I was at a new Cannondale Dealership this afternoon. Several things have changed on the Quads.

1. Front bumper bracket on the top is now cast and welded.
2. The fuel pickup has been moved from the back bottom of the tank to the front, using a clunk weight. This helps witht he stalling vapor lock issue.
3. Fuel filter is very close to the fuel pump.
4. Cannibal had the new shocks, forgot which ones.
5. Cannibal had the Hydrolic clutch.
6. Cannibal had new seat cover, all one piece.
7. Moto had lights, I thought they had the block-offs.
8. Both had the new Gas tanks.

That's about all I noticed, I'll be back there for a remap as soon as they get the software.

Smitty

 

Yeah this guy I raced against said his Moto had lights on it when he bought his but they gave him some headlight delete covers too, so that way he would have the option.

Oh and the Cannibals shocks are now Arvins.

 

I also got the headlight delete covers with my Moto.

 

so the stalling issue is no longer an issue since they changed the fuel line routing? What was causing the stalling problem, some sort of vapor lock? oh, and smitty, was the the 03 models you were looking at? I'm looking at getting a speed but I'm kind of leary because of all the little piddly things that are going wrong with them. I am constantly reading on this forum and there is always someone asking questions on how to fix something or something went wrong on their bike today. You hardly ever hear of a thread saying like went riding today and everything was perfect. A week goes by, "went riding today and everthing was perfect." What's up with that? I think Smitty99 and maybe a couple more guys that write on this forum are the only ones that don't have anything to contribute to the "something is wrong with my quad today." Maybe it's just because they know how to take care of their machine or don't ride as much. i don't know. What do you guys think?

 

haulin,

I think part of what you are seeing is new machines from a new manufactuer, but I think alot of it is the bike is "different", has different quirks and maintenance issues. Also alot of people that post on here are enthusiasts/perfectionist about every aspect of your quad, there aren't too many ride/forget about it guys here and if they are they have major problems, IE corndog!. One other point I would like to make is I have had NO problem in the 15 hours on my bike, runs perfect! and even if piddly stuff did go wrong I would much rather deal with that then bad transmissions(raptor) or bent axles(z400). just my thoughts, its is not as bad as you are making it out to be

-josh

 

Haulin,
I agree with Dex. One other thing to remember is that the cannondale quads are built with racing in mind. I have a Speed and love it. No problems, I just race Gncc's and have to be picky about the little things on the quad to insure the best performance at every race. Same with any quad that I've raced. The difference is this one is new to me and I don't know alot about it, so I ask question things about it, like the Hydro clutch, handle vibration etc... The reason is I'm not used to the new beast yet, but every time I ride it I like more and more and hate me 91 quadracer more and more. Handling and power is just plain awesome (maybe to much power for woods racing). If someone every builds a quad that you can just race/ride and never work on let me know cause I'll buy a couple of them, until then I'll stick with the C'dale.

 

thanks for your replies. I'm really picky too and just don't want to get into something that I'm going to have problems with. I don't mind working on my quads, but I don't want to be fixing them if you know what I mean. I guess you could say I'm peranoid that I don't want to drop the money into something that I'm going to be the guinny pig for. i know cannondale has done extensive research and dev. for the machines and there are a lot of them out there and every machine has it's own quirks, but I don't want them to be major ones like stalling of the motor, fuel line problems, not starting, oil in the air box area and on the air filter, just to name a few that people have written about in the past ten days or so. Issues like those are the ones that tend to scare me a little. Any replies to that would be appreciated. Please don't get me wrong, I love the dale's but I'm a little weiry of a few things. Thanks guys

 

really is what you mentioned worse than bad trannys and broken axles?

 

I have not had one problem with my Cannibal which is now 8 months old so count me as one happy consumer!! Keep in mind, one benefit of these forums is to get answers to problems and that is what you see alot of times, not too many people post that they have now ridden for 8 months with no problems.

 

I know brian, you must do something right with your quad! That's cool. That's what I like to see in forums. You know, it gives people a little more assurance in their investment. Yea the stuff I mentioned isn't as bad as crappy trannies or bent axles, but it's stuff like I don't like to see. I don't know, maybe I'm just being a little too peranoid. Any thoughts?? Jared