Ever seen these

[kdeal]

Hey Paul,

I bet you wouldn't have thought back in 1/2003 that we would still be having fun with your quad design and running them hard in any quantity....

Paul, you have got to go to one of our Group Rides at Majestic. The offer still stands for taxi duty by yours truly if you want to fly in somewhere near by!

Ken

[raremoto440]

I would like to know what was the reaction of the other riders when you took the dale to the track for the first time. How many races did it win or not ?

[cannondale27]

Well you need to remember that Cannondale was really shaking up the system.Not only were they making a quad that NO aftermarket parts were needed for but the Cannondale Factory was litterally supporting racers at all levels.I think that scared the heck out of some of the big name aftermarket guys.The guys who are considered gods at the nationals at least.It was awesome for me.Especially when just creaming $10,000 quads!

[2000ex]

Paul is about a hour from me. I could easily taxi him down for the group ride and even provide his choice of weapon to ride. That different down tube or bar in our case was more angled to triangulate the frame more. The production unit has the same bar, except it is far more upright.

[4strokemadman]

I will upload some clear monica pics to my picasa album tomorrow. As for the shock angle.... The position of the shock on most quads back then was determined by the airbox. They had to put them more upright and use a linkage to get the motion ratio to be progressive. We didn't want to use a linkage because we wanted to use the same swingarm casting that we used for the motorcycle. So we laid it down as much as we could so that we could have a progressive motion ratio.

Natalie broke his neck testing. There were aftermarket a-arms and tie rods bolted on to an FX400 that had the already weak THK tie rod ends. Needless to say they didn't last very long under his abuse.

As for the original plastic, we were on the fast track for production and waiting 12-16 weeks for an injection molding tool wasn't in the cards. Not to mention the plastic needed to be refined before we plopped down $500,000 in injection molding tooling. So the first production plastic needed to be designed for thermoforming which couldn't accomodate the nice ribs and some of the other sharp features. When we went to injection molding we needed to keep the same design because of the fitment around the airbox etc...

When things went south I figured everthing would just fade away pretty quickly. It's nice to see the hard work we did is still being appreciated. As for the ride, my bad I just need to suck it up and go....

Here is a great story about the reaction of other riders....

We did a lot of testing in CT at this sandy track off of 84. I was out with one of the early prototypes and I heard what sounded like a bunch of machines practicing starts. So I head over only to see like 10 or 12 quads lined up drag racing each other. I didn't know anyone so the next time they all lined up, so did I. One guy was at the other end dropping his hands to start everyone. I got a lot of looks at the line. I was nervous because these were all full on race machines. 240r's, decked out banshees, modded 400 ex's. So we are all at the line. The guy drops his hands and I just let her rip. No one was even close to me at the end. They all came up to me and were like what the f is that thing. It was awesome. Turns out it was a bunch of NEATV guys and became friends with them. They ended up helping out in testing so it was a great introduction.

[2000ex]

It was my knowledge that it was a 400ex front end he had bolted up. Does the name Scott Samuel ring a bell? He mentioned he was doing some testing with you guys as well.

As for the angle of the shock, back then the ticket was the roll no link setup on the 250r's. They worked flawlessly from my experience and their shock angle was not nearly as extreme and was far more upright. I had heard that the reason why Cannondale went with this design was like you had said, they already had the motorcycle setup and wanted to use the same or similar tooling and were pretty much determined not to change that.

In my research and actually riding and racing these and many other bikes that is the only real chassis drawback these bikes have that could not be easily changed.

[MX Quad Dad]

QUOTE (SlOoT @ Dec 2 2009, 03:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have seen a picture of one of those axles... ...wich was cracked

I have seen and actually held that axle and swingarm (not the cracked one). I sure would like to know what that setup weighed.

[2000ex]

Raremoto, sorry we hijacked this thread and turned it into a history lesson...but it really is great stuff!

I pulled up this article and it made me smile
http://www.atvsport.com/output.cfm?id=1082359

[raremoto440]

I dont mined I love reading the history.

[MX Quad Dad]

QUOTE (Brad Oakley @ Dec 1 2009, 11:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, I have one of them - brand new! As some of you know, I've been working (on and off again) on what will be my '04 Cannondale. Paul, you know since you helped me find the steering stems for the new frame! Anyway, I'd like to mount the pump in a tank. Could I get more information on what appears to be two aluminum "rings" - one mounted inside and the other outside the tank itself? I've been trying to figure how to mount the pump without having leaking problems. I'd also like to know how the quad was plumbed. It does look like it has a pressure regulator built into the pump. The return is hidden in the photos. That would mean only one line running to the injectors with no external return!

I think Chuck in Ohio may have one of the pumps, too.

I was wondering if you have the frame that was supposed to be for the 04. Just wanted o see pic's of the differances. the dealer that got my frame replaced was hoping I got the new frame. he said the part that the stem and lower control arms bolt to was supposed to be a cast section among other tings