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Spy Shot! Next generation Cannondale Scalpel spotted at Momentum Health Tankwa Trek?

Photo c. ZC Marketing Consulting
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Dreaming of warmer weather and dry trails? Same here. While we wait for the upcoming season over here though, things are in full swing in South Africa with the conclusion of the 2020 Momentum Health Tankwa Trek presented by Biogen. The four day stage race looks like an awesome event for both amateurs and professionals alike. And for 2020, thanks to the Cannondale Factory Racing pro team, we might have gotten a look at the next generation of the Cannondale Scalpel. With the last major update for the frame in 2017, Cannondale could certainly be very close to launching a new version soon. Maybe this will be the 2020 Cannondale Scalpel? 2021?

Unfortunately for the Cannondale Factory Racing team of Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini, a major mechanical was suffered 12km from the finish by Fumic during stage one. Apparently a rock kicked up from the front tire destroyed his chainring and caused them to lose almost 30 minutes on the first stage. Stage two wasn’t much better when according to the Stage 2 racing video news, another mechanical for Fumic involved a broken derailleur hanger 25km from the finish.

In spite of winning both the third and fourth stages, it proved too big of a set back for the duo to come back from. But still, winning 50% of the stages (and all the stages without a mechanical) is pretty impressive.

Fortunately for us, that second mechanical meant a solid close up of the potential prototype Scalpel from Tankwa Trek’s excellent video coverage of the event (you can check out the highlights and race news from each stage on their facebook page here).

One of the biggest changes that we noticed from the (likely) new Cannondale Scalpel is a revised suspension linkage on the solid colored, logo-less frame. While the shock is still in roughly the same location as the current Scalpel, there is no longer a link hanging down from the top tube and connecting to the lower shock mount.

Instead, there is a new lower shock mount protruding from the seat tube, and what appears to be the potential for an all new pivot location at the chainstay. If you look closely at the screenshots above, you’ll see what looks like covers that could be meant to conceal the location of this pivot. Note that the black covers are found on both chainstays, left and right, and appear to be split on the underside like it was a rubber cover that snaps over the pivot. They’re too far back and too short to be part of the chainslap protection elements, and there also would be no point to having one on the non-drive stay if that was the case.

What’s underneath? Who knows. The bulk and shape seems to imply that it could just be a standard bearing pivot. Though Cannondale could just be fooling us and maybe there’s really some kind of advanced carbon pivot-less system underneath? (Spoiler alert, it is a new pivot-less chainstay).

Cannondale Scalpel Si now with Lefty Ocho fork XC race mountain bike

Compared to the current frame (above), there is definitely a revised main pivot, with the chainstay mounting inside of the seat tube rather than around it as shown. This would also indicate that the chainstays are now one solid piece, rather than separate halves on the current gen. This also seems to support the idea of a new pivot location since it would be a way for Cannondale to maintain or improve frame stiffness with the addition of a chainstay pivot location.

The cable routing looks to be slightly revised, and the frame in the screenshots has some interesting reliefs in the carbon under the water bottle mounts. Clearly, the Lefty is still in the picture, though the pros aren’t using the lower headset cup spacer. To be clear, they apparently weren’t using it on the previous generation, but it could mean that the geometry has been tweaked to eliminate it on this version.

What do you think? Is this the new Cannondale Scalpel? See anything we missed? Drop it in the comments below.

Thanks to Tobias for the tip! Feature image c. ZC Marketing Consulting for Tankwa Trek.

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Greg
Greg
4 years ago

My guess is crazy-flat chainstay sections to better mimic a Horst link without an actual pivot.
I hope that’s not the cable path they intend. Definitely prefer it along the chainstay. But maybe not possible with the flattened section I think it has… interesting also how forward the upper pivot is.

TimE
TimE
4 years ago
Reply to  Zach Overholt

Tha’ts exactly right

Josh
Josh
4 years ago

A rock kicked up by the front wheel destroyed the chainring? I’ve ridden some crazy terrain and never heard of that before.

ray
ray
4 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Josh, you get rocks then you get TANKWA its wild!!! Check out another race here called Attakwas.

TimE
TimE
4 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Josh you should come and ride the 2020 absa Cape Epic if you would like to get a sample of what rough terrain really looks like!!

Kevin Kitura
Kevin Kitura
4 years ago

Finally! I have been harping on Cannondale for years to abandon their drop link design. If they want to be competitive in the XC & Marathon racing they need to go the Titus Racer-X, Specilalized Epic, Momsen Vipa Ultra, Canyon Lux route with a seat mounted swing link. The swing link design stiffens the suspension in the initial part of the stroke by putting a portion of the seat stay force into the seat tube. As the seat mounted swing link pivots from 45 degrees to 90 degrees the amount of force going into the seat tube decreases as a function of sine. The swing link is initially stiff to resist pedalling forces but also allows the shock to be run with lower pressure and less lock out and making the suspension more supple in the last half of its travel.

The Real Greg
The Real Greg
4 years ago
Reply to  Kevin Kitura

Kevin, you make no sense… but i agree the bike looks pretty darn good.

Kevin Kitura
Kevin Kitura
4 years ago
Reply to  The Real Greg

My apologies Gregg, just to be clear, I meant seat tube mounted link, “not” seat mounted link.

Dick
Dick
4 years ago
Reply to  Kevin Kitura

Enthusiasm! Yeah! Shock pivots! Yippee! Seat post mounted trunyon tuned kinematics! Whoo hoo!

Sernie Banders
Sernie Banders
4 years ago

It’s nice to see external cable housing making a comeback!

Ed
Ed
4 years ago
Reply to  Sernie Banders

This was fast repair after derailleur crash in second race day

Marcio
Marcio
4 years ago

this improvised cable route could signific a dedicate frame for wireless eletronic groupset?

TimE
TimE
4 years ago

The frames they brought are preproduction. Not all feattures were complete or installed. Bike is only due for launch at the first world cup in May. They will use a more refined chassis at the Cape Epic. The team wanted to verify the suspension was doing what Cannondale wants it too and also test reliability for the Cape Epic.

Luis
Luis
4 years ago

I still prefere the Last scalpel 26. Zero pivot and more stifness.

gringo
gringo
4 years ago

More interesting is that the chainstay assembly seems to be ^inserted^ into the mainframe, instead of surrounding it as on basically ever other suspension bike. Could be quite the weight savings and possible stiffness benefit, similar to how Scott uses the BB area to mount the shock on current Spark and Genius.

Martin
Martin
4 years ago

All cables will mpunted directly to the frame by using the zip-tie?? 🙂

BTW,frame shape looks very similar to previous versions of Specialized Epic fs frames.

Severin Nowak
Severin Nowak
4 years ago

Any guess on the amount of travel? would be cool to see a 120mm front and back Scalpel, with a 120mm Ocho, but probably not happening.

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