Well, let's get down to it. First, I am by no means any pro level rider or other love-to-post know-it-all, but I'm here with info and answers to most questions you want to talk about on the FX400. I've got # 6 and have been riding and working with it for about five weeks. Honestly, it feels like riding my YZ400, it pulls as hard and this is and weighs like a quad! Amazing! If you get a chance to ride one, you really can't judge it until you can ride it hard, it just gets better the harder you ride it.

Contacts at Cannondale have told me they can see right off the bat that the quad market is where it is taking off. But I can't wait to ride a bike too.

Concerning some other posts, Cycra is making the plastic, they ran enough silver plastic for the first 500 quads, red will come next, the red color didn't seem right yet. The plastic is considerably thicker and stiffer than any other stock plastic out on sport quads, good thing is it does not crease on every little bend and scratch as easy, bad thing is it will crack when it goes to far.

The handling is a bit quitchy, it's got very stiff springs on the Ohlins shocks on the front and on rough fast sections it seems to wander, BUT, that suspension is needed because you will be haulin' at all times and a stock 400EX or Raptor will not cut it, I have them all, trust me. I have PEP Limited Mass front shocks that I am installing this week and we will see how that setup is. For the weight, there is none there, wonderfull, but you have that motor pushing you and I don't think you would notice another 50 pounds. Overall, the chassis is so stiff it is amazing, it handles wonderfully, and this was more impressive at first than the performance.

Reliable, I am doing my best to find something weak and it's not happening yet.

As for the FMF exhaust, the stock pipe is an FMF but it is a big emissions turd. I sent the exhaust system to HMF Engineering in Ohio and got back a prototype they built for me this week. It is installed and I changed the fuel settings in the computer to compensate. I may get a little more out of it after I get it to HMF in the coming weeks to get it on their quad dyno, I tried to keep it a little rich without knowing exacts. This change was a MUST, it and changing the computer to compensate woke this thing up more than i normally get with a pipe and jet kit on another quad or bike and I feel the dyno time will show this, check HMF Engineering website in the coming weeks and we should have the dyno charts up.

Service - First Rate they can change things on the fly in production if they want to change/improve something and that is great. The small brass insert molded inside the seat that the seat hold-down screws into fell out before I even took the seat off once. But the dealer may have overtightened it, you have to be careful. Cannondale provided a new seat immediately with no questions and asked for the old seat back to evaluate why it happened.

When I called to get the computer programmer, the person answering the phone had the vendor name and phone number. When I called the vendor, the salesman didn't have a clue about what I was talking about. He said "I've heard we might be doing something for Cannondale but I don't have any paperwork on it". I called Cannondale right back and the lady answering the phone said she would take care of it. Chaz, in the technical department, called me back within the hour, told me he contacted the vendor and found out who I should speak with, and I cound now call and they would take care of me. Would Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, or Yamaha have done that. Try getting somebody on the phone to answer any question.

I was always a Honda man, 250X, 300EX, 400EX, all sold now. Then the Raptor last September, still have it to keep comparing. There is just no comparison, I could not be more impressed with the FX400 and Cannondale as a whole. When working with the new exhaust, I talked to Mark several times. he knew first first hand all the technical information I wanted to know concerning fuel, exhaust, computer, anything and he was available to me anytime I called. This guy was out in the manufacturing floor, you can here it in the background. Again, try this at Honda, Kawasaki. Suzuki, or Yamaha!!

I have spent the last few days building a small ****-proof track at my house for the quad and my YZ250F and I'm almost 80% done. I will have some MPGs and video to post on my webpage soon!! If anyone would like some pictures to post, let me know where to send them. I am happy to provide any answers or information any desires at

cddcpa@kiva.net.

Other owners please contact me with questions, concerns, complaints, whatever.
Thanks for reading the rantings! Hope it helps.

 

Keep posting

 

I had to take a breath, I was afraid of running everybody off, I sound like a commercial, I just want to provide some information, good or bad, I just can't come up with anything bad yet. I'm tired of all the talk by people who are worried about "reliable" and "how much difference can EFI make" and "my whatever will still outrun a Cannondale". It's just plain the best quad I have rode for hard and fast riding. Some may like a 400EX or Raptor better for the way they ride in certain conditions. This thing is a handfull in the woods. But it is fast and flat-footed. If a mag said it felt tipsy, it's because you can ride it faster than anything else and it handles so well, I would say once you found that magic limit to push it to , you will not have any indication you are about to go to far like the 400EX and Raptor may tell you, the FX will probably put you on your head before you know it. My Raptor lets you know when your pushing it to far and feeling a little topheavy or pushing bad in a corner, the Cannondale is so powerful and planted that you can push it hard and if it does grab in a fast slide it will flip up fast. But you have to remember, you were going a lot faster and putting a lot more power to rear than the lap on the Raptor, AND I'M NOT BASHING. I own one too. It just may be part of the problem to say the Cannondale is a SPORT quad, it's more full race quad. Like all of us trail riding YZ426s when it should be on the track and you should take the WR426 in the woods. But none of us would me less of a man to that would we?

