Cannondale’s updated carbon F-Si cross-country hardtail featuring the all-new single-crown Lefty Ocho fork is an early model year 2019 bike, but hitting your local bike shop in the coming weeks. Seven builds from around $2-9k are each capable of lining up on race day, straight out of the box. Or put them to work shredding your local singletrack, as a fast and surprisingly capable modern hardtail mountain bike.
MY19 Cannondale F-Si carbon XC hardtail mountain bike
Cannondale wanted to reinvigorate their pro-level XC race hardtail to take on ever more technical elite race courses. But at the same time they realized that making the race bike more capable for the pros, the same benefits could trickle down for the privateers. So each of the new carbon F-Si hardtails is race ready, but also include core spec that will make them at home on your local trails.
Each of the new bikes comes spec’ed with Eagle 12-speed drivetrains for wide gearing range and simplicity, and all the 100mm travel Lefties come with cable actuated lockouts to optimize climbing. The bikes also each get the all new Schwalbe Racing Ray & Ralph tires (that we’ll detail today as well) with varying rubber & casing that fit with the overall bike specs.
Hi-mod carbon F-Si frame + carbon Lefty Ocho
The top two bikes share the same Hi-Mod frame and get the composite bodied Lefty Ocho Carbon. They will also be the first to hit the market, with the carbon-forked bikes shipping out to dealers staring in two weeks time, in the first week of June. A Hi-Mod frameset paired with the Lefty Ocho Carbon is slated to be available late in summer 2018 for those looking to custom build up their own bike, especially for those looking for something other than a SRAM Eagle drivetrain (like Cannondale’s Factory Racing team who rides 1x XTR Di2.)
The top-spec bike that we’ll see debut this weekend on the pro XC circuit in Albstadt is the $9000/8500€ F-Si World Cup in classic Cannondale black & acid green. It features a full SRAM XX1 Eagle drivetrain, Level Ultimate brakes, ENVE M525 carbon wheels with DT Swiss hubs, and a claimed 8.4kg weight.
Next up the $6500/7000€ F-Si Carbon 1 gets the same hi-mod frame & new carbon Lefty, but a mixed XX1/X01 drivetrain with a Truvativ Stylo Carbon crank, Level TLM brakes, and a set of carbon rim HollowGram 23 wheels. A bit easier on eta wallet, it only adds 400g for a 8.8kg weight claim.
Standard modulus carbon F-Si frame + alloy Lefty Ocho
Besides the top Hi-mod carbon frame with their Lefty Ocho Carbon forks, Cannondale also offers a standard modulus carbon F-Si that otherwise shares the same tech and tube shaping, just a couple of hundred grams heavier to get the same strength & stiffness parameters. These bikes use Lefty Ocho forks that get an aluminum upper, as well as an alloy tapered steerer tube.
The top of the standard-mod builds, the F-Si Carbon 2 is the one of only two to add the extra small (XS) frame size which drops down to 27.5″ wheels for smaller riders, via its shorter axle-to-crown Lefty with its own offset to maintain proper trail. The Carbon 2 retails for $5000/5000€ and gets a X01 Eagle drivetrain matched with Shimano XT brakes, plus the same HollowGram 23 carbon wheelset, and a 9.6kg total weight.
The $3500/3500€ F-Si Carbon 3 get GX Eagle & Level T brakes, and a Stan’s NoTubes wheelset with Crest MK3 alloy rims & Neo hubs. The 10.1kg bike is available in either this dark olive or a the bright red color scheme above.
The $3000/2800€ F-Si Carbon 4 is the heaviest of the bunch, still at just 10.8kg with an unspecified SRAM 12 speed budget groupset. We’ll have to speculate what that means, but Cannondale did say that all bikes get Eagle drivetrain, with that big 50T cog, and a 34T chainring as they are race bikes from the top down. The Carbon 4 in black or bright green, gets Shimano MT500 disc brakes, and a wheelset with WTB STX i23 tubeless rims laced to Formula hubs.
The only bike claimed to be women-specific out of the bunch, the $3000/3000€ F-Si Carbon 2 Women’s shares exactly the same spec as the Carbon 4. The only difference besides the black & orange-red fade paint scheme is that the Carbon 2 Women’s is the second bike build to be available in the smallest XS with 27.5″ wheels like the higher-spec’ed unisex Carbon 2.
Lastly at the same claimed weight, the North America-only $2200 F-Si Carbon 5 features the same vague Eagle drivetrain & MT500 brakes, but swaps in a more traditional RockShox Reba RL fork to bring the price down. The frame is the same, just thanks to the new 1.125-1.5″ headtube, conventional tapered steerer forks can be substituted on the new F-Si frames.
The alloy-forked bikes will show up in shops close behind, with in-shop availability expected to take just two extra weeks.
