced. The suspension travel at the rear has been reduced from 100 to 80 millimetres.

Many things revised
The new "Scalpel" has been optimized in many areas. The Americans have further improved their "Zero Pivot" technology. "Zero pivot" means that no bearings are used on the rear triangle. There are no bearings between the bottom bracket and dropouts, nor between the dropouts and the shock linkage. A flexible seat and chain stay is used. In contrast to the rest of the frame, the old "Scalpel" no longer uses tube-to-tube connections in the bottom bracket area. Both from the seat tube and the down tube, the carbon fibers go directly into the chain stay. The previously used tube-to-tube connection was too inflexible, which on the one hand led to breakages and on the other had a detrimental effect on the suspension properties of the entire rear triangle. In addition, the arrangement of the carbon layers has been changed, which according to Cannondale also improves flexibility. The new rear triangle should therefore make better use of the available 80 millimeters. With the old rear triangle, it was difficult to find the right shock setup. If the shock was set too hard, the travel wasn't used to its full potential, and if it was too soft, it sagged through the travel and bottomed out. Last but not least, the topic of system integration was once again pursued without compromise. In other words: Lefty fork, BB30 ceramic bottom bracket, crankset and stem/head tube combination from the company itself.

Remote lever for Lefty
Every Lefty can now be operated via a remote lever. In collaboration with Rock Shox, the existing "X-Loc" hydraulic lever has been combined with the Lefty. This technology can be retrofitted to all Lefty forks.

Strong propulsion
The stiff frame is already noticeable on the first few meters of our test ride. The new carbon bottom bracket area not only makes the bike lighter but also extremely torsionally stiff. The 1.5 inch head tube also contributes to this. However, adjusting the shock is still not easy. Although you can now make better use of the suspension travel, optimum is different. At least we haven't found the perfect setting and still don't use the full travel. It's not easy to categorize the bike. If you're expecting comfort from the Scalpel, you're in the wrong place. Although the bike leaves a lot to be desired in terms of comfort, it is close to a hardtail in terms of propulsion.

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