As we’re pushing close here into the 2014 season, Cannondale has yet to announce any plans for the newest mid-sized wheel segment, but has instead chosen to continue improving upon their range of 29ers to fulfill the role for the most technical riders using the bigger wheel platform. Which is where the Trigger 29 Carbon stands in the mix of things, a scaled version of their most popular 26-inch-wheeled trail bike – but as things get more and more technical in the mtb industry, it will be rendered with newer high-modulus composites and decked out with a stunning array of components. For Cannondale’s classic style, the new 130mm-rear-travel Trigger 29 Carbon 1 completely dissects more rules than they opted to conform with, thus resulting with a true lightweight climber that can, with a flick of the bar mounted switch, make a simple task out of highly technical, and upper speed descents. They will be offering two different models for the ride: The Trigger 1, which will be nicely decked out with SRAM’s XX1/X01 drivetrain goodies, and a set of Mavic Crossmax ST wheels along with their newer style, (as of 2013) Lefty SuperMax Carbon PBR 130mm suspension fork. Retail price will come in at $8120.00 USD. While their second Trigger Carbon 2 model, will also be nicely outfitted with Shimano’s XT component pick, and roll out on Mavic’s Crossroc wheelset all while using the exact same Lefty SuperMax model suspension fork. The price will come in at $6170.00 .
Cannondale designed and purpose built the newest SuperMax Carbon Lefty 29 to be configured correctly to ultimately produce the best
trail value for slaying technical single track on the bigger sized wheels. They also have done away with the past years fork-boot, and designed a cool, mot-inspired stone guard that’s as functions as sweet as it
looks. Mavic makes a Crossmax ST wheel specifically for the one-sided slider.
Trigger 29 Carbon 1 Details
• Dyad RT2 shock: Adjustable from 80mm to 130mm, making truly on-the-fly adjustable rear travel
• Adjustable frame geometry: Switching to short-travel ‘Elevate’ mode makes the bike steeper and more nimble – lower and more stable in ‘Flow’ mode.
• Frame Design: Using fibers developed by the military for ballistic armoring, this high-strength composite construction process yields
a frame that’s lighter than the spectrum of alloys and pound-for-pound stronger than steel.
• ECS-TC suspension pivots: Clamped, 15mm thru-axles in the shock linkage and swingarm pivot, as well as double bearings in the seat stay pivots eliminate flex and provide unmatched center-stiffness for complete control.
• Lefty Supermax front suspension: Reportedly, the most torsionally rigid suspension fork ever made, the SuperMax brings unheard-of levels of steering precision to longer travel 29’ers. Its 60mm offset helps increase both high-speed stability and low-speed agility.
• Sizes: SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, X-LARGE
• MSRP: $8120 USD
Suspension
The market for the 130 to 140-millimeter-travel suspension arena might very well be getting quite crowded about now, but in true fashion Cannondale chose its own brand of front suspension for the Trigger Carbon 1 – the amazing Lefty Supermax PBR strut. This dual-crown configuration, utilizes a massively over-sized composite upper tube, along with the most sophisticated damping system and slider system, of anything currently on the mtb market, which all glide butter smooth on indexed needle bearings. This latest version of Lefty forks out of the C-dale engineering department can competently destroy any of its two-legged rivals for torsional stiffness, steering precision and pure bump leveling skills. But hold on a second here, the rear suspension setup is equally as dynamic and unique for the Trigger as well, due to C-dale’s partnership and personally made Dyad RT2 pull-shock out of the Fox factory, which provides you with either 80 or 130mm of plush rear-wheel travel with the simple flick of a handlebar-remote lever. Where the Dyad shock is different, they have used twin damper assemblies that simultaneously increase the spring rate and shorten the shock’s travel for climbing and sprinting – the key feature that Cannondale’s own World Cup racer, Jerome Clementz has been utilizing fully to his advantage while sweeping this years Enduro World Series aboard their Dyad-equipped Jekyll model.
They have securely clamped the hollow style, 15-millimeter axles at each pivot location on the chassis. A look at the 12-millimeter X-12 type through axle and forged-aluminum brake caliper mount. They designers also opted to adapt their own in-house, lightweight, Hollowgram Si cranks mounted up with a 30-tooth SRAM XX1 chainring for the fine finish work on their newest Trigger 1.
Jerome Clementz’s EWS-Dominating Jekyll Carbon
Cannondale brought the 26-inch-wheeled Jekyll that Jerome Clementz utilized to slay everyone, and win a several of the events along with the overall title of the Enduro World Series to display for Eurobike 2013. Clementz is SRAM sponsored, so he rides a Blackbox RockShox Pike fork and he also uses Mavic Crossmax Enduro wheels and tires. Clementz switches the Jekyll’s dual-travel Dyad Shock so often during a stage, that he has adapted a SRAM X.0 GripShift twist-shifter to the left-side handlebar for lighting-fast mode changes.