London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

In the winter is when my shop sells the most ss/fg bikes. This is due to the easy maintenance when dealing with the disgusting roads of upstate NY. Road salt, slush, snow, dirt, ice. It's terrible here. Utterly terrible.

Knowing this is the time when we sell the most ss/fg bike our Cannondale rep dropped off a Capo to the store for a test/demo bike. Of course i was called in to play with this bike. we have NEVER had a capo in the store. Langsters (never the "city" models), Raleigh One-Ways and this year the Rush Hour (which is a really nice looking OTP bike for the price).

I put on set of my wheels and took it out for about 20 minutes. I fucking hated it. HATED IT. It was alreadya size down, so i had to adjust to it, but i ride bikes too small all the time. The langsters are susually 2-3 sizes smaller than i ride when i am fucking around at work. But this bike just felt so wrong.

I got a phone call from the rep pissed because his friend, who happens to be another dealer rep, heard me talking to the other employees about how much I hated this bike. "it's not even teh right size" "why wouldn't you wait until the srping to ride it?" "what if customers heard you talking about the bike?".

well yeah its not the right size. get me a 58 in the store to ride then. then take it back because we won't sell it.

why would you call and tell me to come check out the bike if you didn't want me to ride it yet?

and this si the best question. first. it's winter and we have NO CUSTOMERS IN. no one would hear me say shit. besides, when i go to sell bikes this year, this bike feels like shit. so i't already at the bottom of my list when showing people bikes. if they ask should i getthis or a bianchi (which we don't even sell) i'd say honestly get the bianchi. it's at least a bike you're going to ride and maybe you will bring it back here to get serviced/buy tires/ someting.

basically i'm just bitching about this bike and the huge dissappointment it was.

what...no girls? ah never mind.

if its shit then its going to be difficult for you to sell it to customers...stick with the Bianchi.

why did you hate it ?

i'm not in the market for a capo but could you explain your thoughts about the ride quality more clearly.

have you ridden the previous capos and how does this one compare?

made his penis look small?

capo's suck. not that i know what one is. but he seems to be passionate against them. i personally hate cars, minicabs, flat tyres on hills and not having a spare tube and trying to get on the bus and being told that i cannot take beer on them anymore and even if i wasn't pissed with a beer in my hand i couldn't take my bike (that doesn't work anymoe) on the bus. but yep i agree capo's suck.

capo?

A bike than can be as awesome as this:

he he.

the top tube length was awkward
the bb wasn't stiff
i just felt that even though the bike was small i was over reaching (and i ride a 61cm steamroller with bullhorns)
it just seemed that it's balance was slightly off some how.
i have no idea how it rides with the wheels it comes with, but i can't imagine shitty wheels are going to roll better than DT RR1.2s.

i always thought cannondales were about the stiffest things on the street
you say the bottom bracket wasn't stiff
most strange
major taylors the only way then

Strange- I also thought that Cannondale made very stiff frames.

Top tube awkward length, over reaching. Sounds like the bike simply didn't fit you?

nice to know that bike shop employees are soooo much more knowledgable than us mere mortals and have a god given talent for explaining the faults they experience with the products that pass through their shops.

evans seems to be on the look out for people with your talent should you be on this side of the pond.

like i said, the bike was small for me. so the over reaching, awkward length is pretty odd right? imagine someone with shorter arms riding it. If i'm 193cm riding this 54, how do you imagine a person that is 175cm is going to feel on it?

to bad you aren't around to help me fit a bike though man. over reaching as a sign of the bike not fitting? never would have guessed.



well i rode it fro 20 minutes, in slush, in 4°weather. While riding it i noticed that there was flex in the bb. i'm not sure if it was the crank or the bike itself. assuming i use the same cranks on my other bikes, and i don't notice the flex i'm going to assume it's the bike. my experience with c'dale is a generally stiff frame, but with some of there less expensive models i foun them also to be flexy.

How can you be completely open objective and open minded to something when it is obviously the wrong size ?
I am no mechanic ( complete technophobe ) but I would know I couldnt judgge something without riding something that fitted me . and cannondale have obviously changed over the years as my 10 year old cannondale mountain bike is as stiff as you like .

The Capo has a top tube length of 54.5cm by the look of it, so I would imagine that a 175cm person is going to feel pretty good on it actually.

I can only guess that your arms/torso are a bit (read, a massive amount) short for your height if you were over stretched on a 54.5cm top tube. So the only bike that would fit someone with such extreme proportions would be a custom made one.

Interesting that you say you ride a 61cm Steamroller, that must have a 60cm top tube length. Over reaching is not the word if you have trouble on a 54.5cm. Have you fitted chopper bars to it?

