Originally Posted by Ironfish653

I’m partial to Cannondales, myself; the USA-made (pre-06) bikes are, IMHO, some of the best finished mass-market aluminum frames made. I find them to be responsive, good riding bikes; the ‘2.8’ Criterium were and are no-comprises go-fast race bikes, and that reputation definitely colored the reputation of the rest of the lineup.

The later ‘3.0’ and CAAD-2/3 bikes are definitely worthy of upgrading, as Cannondales practice was to use the same frame across several models, just with different components, so a midrange R600 is essentially the same as the top-flight R1000, and makes as good a base to start with if you’re planning a big update.
Because of that practice, during the 6/7/8-sp era, The frames were built at 128mm, so they could use either 126mm FW or 130mm cassette wheels, depending on what model it would be built as.

Finally, Cannondale also built a fair number of XXL 23”-25” frames; I ride with some very large people, and Cannondales are popular with them for that reason.