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EB15: 2016 Cannondale mountain bikes get bigger with FatCAAD fat bike, Bad Habit 27.5+ and Beast of the East

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2016 Cannondale Bad Habit 275plus full suspension trail bike

The 120mm Habit was introduced just before Eurobike as a trail bike to fill in between their Trigger and Scalpel.

The new Bad Habit bumps things even bigger with plus sized tires and Boost rear spacing. The geometry and suspension kinematics stay the same as the regular Habit, they just made room for bigger rubber in the rear triangle. The crank spindle length and BB shell stays the same, too, but the chainring is offset to maintain proper chain line. It’ll fit up to 27.5 x 3.0 tires.

The Lefty 2.0 is standard, it accommodates the fatter tires just fine. It’s the monstrous new Lefty Olaf you wanna watch out for…

2016 Cannondale Beast of the East 275plus hardtail mountain bike

Ample clearance for the bigger tires meant no changes were necessary to use the Lefty on the 27.5+ bikes here. The wheels were simply laced to wider rims, but the hub is the same as on the regular Habit.

2016 Cannondale Bad Habit 275plus full suspension trail bike

The suspension uses their pivot-less rear end, relying on a bit of seatstay flex to make it work.

2016 Cannondale Bad Habit 275plus full suspension trail bike

2016 Cannondale Bad Habit 275plus full suspension trail bike

Unlike the standard Habit, this one does stretch the axle to Boost 148mm spacing in the rear.

2016 Cannondale Bad Habit 275plus full suspension trail bike

Of course, you could always run regular sized tires, too, making the Bad Habit the better deal since you’ll get two bikes in one – regular and Plus!

2016 Cannondale Beast of the East 275plus hardtail mountain bike

The Beast of the East is back! First produced in the early 90’s with big trail geometry, tall BB and a mix of 26″ front and 24″ rear wheel sizes, it was a bike made for the gnarly north east U.S. terrain of roots, rocks and challenging descents. Now, it’s reincarnated as a 27.5+ trail hardtail with asymmetric rear stays to center the wheel in the bike even with wide Boost spacing. So, rather than stretch each side of the bike out 3mm in the rear, all 6mm were used to push the driveside out further. This let them add more space inside the rear triangle for better tire clearance while still making the chainstays really short. This asymmetric design was used on the current gen F-SI 29er hardtails when they debuted last May.

2016 Cannondale Beast of the East 275plus hardtail mountain bike

Slightly flattened SAVE stays should offer a bit of compliance above and beyond what those giant tires will provide.

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

Speaking of giant tires, the all-new FatCAAD fat bike makes room for up to 26×5.0, though they’ll ship with 4.8 Schwalbe Jumbo Jims.

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

It gets the new Lefty Olaf, which mixes the 36/46mm diameter lowers of the SuperMax with custom offset crown clamps and a new hub that’s 73mm wide. Fork offset is 60mm to help maintain some semblance of snappy handling despite the giant tires. Travel is 100mm, weight is 2,290g.

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

The Lefty Olaf gets their Enduro+ tune with a custom air spring tune/curve, and the top cap gives you PRB (Push Button lockout / Remote) controls at your fingertips.

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

It has a 120mm BB shell with offset chainring to fix the chainline without putting your feet too far apart.  Stealth dropper routing and internal routing of everything else keeps it nice and tidy…at least until the first snow day.

2016 Fat CAAD alloy fat bike mountain bike

Rear hub spacing is 197mm with thru axle only.

2016 Cannondale Spidering lightweight one-piece machined narrow-wide MTB chainring

You may have noticed something new on these bikes: A narrow-wide 1x Spidering. Borrowing the lightweight design from the road, they’ll now have their own top end chainring for their SiSL2 cranks.

2016 Cannondale Habit Carbon Black Inc full suspension 275 mountain bike

Speaking of high end, two mountain bikes make it into their 2016 Black Inc collection. The Habit is the full suspension option, getting an XTR Di2 group with ENVE wheels, Schwalbe tires and a Rockshox Reverb dropper seatpost.

2016 Cannondale F-SI Carbon Black Inc race hardtail 29er mountain bike

The F-SI Carbon Black Inc 29er race hardtail is still very high end but gets some interesting spec choices considering it’s intended use. Rather than a 1x or electronic group, it gets XTR mechanical 2×11 using Cannondale’s SiSL2 cranks. Other spec includes an ENVE cockpit and wheels.

Also new, and at the other end of the spectrum, is an alloy F-SI lineup that replaces the F29 hardtails.

Cannondale.com

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19 Comments
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Matt
Matt
8 years ago

STOKED to see the revival of the Beast of the East name!

