Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 Mountain Bike
Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 Mountain Bike

About Cannondale Mountain Bike
Cannondale is a world’s most renowned mountain bike manufacturer and specialised in designing and manufacturing high-end performance bike.  They are well known in the specialisation of aluminium touring and racing frame design with natural stiffness. This aluminium technology has light weight structure and good for all day hard drive and specially used on full suspension MTB. After pioneering its stance in aluminium frame design Cannondale also started to develop carbon fibre composite mountain bike frames for their specialised bikes. In recent years Cannondale has launched some carbon mountain bike series with major engineering development that delivers perfect mix of correct strength and weight distribution. Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 Mountain Bike with 160mm of travel is a remarkable all mountain bike with updated geometric structure and new force distribution technology.
Cannondale Full Suspension Mountain Bike
Cannondale Moto 1 is the best alternative all purpose mountain bike for those who want to drive light weight mountain bike with balanced strength on challenging trail. The frame geometry is accurately designed with the carbon fibre composite material that delivers perfect blend of stiffness and strength. The stiffness would enhance the performance of the suspension and the strength would help you to handle the bike in hard rocky trail. This full suspension mountain bike is made with 160 mm of travel, which is considered to be the maximum suspension size for all terrain mountain bikes. This all mountain bike weighs less then 30 pounds and well matches with 6” of front and rear travel suspension. It has an interesting structural design with geometry tweak in the mid-section.
Instead of dual suspension, this Cannondale mountain bike is specially made with rear single pivot suspension system and connected with new links layout. This updated new links would work together and hone action of the rear single pivot suspension, which accurately responses to small bumps. At the same time the suspension would perform full action and lowers the bottom bracket shell for better control over tight technical terrain. This enables the bike wheels to stay on the ground with firm traction and absorbs the large shocks when landing jumps.
Mountain Bike - Carbon Frame
The entire front triangle frame with oversized asymmetric head tube is made with composite carbon fibre except the threaded bottom BB shell mounts, which is made up of aluminium. The large sized BB shell and lower suspension pivot is made up of carbon and even the braces that attach them together come with carbon fibre. The specially designed triangular link plate that has been attached on the top of the shock is purely made with carbon fibre. This Cannondale mountain bike has external side fibre braces that combine the lower pivot suspension and large sized bottom brocket junction together would give great stiffness at the crank section. This side to side fibre braces would also provide greater support to lower shock mount, which enables the single pivot suspension perform its full action.
Cannondale Moto 1 Carbon Frame
Cannondale Moto 1 Carbon Frame
This carbon mountain bike has optional 12 mm maxle dropout that make the frame free from the top-tube shock mount, which enhances the stiffness requirement for better suspension performance. The shock is driven by the linkage, which is suspended off from a structure built onto the down-tube. The down-tube is a major engineering development and when combined with the 66.6 mm outer diameter of head tube, the suspension system will be driven with maximum stiffness. The size of the chain-ring is built small in size in order to maximise the chain clearance.
Cannondale Bike – Hatchet Drive Suspension
Cannondale Moto full suspension mountain bike has rear single pivot suspension design that is named as Hatchet Drive because the link looks like a Hatchet and gives 160mm of super smooth travel. The reinforced bottom bracket and massive head tube junction are the most important point in the frame that works together and enhance the action of the linkage layout. The top end of the shock is attached to the upper link, which in turn connected to the swing-arm through the down link. This linkage design gives a nice floating shock loads to the rear single pivot suspension, which is widely different from the normal frame mounted suspension.
Cannondale Moto 1 Hatchet Drive Suspension
Cannondale Moto 1 Hatchet Drive Suspension
The linkage of this Cannondale mountain bike would engage the shock to achieve two most important jobs. The first job is the upper link attached at the top of the shock actuates the shock from two directions for better force distribution. The second job is that the linkage design would send all the shock loads towards the reinforced bottom bracket and massive head tube which acts as the strongest point in the frame. By re-orienting the shock forces on the shocks in two directions the compression ratio would increases, which breaks seal stiction faster. Ultimately the shocks responses quickly for small jumps and absorbs drops, while still perform efficiently on all challenging hard trails.
The performance of the Hatchet drive of this mountain bike is practically been explained by Cannondale using regression and aggression curve. In the beginning of the travel, for effective and efficient climbing the links perform a slight regressive curve. In the middle of the travel the curve would flatten to produce consistent power distribution. Finally at the speed, the link provides linear feel for better pedalling performance and make this mountain bike suitable for all mountain options and gives bottomless feel to the riders.
Design and Components
Cannondale has years of experience in shaping Aluminium frame for better riding performance. The same is effectively added in Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 Mountain Bike. With the light weight carbon layout and advanced industrial design, this mountain bike has well balanced frame shape that correlates well at higher speed. It is available in two different colours such as Carbon through clearcoat gloss Black matte (BLK) and Berzerker gloss green (GRN). This mountain bike is made with Fox Shock front 160 mm suspension and rear Fox DHX Air Shocks. The crack section is occupied by Shimano XTR and the drive train comes with 9 speed. The wheel base has 26 inch diameter and the rear derailleur and shifters come from SRAM X-0. This full suspension mountain bike is available in four different sizes like small, medium, large and extra large. New Cannondale white Mamba lock-on grips are available as extras.
Riding performance
This Cannondale mountain bike has an improved pedalling efficiency with increased acceleration, which can be seen in action when driving on fairly Rocky Mountains. With shaved weight and boost in stiffness the rider could get bottomless feel. The oversized head tube with 66.6 mm of outer diameter would deliver precise steering and give greater control over descent. The head tube along with the BB shell plays a vital role while picking the bike on nasty rock gardens. The Hatchet drive with bump-gobbling linkage design would give plush raiding experience.
Our Analysis
This carbon frame Cannondale mountain bike is very expensive but when you look for stiffness and light weight then it is worth for money. The carbon frame has low maintenance feature and very durable. Alloy version of Cannondale moto 3 and moto 4 mountain bikes are also available and the alloy version would bring down the price a bit. Cannondale Moto with 160 mm of travel is really a large mountain bike that is why Cannondale has used expensive carbon frame and less expense alloy frame to bring down the weight. This full suspension mountain bike is an ultimate machine and suitable for those who like to enjoy complete mountain biking sports.