That cannondale FX400 looks pretty sweet it light and has a powerful engine what do all of you think

 

I think it's cool, but it is not a motocross bike. The aluminum frame is what will hurt it in this area, since some people end up cracking the steel frames. With the fuel injection the price tag will be to high to the average quad buyer, but it would realy kick a$$ at a drag!

 

Yeah, the fuel injections sounds really awesome! But pricetag is my fear also. There is only so much the general public is gonna spend on a hobby. I feel that Bombadier hit it in my opinion. If cannondale can't keep it under 8 grand, I think it won't sell like crazy. I'd love to see it with a 400ex to DS650 price tag. The engine sounds like it'll give the big DS a run for it's money. With the air intake up front, there's gonna be a lot of flow, which means lot of gas in the cyclinder, which means power!!! I just hope they can keep the pricetag down!!

Later,

jason

 

I haven't seen or herd of a cannondale 4 wheeler. Is ther a piture or write up somewere? please let me know.

 

It won't be an MX bike due to the Aluminum chassis?????

Where have you been? Honda has been using the twin spar setup on the CR250 since '97.. You don't get much more MX than that. They haven't suffered any frame breakage problems to speak of either, in fact, alot of riders complain that the '97-'99 chassis is TOO rigid, although everyone seems to love the redesigned '00 chassis. Cannondale has a long history of working with aluminum frames & doing things right, I expect that it will be a good setup.

As far as the pricetag goes, I look for it to be near the $7000 price point set by Bomber, if it is higher, I'm sure a certain segment of the riders will still buy it, look at how many 10K+ 250R's & duneshooter Banshee's there are out there, also take a look at the prices of the high end sleds.

Before I got my 400EX, the last bike I had purchased cost under $2500 new. When all the new machines started selling for $5000, I couldn't believe it and said "I would never pay $5000 for a new bike, that's insane". I still think they're priced too high, the technology isn't very different that when a 250R was $2500 new, but apparently the market will bear the price they ask now.

Keep in mind that this is probably over a year off, they officially announced their MX400 over a year ago and it still has yet to hit dealer showrooms. It will be very interesting when it does......

Here's the link
http://www.cannondalemotorcycle.com/fx400_model.html

 

I say that, because the 250R's that got realy beat have problems with the footpegs cracking. The aftermarket frame companies don't build aluminum frames unless they are special order, and the only riders who get the maximum benifit from the frame is the drag racers. A dirt bike weighs a lot less than a quad, and that's why they can get away with it. A dirt bike is also repaced in around 3 years, due to the beating it receives. A dirt bike also dont tumble end for end, or cart wheel in a crash like a quad, which realy puts a lot of stress on a frame.

 

I doubt that the aftermarket setups are of a twin spar design, I suspect they are just replica's of the current 250r chassis, just aluminum instead of chromoly. I wouldn't want that for an MX bike either

Personally I would feel better with a nice, well engineered twin spar aluminum setup than a cheezy mild steel design. It's all in the engineering, there are both good and bad examples of each. Heck look at swingarms, they take a serious pounding, they come in both flavors, steel and aluminum.... I have broken 2 steel swingarms, I suspect someday I will break my aluminum one too, but so far it has taken at least as much of a pounding as the other two have.

Just because a mild steel 250R chassis fails around the footpegs when abused, doesn't mean that the limits of the materials have been reached, it means that the limits of the design with that material have been reached.

 

My sponsor said he's getting a Cannodale when they come out next year after seeing it at the dealer convention. They said the frame will last longer than any aftermarket chassis made and they hope to keep the price around $7,000.

 

Suggested pricing, as of now, is $6950, according to my closest dealer. He actually thinks we will see the FX before hte MX comes out, in May '01.