Earlier this summer, Cannondale launched their new “Over Mountain” dual travel full suspension mountain bike, the Trigger. And over the past two years, the 29er Lefty has slowly crept up in travel, going from 80mm to 90mm and then 100mm, where it sits spec’d on the Scalpel.
Now, they’ve combined the two and extended the Lefty’s travel even more to create the 130mm Trigger 29er. Features wise, it’s very similar to the 26″ version, so check that post for general tech specs. We’ll call out the unique, special features here. The Triggers are designed around their Fox-built DYAD RT2 dual travel shocks to get 130mm rear wheel travel in Flow mode, 80mm in Elevate. Shock is tuned to feel pretty firm in Elevate for hammering, but opens up to be a lot more plush in Flow.
The new 130mm Lefty is not just an lengthened option, it’s an entirely new beast called the Lefty Super Max…
The DYAD shock is a twin chamber pull shock that gets completely separate compression and rebound tunes for each chamber. That lets Fox and Cannondale tune the suspension characteristics so they’re optimized for each travel mode.
Presumably, you’ll use the shorter travel (Elevate) mode when climbing or hammering along on the flats, so it has a firmer low speed compression tune. When the going gets rough or points down, the long travel (Flow) mode opens things up to be more plush and take bigger hits in stride. The shorter travel mode only uses the first 80mm of travel, so it doesn’t shorten the shock’s stroke to change travel. This keeps the bike from squatting in the rear when it should be ready to climb. Translation: The already slack 69º head angle won’t get slacker in Elevate mode. In fact, because sag is reduced a bit in Elevate, it actually will seem just a hair steeper.
The Trigger 29er has a 440mm (17.32″) chainstay and double bearings on both pivots. Marketing manager Murray Washburn says the double bearings in these pivots drastically reduces frame flex. The top pivot on the rocker uses a 15mm thru axle and it’s connected at the widest point possible for massive stiffness.
One of the minor changes to the Left Super Max and Trigger 29er is the use of a straight 1.5″ headtube. Prior Lefty forks were actually about 1.56″, but this lets them run a standard 1.5″ headset. It also opens the door to third party stems instead of being locked into Cannondale’s OPI stems…and there’s more to this story below.
The bike shown above is the Trigger 29er 1, their top model for 2013. It gets a mostly XT build with Stan’s ZTR rims and Schwalbe tires. It’ll get a remote actuated dropper seatpost, not the handle operated one shown here. Price is $4,499 and Washburn says it a bit over 29lbs. It, and the two below, all share the same alloy frame but they’re already working on the carbon fiber model, but it’s about a year off…and it’ll be a lot more expensive.
The Trigger 29er 2 gets a Fox fork, WTB wheels, Schwalbe tires and comes in at $3,699.
The Trigger 3 uses a Rockshox fork and X-Fusion rear shock that’s fixed at 130mm rear travel. It’ll retail at just $2,899.
2013 Lefty Super Max
The new Lefty Super Max is everything about the recently updated Lefty blown up, and then some. The regular Lefty’s stanchion and fork leg is 32mm and 40mm OD respectively. The Super Max’s is 36mm and 42mm. Washburn says this growth has an exponential increase in strength and stiffness. It’s about 1850g but matches up in strength testing with dual crown DH forks.
On a regular Lefty it’s hard to run stems shorter than 80mm. The Super Max moves the stanchion back further and pushes the front axle out. Then they pushed the geo a bit and gave it a 60mm rake. That gave it less trail for quicker handling.
As the stanchion came back, it had to go out a bit for proper frame clearance. That gave them more room by the hub, so they added 1cm of additional width between spoke flanges, making the wheel laterally stiffer.
Starts shipping in November, and the Super Max fork will be available on this bike only for now, and aftermarket. Expect it to move to other bikes in their lineup soon, and it’ll work with their Lefty For All program.
Since the lower two models use traditional forks, they only have a 51mm rake because that’s the largest available from Fox and Rockshox.