Jdog
Jdog
8 years ago

Very excited about the bad habit. The fact that it can run 29er wheels makes it a no brainer as well.

Tim
Tim
8 years ago

Glad to hear about the Beast of the East! Would love to see geo numbers, and would like to see it in carbon someday, too!

Jeff
Jeff
8 years ago

The Beast of the East was actually from the 80’s, 1986 I believe.
I really like what Cannondale has been doing lately…except for the 650b gravel bike, which I think should use 700c

Cheese
Cheese
8 years ago

Back then the Beast was made in Pennsylvania. I guess now the East refers to Taiwan.

Badbikemechanicx
Badbikemechanicx
8 years ago

Agreed. I have been really into bicycles since the 90s, and I can’t recall the bea. Looking forward to this bicycle however I hope the bike industry is not trying to kill the 29er with all of these 27.5 introductions. I race in the east and the 29er is by far the best option for our terrain. It has gotten me out of so many scrapes.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
8 years ago

The Beast of the East was a dream bike for me as a little ripper. All red, Rock Ring and made for my trails. Back then, 20 or so years ago, it was cutting edge, made in the USA and lust worthy.

Sadly, Cannondale does not do that for me anymore. Their Al bikes seem way over priced for what they are and why they continue to utilize a single pivot suspension baffles me.

gsmith
gsmith
8 years ago

@Ripnshread Right on. The brake squat on the Scalpel is pretty bad, hit a brake bump covered berm really hard with a handful of rear brake and the suspension goes to shit. I guess you’re not supposed to ride berms on a XC bike but still they should at least adopt an FSR type linkage now that the patent is expired.

toddre
toddre
8 years ago

From what I’ve read, sounds like a Habit 29er would find a spot in my garage real quick

Dockboy
Dockboy
8 years ago

The Beast was absolutely available in the 90’s, and by the end of its run was a 26/26″ bike. I hope this edition revives the geometry heritage.

Chris L.
Chris L.
8 years ago

@Jeff: Making it 700c would require longer chain stays. Making a bike with shorter stays AND 42mm tires pretty much requires going 650b. That’s pretty much the main reason the size was initially developed decades ago.

@Ripnshread: The aluminum bikes are not overpriced for what they are. All the alloy Cannondales I’ve worked on were noticeably better prepped than most other mass produced alloy bikes. I guess you could also say a Parlee or Calfee are overpriced compared to some generic Chinese carbon frame?

I’ll admit that for years I wasn’t a Cannondale fan. They made some goofy concept bikes that were always fun to look at come Interbike but the bikes that made it into the shops never did it for me. These days they seem to have moved away from goofy concepts and are actually producing some pretty interesting and niche bikes. The new Beast looks like a lot of fun as does the Slate.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago

Ripnshread….they still put more research/money into aluminum than any other brand. If anyone can command such a price for aluminum, its Cannondale. Otherwise nobody can charge their prices(a reasonable argument in itself). That said, no price is even quoted for that bike. Their higher end aluminum bikes are some of the lightest on the market….lighter than some low end carbon frames.

And yes, the single pivot thing is an issue but maybe its actually mediated with the flex they’re speaking of…no idea until its ridden.

haromania
haromania
8 years ago

I think full blown retail is approx. $3500+/- for the Bad Habit. How anyone could call that overpriced is way beyond me. Great looking bike and splendid value if you ask me.

Andy
Andy
8 years ago

Cannondale earns my respect for paving their own trail when it comes to high end alloy and proprietary suspension like the lefty and pull shock , both risky moves, but it just makes them more special and unique. Glad to see they’ve got their priorities straight!

MissedThePoint
MissedThePoint
8 years ago

Are you sure that Olaf hub is only 73mm wide?

Jtc
Jtc
8 years ago

Let me ask a silly question. Is the Olaf – a purpose built snow bike suspension fork – approved for riding in cold temps?? Just given that the RS Bluto is not – thought I would ask.

haromania
haromania
8 years ago

The Bluto works great in cold temps. It has it’s limitations in terms of arch clearance on 29er plus and 4.8 tires, but both fit. Their newer cartridge RT3 works wonders for colder temps. Not saying it’s foolproof, or that it works just as well at zero as it does in the summer, but NO fork does. How many times have you taken your full squishy out in cold temps and it feels just a little different? All suspension prefers mild summer temps, that’s normal. Not sure why people rail on the Bluto for something all squishy forks suffer from to some degree.

Ryan
Ryan
8 years ago

I rode cannondale for over a decade, then went to Pivot and then Yeti. After looking at Yeti’s most recent offerings to replace my SB-66 with, Cannondale seems like an absolute bargain.

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