Cannondale shows with the two Retro sets of the F-Si Hi-Mod carbon hardtail frame with an iconic 90s look and the matching Lefty Ocho fork, it combines cutting-edge high-end bike technology with a big dollop of nostalgic emotionality.
Nostalgia? The internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia explains the term as, among other things, a "nostalgic turn to past objects or practices". The Duden dictionary goes even further. It defines nostalgia as a "mood triggered by unease about the present and filled with indefinite longing, which expresses itself in a return to a past time that is glorified in the imagination and whose fashion, art, music or similar is revived". As a nostalgic, you run the risk of believing that everything was better in the past.
What used to go pretty well - in the 90s to be precise - was the medal haul of the mountain bike stars in the Cannondale stable. And there were suddenly quite a few of them after company boss Scott Montgomery recruited the who's who of the World Cup circuit on Volvo's account in 1994. One of the most famous MTB racers: Tinker Juarez. In his honour, Cannondale has produced two limited edition versions of a Cannondale race hardtail with a 90s look.
"It's been a very exciting 25 years. It's really great that Cannondale is reviving the good old days with these frames. It brings back a lot of great memories," Tinker Juarez is quoted as saying in the Cannondale press release. "I'm very lucky to still be part of the Cannondale family. It was a dream back then to be able to support something that I loved doing. Today it's still a dream, but it's coming true every day."
"Like so many others, I was absolutely crazy about these bikes," enthuses Peter Vallance, Head of Product Management at Cannondale. "These retro framesets are like a gift to the 15-year-old greenhorn in me." Now Cannondale also knows that not everything in the past was top-notch, and that repression doesn't help. So no old originals of glorious Cannondale bikes were rebuilt as replicas with small wheels, minimal suspension and rim brakes. Instead, the current 2019 top frames were given a corresponding coat of paint.
The two Cannondale F-Si frames with a retro look naturally have the same features as current F-Si models in the finest Hi-Mod version. The Lefty Ocho is also technically up to date, but has a wet paint finish to match the frame. The Cannondale F-Si retro frames are available in sizes S to XL and are strictly limited: there will only be 100 of each colour for Europe. Price: 3999 euros.
Read the test of the € 5000 Cannondale F-Si Carbon 2 race hardtail with the new Lefty Ocho suspension fork in BIKE 1/2019. Together with the two professional testers Ben Zwiehoff and Georg Egger, we compared current race bikes between 3700 and 5000 euros on the race track: seven hardtails and three brand new fullys
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Sebastian Brust
Editor