Bad points, well if I search, the clip holding the headlight on came out and the dealer gave me a new one, and you have to be careful when using the snap clips that retain things on the quad, if you don't get them lined up right you can bend them. The seat is very, very hard and shaped a little flat and square for me, I'm going to cut it down and put a little softer foam on top. The fit and finish of the plastic is good. You almost want to ride with it all off to see more of the frame!

The rear swingarm is just beauty, the chain adjustment is Honda-like and idiot proof, absolutely what we would build for ourselfs if we were master quad junkies and aluminum crafters.

What else do you want? Come over if you want to ride it, I'm applying for a dealership theis week and I know if you ride it you have bought it.

 

Wow! Dude, you make that thing sound ****hot! I really hope it is as good as you say. To tell the truth though, it really buggs me. I own a 400ex and the more out-dated it gets, the more I worry. But hey, hopefully Cannondale will light a fire under Honda's a** just like Honda did to everyone else! Now, everything I'm about to ask you is stricktly to know the compitition- so don't take it the wrong way. The way I figure it, my buddy paid $8200 out the door for his Raptor and I paid $6300 out the door for my EX. With $1900, my 400 would be a FAR supirior quad. The only bad thing here is the potential. My 400 can't go too far past what $1900 will do for it. But the raptor has all that engine and with just minor mods, it will still be able to take on a severely hopped up 400(alcohol, nitros, or anything like that doesn't count). And I believe the Raptor's chassis could be mildly modified to run with the 400, so it has the potential to beat the 400 in any setting. But this Cannondale, it seems to be almost as far as it can go already. The compression is already sky high, it's fuel injected, it's got after market suspension and exhaust, and basically the entire quad is aluminium. Almost the only mods left to perform are cam and port & polish. I'm guessing that you probably paid at least $8500 out the door. With the limited hopp up potential, do you really think that it could compete with a 400ex that's had $2200 spent on it? If you know what your doing, $2200 on an ex will get you quality suspinsion, a new carb, cam, port & polish, full exhaust, and a measly little 466cc kit. And with all of this, it's still extremely reliable and pushing probably around 42 ponies. Truthfully, can the cannondale compete with that? If so, WOW! But if not, will it have the hopp up potential to surpass that level? I love what this company has done and I hope it is all that and more, because this could only lead to the same competition between the manufacures with the motoX bikes. No matter what I think, as long as you are happy with it, it's all good.

 

Since you have a Raptor too, I have a question. I read, I believe it was in the Yam. forum, that a guy raced an FX400 with a Raptor and beat it. Is this true? Stock for stock can the Raptor out run it in a drag race? Since you are here in IN do you go to the Badlands much? I would absolutely love to take you up on your offer to ride your quad.!

 

Apparently the aftermaket frame companies don't think to highly of the 400EX frame. They say the metal used isn't to good which causes a lot of cracks. I guess Honda decided to save money by using weaker steel. I think I read this on one of the Fast-Track colums.

 

I do go to the Badlands a few times a year, and I am real curious to get the FX up there, send me your email address and I'll keep it around for when I go. The owner of the Badlands actually bought a Cannondale bike and my quad at the same time and never rode the quad. I am only an hour and a half south of Indy, come on down and try it out.

cddcpa@kiva.net

 

On the drag race, I have not done it but I'll try to get it videotaped this week and transfered to an MPG to post. To be honest, I never even cared to try them against each other, I won't believe it if my Raptor wins, but even if it would by a little, I won't ever ride the Raptor again, it would never be faster on the track or woods, you've got to judge this quad by the whole, not a drag race. Of course I never ride in the west coast dunes either.

 

I could believe that. I haven't yet to crack or know anyone to crack a 400 frame but I do know they aren't super strong in spots but they are still a very good frame.

And the main thing about them is they are light. I picked up my bare frame and would say it was about 20lbs total. I didn't weight it but was amazed at how light it was.

 

cddcpa,

Isn't there a place to ride just north of Evansville, maybe called Lynnville? That might be about mid ways between the two of us. I'd love to see the Cannondale go!