On Friday Morning Oct 18 I talked to a reputable Weast Coast Engine Builder and aked him if he was going to have any aftermarket High Performance parts or engines for the Cannondale. He told me that he was not going to do anything with Cannondale because there business was not stable.He also went as far to tell me that ATV Industry insiders have told him that Cannondale could be on the brink of Bankruptcy because of paying back soo much money to fix four-wheelers under warranty problems.I hope this is not true because I was thinking of buying a Cannondale.What is going on???????????

 

if that is true then if i was you i would run and buy one before they are gone. there is not another quad like it and it will likely never be duplicated. but that guy was right about one thing, cannondale will warranty there products with out a fuss. try getting warranty work done on any other quad after the warranty has expired. cannondale has great customer relations and are not afraid to make changes to there products if a better designs comes out. cannondale makes running production changes. they do not wait untill the next production year to fix the current problems. one more thing, engine builders are here to make a living like every body else. the cannondale comes from the factory with a full race engine. so as of right now, there is not much an engine builder can do for a c-dale, except build other motors to try and keep up.

 

I agree with airtime.

There is little the "small guys" in the industry can do with the Cannondales to get more power.

You should also look at the CRF and YZF enignes. There are little who fool with these as well even with the fact that these engines are pumped out in 10s of thousands of dirtbikes each year.

The thing you mentioned about bankruptcy was a rumor that started about 6 months ago.
Cannondale took out a loan for over $4M [not uncommon to any manufacturer] and reassured everyone, including dealers, that they werew here to stay.

 

Hogwash!! Of course with today's economy, probably 75% of all companies are on the "brink of bankruptcy". Keep in mind, C'dale doesn't make any money on their motor sport division, their cash cow is in bikes!

 

This story has been around before and it will probably come up next year as well.
See, Cannondale puts money back into its customers, this has never been done before by any other company. So when they do this everyone thinks they are burning up money and that they cant possibly survive doing this. Funny thing is that there "strange idea" is working for them, they are building a strong customer base that will support them like they get supported from cannondale. One thing you gotta remember as well is that they r still new to quads. Once you start a new venture like they have it takes a few years to turn a profit.

 

I dont think at all they will be going under. This guy you talked to proble dose not know enuff to work on a cannondale so he said that so ppl would buy a motor he can work on.

 

They are here to stay. What company is going to work so hard to keep their customers happy if they are not planning to be around a while? If they were about to go under do you think they would give a crap about their customer service? If you look around there are'nt many unhappy c-dale owners. Even the people with the early models with the problems love their quads. They have got the early problems corrected and there is nowhere for them to go but to the top. Just give it a few years and they will dominate the sport quad market.

 

Cannondale recently recieved a 25 million dollar cash infusion. This allowed them to restructure their existing dept of 12 million and have some pocket change for operations. This is not uncommon. Most companies try to go into the Black withen 3-5 years. The motorsports division is not currently making money and with some of the warrenty issues may not for the next year.

The good news is with all of the people buying the quads and Bikes, the process to get into the black may be sped up.

Smitty

 

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....would like to own a cannondale. can afford it too. cant get past the "kermit the Frog" looks, no matter what color they make them. it's that or a crocodile with handlebars.

cmon guys, make 'em as mean looking as they are and you've a new customer!