^ It's a story, not a review!
(Hello emoxfag.)

of course it is a review. he just slagged of a bike qualifying himself all the way through the story. a story doesn't say 'i'm a expert and own a bike shop'

(hello as well)

basically, he was just bitching about the bike and what a disappointment it was..

yes but his first line was - 'i own a bike shop'.

therefore he was qualifying himself as a 'qualified' person to review the bike. thereore it is a review not just a bitch.

a bitch is more random. i.e. i hate cars - that is a bitch

emoxfag is more random, and therefore a bitch.

with very little explanation, and seemingly, time on the bike in question which also happens to be the wrong size.

but not delivered as such in this thread. i can bitch as i don't even have a clue what a capo is; therefore, i'm really not adding much value at all to this thread just bitching. sorry.

i own three bike store in the North Alaska, all year round it is basically fucked business. but sometimes, only sometimes, people come in looking for a bike. as i'm an expert in such matters i ride bikes that are donated by a friend that are 4 sizes too small - generally my consenus is that capo's are shit. when someone wants a bike i tell them: look, don't buy any bike as the bottom bracket is uneven and it doesn't feel like a really small langster. I think it is a better idea you buy a snow mobile or some ski's.

basically a bitch about capos.

Doesn't really matter what it is, it's by emoxfag, and that means it's going to be controversial and strange in some way. :)

the point isn't the bike. not really. i disliked the bike. no big deal. that wasn't the point. i wrote two sentences saying i hated the bicycle in question. the point, which i thought was funny, was the rep calling me in to ride the bike, then calling me to complain that i didn't like it.

i didn't qualify myself once. i'm a guy that sells hybrids to old women most of the year. for every 15 crossroads i sell one Scaple. For every one Tarmac i sell 20 Quick or adventures. my qualifications are beng the most honest sales person in the area. i make every customer ride the bike with me outside or 10-15 minutes each bike. thats it. i'm not some bike snob asshole. i'm a nerd that rides fixies and tells stupid stories.

and yeah man if you are going to buy all bikes by product spec have fun. top tube lengths all very despite what is printed. every company measures from different spots on the frame. i'm sorry if i offended you in someway about this bike. if you ride one and like good for you. come around here and it'll be cool becaue you'll be the onyl one on one until a new cannondale dealer opens up because i sure as fuck won't suggest one to anyone.

Not by 6 cm they don't. Your Steamroller is around 60cm, the Capo around 54cm. I am just surprised that you can ride a 60ish frame fine yet feel a 54ish frame has you over reaching.

Have to point out I have never ridden a Capo and probably never will so couldn't care either way but I couldn't help pointing out your odd comment about over reaching.
Or did it have a 20cm stem fitted maybe :-)

i'm not comparing steam roller to the capo. the steam roller is known for its long reach. i'm comparing the capo to the 54 sworks langster, the 54 oneway and the 56 converted colnago that my co worrker rides. the ride, in comparison to the langster i took out alot during season and right before i rode the capo, the capo had a very awkward reach. whatever. you want to keep bitching baout good for you. you won. you are smarter than a kid that works at a shop. is that what you want to hear? that just because you don't work at a shop you want to prove you still know more? thast fine. good for you man.

fuck. let it go. the bike has a shity geometry is all i'm saying.

As I said, I couldn't care either way, and not trying to prove anything and not saying I know more.
What I am saying is that the geometry of the bike is very much standard being pretty much 54cm square. I was just questioning why you were being so dramatic about the awful geometry and super long top tube when in fact it has very standard geometry. Just doesn't give what you are saying any credibility, that is all.

I'd see someone about your self esteem issue too :-)

I own a Capo 5, and it is demonstrably stiffer than my Bowery.

Both are aluminium framed, but the headset/headtube feels so much stiffer and more reassuring under braking on the Capo.

Yet, I find the feel of the Capo to be very inert. Though it tracks true, and the frame is stiff and extremely strong (surviving a big off with me on it), it doesn't feel entertaining. I don't know why this is, but that's my experience. Acceleration is exactly what you would expect from such a stiff rear triangle. Very fast, and effortless. The frame doesn't absorb any of the expended energy, it transfers it directly into forward motion.

As for the bottom bracket; I felt shimmying in it twice within a few weeks of purchase, and was told by the owner of a different lbs, that it was an expected occurrence from that type of bb (Truvativ type). However, it seems over time to have tightened itself up, and there is no longer any give in the bb at all.

Its a sound, fast bike, but a bit characterless in standard form. I like it, but I don't love it.

Why not ask a nice woman out on a ride on the Capo to see what she thinks? :)

??

See previous threads started by emoxfag.