There are a couple of ways you can go with this company's bikes. First, there are the tri bikes, Ironman licensed, and under the various brand names that identify specific Cannondale technologies and features. We'll look at these.
The Ironman Slice Six13 Si is the bike ridden by top triathlete and Kona winner Faris Al Sultan. This bike does have a 650c size at the bottom of its sizing table, it's a so-termed 47cm bike, and these have variable seat angles so you can make the bike as steep or shallow as you want.
What gives us pause about this bike is its high front end, caused by its 13.2cm head tube. This means the bike's stack, in 47cm, is about 51cm (C'dale hasn't give us its specs as of this writing -- Feb, '07 -- but this is what we calculate based on the specs it publishes). The concern, then, is getting low enough, considering that several 700c bikes have lower front ends than this bike's 650c bike. For example, Trek's 700c Equinox 7 in 50cm has a 2cm lower front end than Cannondale's 650c 47cm bike. Kestrel's 650c bike in 47cm is 8cm lower than the C'dale in the same size.
So, unless you ride pretty high, this bike is going to be a tough go. If you're quite tall (say, 5'9") and short in the torso, then this bike might be a pretty good fit. But that's outside the circumscription of this article series -- we're looking at bikes that'll fit people who're 5'6" and shorter.
As regards what comes next, if you think you've heard this before, you have. We might as well save some time and just cut and paste what accompanies our overview of many bike companies. Okay, so let's say you're Cannondale and you just have an honest disagreement with us about front-end height. You think a taller head tube is in order. Felt, Kestrel, QR, Cervelo and others take one side, and you fall in with some other companies on the other side. Fine, perhaps you're right. But when does high become unworkably high? It's one thing to go 4cm or 5cm taller in the head tube. But is it appropriate to compound the bike's height by spec'ing a high profile aerobar?
To explain what we mean we'll use the following example. Cervelo's 48cm bikes have a stack of 46cm, and this company specs a low-profile aerobar (Visiontech). Kestrel's 47cm tri bike has a 43.5cm stack or thereabouts, and it specs a high profile aerobar (Profile). Both bikes end up, built, with an aerobar armrest that sits equally high above the bottom bracket. In other words, both these companies' bikes fit exactly the same way, and that's because the bar spec and frame design "match" in the case of each bike. Cannondale not only builds this bike with a 51cm stack, it specs a high profile aerobar. This 47cm bike sits, therefore, 7cm to 8cm higher than either the Cervelo or the Kestrel. If Cannondale is right, then Cervelo and Kestrel are extremely wrong. Is this a wager Cannondale stands behind?
We have many good things to write about Cannondale's tri bikes, but they are confined mostly to this company's larger sizes. Indeed, there are things Cannondale does that no other company can boast, things that end-users ought to sit up and notice. But first the bikes have to fit, and we view the small sizes this company offers as a tough go for the majority of those under 5'6" who'll want to ride a tri-specific bike.
This is not to say that Cannondale is unable to solve the problem of bikes for shorter people, women in particular. It makes a model called the Optimo Féminine, a road bike, without the aero features you'll find in the Ironman models. But the geometry is pretty nice. It's steepish 75 degree road seat angle is slackish for tri but, in its 40cm size, replacing that set-back post with one having a zero-offset clamp, moving the saddle forward on the rails, gives you most of the forward positioning you're likely to need. The head tube top is 2cm lower to the ground than on its smallest tri bike, and the top tube length of 48.5cm will become shorter yet -- virtually -- once the saddle is pushed forward.
Yes, you'll have to pull off the road bars and STI from this nicely spec'd and very pretty Ultegra bike. You'll want to replace them with low-profile aerobars from Vision, Hed, Oval or Blackwell, and you may well end up with a pretty nifty bike for triathlon.
Read more about Cannondale's tri bikes here.
