Cannondale Flash 29er 2012

nicklej

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I've only ever kept one bike since new and that is my Cannondale Flash from 2012.
I find it really comfy and just fits me so well.

I wanted to make a thread for it, mainly for my own sake, somewhere I can track where the bike is now, what I'm changing and a log of my favourite bike thus far.

So heres a pic of it as of today. I use it daily for commuting and the odd off-road jaunt and often round the New Forest. The most off roading this sees is my annual South Downs Way ride but thats fine with me.

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Don't forget the doook!
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There are some changes I made from the stock bike over time. One is the wheels. I replaced the Enve wheels with some from stans because i didn't like the faff of internals nipples and the enves were nice to look but a similar weight to the stans ones, tyres are a personal choice, i like the Mezcals in 2.1" and have nothing but good things to say about them.

On the subject of wheels, I will have some new carbon wheels to fit soon. The DT hubs on my bike are worn, and the nipples in the wheels are beginning to pull through in some places so a replacement set due anyway. More to come on those when I have them ready.

Another main change was ridding the bike of the hollogram cranks. Lovely and light but I prefer the XTR ones I have now. I used a rotor BB30-24mm bottom bracket and away I went!

Main spec:

Frame: Cannondale Flash 29er HiMod large
Fork: Lefty PBR 90mm carbon.
Wheels: Stans crest with DT swiss 240s rear hub, cannondale 50 front hub. Sapim CX ray spokes. Mezcal 29x2.1" tyres setup tubeless
Cranks: XTR M985 with 32T narrowwide chainring from PassQuest.
Pedals: XTR Trail.
Bars: Easton, came from another bike but work well. Chucked on some SQLab inner barends.
Seatpost: Cannondale Himod
Saddle: Tune speedneedle.
Rear mech: SRAM GX with garbaruk cage and oversized pulleys.
Brakes: Magura MT5 - the resevoir cap is damaged hence the ol rubber band bodge until i can be bothered to fix em up.

Current weight is 9.4kg as pictured.
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My plan for this bike is to trim some weight off and probably have a rigid setup for it too. I have used it for some time with a rigid fork running 27.5" wheels and that saved about 700g from the weight but i like have a suspension fork. I ride a lot and mostly non-offroad so a rigid setup works well for me.

My new wheels won't be light really. I made some with those aliexpress titanium/carbon spokes that were about 1100g but the lefty spokes kept breaking so will re-use the rims and lace them into some other hubs and use pillar spokes so I can build them up on a budget. Wheels expected to be about 1400g but are 30mm deep.

I will also be changing the bars soon and probably the brakes. I'll either tune some MT8s or go with XTR.
 
Tragedy on my ride in today, 3 broken spokes on the rear after thwomping into a fat pothole :confused:

Well, this coincides with a few other things. Gonna chuck on my 650b wheels and send off my lefty to Robin at Race Ready Suspension.
After a decade of basically no maintenance (other than needle reset and lower cleaning), the forks got a bit of lateral play that I never investigated because it seemingly worked fine. The fork should get an overhaul and hopefully keep running for a while....lets see what the damage will be! 🤞
 
New wheels ready to roll now. They're a fair but lighter, just over 1300g compared to 1800g for the previous wheelset, so happy with that!

The freehub is very obnoxious but prefer that over a silent hub.

Wheel spec:

Front hub: Powerway lefty 1.0
Rear Hub: Goldix 310
Rims: Bitranz 30x30mm
Spokes: sapim CX Ray

These are the widest rims I've used but really like them!

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i have the same bike ! well i think it is, mine is neon green and white, team colours? has carbon lefty etc
 
i have the same bike ! well i think it is, mine is neon green and white, team colours? has carbon lefty etc
Usually the team ones are black with black.white highlights. Maybe yours in an F29 instead of Flash? the 2013 F29 in teh spec you describe existed :) I like these bikes a lot. I'll probably change to an F-Si in the future to get a slightly slacker front end.
 
Usually the team ones are black with black.white highlights. Maybe yours in an F29 instead of Flash? the 2013 F29 in teh spec you describe existed :) I like these bikes a lot. I'll probably change to an F-Si in the future to get a slightly slacker front end.
i cant remeber so ill look when i get home, i think it was 2014 model but i cant remember now. im running it 2 x 9. i like the look of your 1 x setup
 
i cant remeber so ill look when i get home, i think it was 2014 model but i cant remember now. im running it 2 x 9. i like the look of your 1 x setup
ah yeah in that case it will be an F29 as the Flash ended production in model year 2013 :) Have you tried 1x yet? I've been on it for ages and really like it. Simple to setup, use and maintain. Plus, like most, i prefer the simplicity of a single shifter, running 11 gears. When i had 2x10 on this, i liked the range but really wasn't using all the gears as effectively as i do now.

MI am probably going to cop a EDS electric derailleur when they go on sale (hopefully) on 11th November. I love that it can be set up for 7-13 speed cassettes which is a huge plus over any other electric groupsets right now.
 
Nice bike, I had the alloy version. Sold it to a friend 8 years ago and he’s still riding it.
Got me hooked on Lefties and went on to have a custom frame built around one.
 
Nice bike, I had the alloy version. Sold it to a friend 8 years ago and he’s still riding it.
Got me hooked on Lefties and went on to have a custom frame built around one.
Thanks. Drop a pic in here of your ride! Sounds great! I will probably end up having a Ti frame with the same geo made because I get on with it so well!
 

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