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Classic Steel #50 - 2001 Cannondale MX400
The Shop
Not mentioning it for the plug, but more to point out another little unknown flaw, that the magnesium valve cover literally rots away if you're not careful.
When you see the air intake, it straight away tells you the job is done, for all the reasons you said. The fact that someone didnt say 'no' at that point , tells you it didnt have the people involved that had the experience to make it all work .
I have a few Vertemati's and you can see a few things like that on those bikes too, but they are a damn sight closer to what they need to be , than the Cannondale , for a lot less money.
Who was the engine designer?
I don't think tblazier mentioned the name of the Company in the video, but I think it was somewhere in the Mid / South East of the USA . Kentucky, perhaps???
Like you Poms, they have a massive ICE 4 wheel racing industry. Well, even more Massive .
Not sure if you know of the Motus KMV4 engined Motorcycle - now defunct, as far as I know - but that engine was designed / developed / made by KaTech of Michigan, and / or Pratt & Miller of Alabama - buggered if I know exactly who did what, but I read of both companies being associated with it.
It was referred to as a "Baby Block'. A 1650cc push rod, Direct Injection, longitudinal / crankshaft fore and aft engine. A midget / sliced in half American V8, so to speak.
Last I saw of it was being offered as a 'crate engine' for, I think, a type of Polaris UTV.
I know at the time the bike was being developed, many car enthusiasts were really interested in it for smaller race cars. That, to me, looked to be the real potential money maker from that project - the engine. It may still exist through that market?
Cannondale might have had a chance, if they had gone for the Race Quad side of things, from the get go, instead of later in their whole catastrophe. But their hubris, brought down the whole - original - company.
A mate of mine recently brought one of the Cannondales over here to OZ - he's a Cannondale fantatic. I'm not sure if it's got all of the ATK / ADB updates, or, if he's planning to get them. I'm steering well clear of the whole bloody thing, though he's harassing the hell out of me to help him. Not a bloody chance, his last few AFs I've done for him, are the very last of my favours for the blighter!
I used to work at Ilmor, who did lots of projects like that for customers, and they are owned by Penske, we did work for the Dodge Nascar program, that resulted in a 1-2 in the Daytona 500 back in the day .
They also did the X3 MotoGP project which was already close to dead when i got there, but the mistakes made on that were similar, it was a joint project with Suter ,the Swiiss company that did Chassis stuff,
They never expected the motor to be ready, by all accounts , but it was and the chassis as a result was rushed, the bike was the first of the 800cc era, and was awful, from lightswitch throttle , to a chassis that defied tuning, the riders hated it, it dindt stop and didnt turn in, and when you got it in to the turn it didnt drive how you wanted.
It had a fly by wire throttle that needed taming, so the rider could pick it up gentler, and make it drivable, , and when you sat on it, the airbox was so big, to get the straight inlet in that the rider couldnt sit where he needed to , as the back of the tank was too high and square.
Then when the money got tight and the bike wasnt great , BMW who were rumoured to be coming in for it , went WSB, Penske went nuts when he found out how much it cost... engineers were let go leaving a real small team, who actually listened to the riders, and they bonded carbon on to the chassis and swingarm to stiffen it , and suddenly it worked, they found 4 secs a lap over a 2 day test , but it was too late .
When they finally did a tortion test on the chassis in the workshop it was rubbish, due to being a ' beefed up' 250 chassis , using the same gauge material, which was way too thin...
Millions of $$ pissed up the wall.
That's why I believe KTM's move into the electric bike market at the junior minicycle level is very wise, because those kids are likely to grow up more likely to try electric bicycles, electric cars, and even electric motorcycles as those products evolve...
DC
Racer X
Tblazier-I still have my 1995 Super V!
Reliability issues for Cannondale where nothing new and certainly did not start with the Dirtbike. I have been involved in the Mountain bike industry since 1985 and Cannondale has long been referred to as Crackindale. They often seemed to push the boundaries of light weight frames that did not always work out.
Dirt Rider naming it bike of the year is still a knee slapper, mind you that was coming from Ken Faught probably the worst DB magazine editor of all time. His bike tests and shootouts were just giant Manufacturers Advertisements - so brutal. When Dirt Rider had their bike shoots on one of the TV channels, one of the accomplished test riders starting writing out a few negative points on one of the bikes - Faught flat out tells him on live TV that he can not say that about a bike. I never purchased another Dirt Rider magazine after that TV episode.
Pit Row
DC
Racer X
Can we expect any rule changes to Homologation this year?
I'll never forget going out to the desert east of San Diego. Plaster City to be specific. Some dude unloaded his Cannondale, got geared up, started it, rode about 100 yards, came to a stop and pushed his Cannondale back to his truck.
Someone raced a Cannondale at DITD around 2010/2011 timeframe. I remember waiting in the staging area and you could see oil seeping out of the bottom end, like a Harley.
Nowadays, the electric junior minicycles KTM/Husqvarnas have their own class, they don't compete against other 50cc at Loretta's.
DC
And that's how it should be. You don't see Formula E cars in Formula 1. Let them have their own class/series.
Post a reply to: Here is my look back at the controversial Cannondale Motocross project