professorbob

I don't know how many Cannondale System Six bikes are still on the road but I do have a couple of comments/questions about the bike. There has been a lot of talk about the joints where the carbon fiber tubes are attached to the aluminum tubes. Especially on the Black/Silver models, which mine is. The aluminum section of the joint seems to get what looks to be pitted after a certain amount of time. Cannondale claims that this is cosmetic only and has does effect the safety of the bike. Mine had that problem, and I figured that if it failed, I'd somehow replace it, either through warranty or (shiver) buying a new bike. If not I'd continue to enjoy it.

Alas, the bike did fail. However not at any of the joints. The safety tab on the (carbon) dropout of the front fork and worn down flat. In addition, the shape of the dropout itself had become a bit distorted. Do know that this did not cause a crash (good thing as I was riding very hard that particular day). When I put the bike on top of the car, I clamped it down tight and locked it. When I arrived at my start point, I noticed the right dropout had worked its way out of the clamp. "That can't be good" went through my head. My first thought was that I didn't clamp the fork down tight enough on the rack. But he clamp was tight (on the left dropout) and it was still locked. So I did my ride, got back to the car, loaded the bike into the rack, clamped it tight and locked it. When I pulled into my drive way, the bike fell off the top of the car and was dangling, being held by the strap on the back wheel. The right dropout had slipped out again the bike fell over and snapped the left dropout, which was still in the clamp. I just looked at it and with my mouth gaping open and thought how much this was going to cost me. I have since put two other bikes on that same rack and have had no problems with them coming loose, so it's not the rack that failed.

So I took it into the shop where they've known me for at least 25 years and they said that if they couldn't get a replacement from Cannondale, they would find a good solution. After a couple of days, I got the bad news/good news call from the shop. No more System 6 forks available. They've been out of production for about 6 years. The good news is that Cannodale is offering me a new CAAD 10 frame and fork as a warranty replacement. I should have it in a couple of days. The shop will transfer the gear off my old bike and put it onto the new one, no charge. (I will get them beer and pizza, though.) So I guess I'll have to get used to the feel of an all aluminum frame again.

Now here's the question... Has anyone ever had a System 6 that has separated at the joints OR had any kind of front dropout failure? Or has anyone had a catastrophic frame failure on a System 6?

I'm not a big fan of carbon fiber. Don't get me wrong, I love how it rides, but I know too many people who have broken their bikes. Now I'm one of them. We'll see how the aluminum works out.

GDA

System Six is a great frameset. Why not just pick up a replacement fork off ebay?

topflightpro

I have one of those System 6s too, with the raw aluminum and carbon. I have a lot of the spidering at the carbon/aluminum joints and have been told it's fine. (It's largely retired now as it's pretty old and beat up.)

Anyway, my fork does not have any lawyer tabs. It never did. It was always pretty smooth. (I had a Caad 9 briefly, and I had to file the tabs down. They were so massive, it was almost impossible to put on the wheel without completely disassembling the skewer.)

I have not had issues with the fork breaking or slipping.

roadwarrior

The "spidering" as I saw it called is due to a reaction of the clear coat and the epoxy they use to connect the tubes. Other than looks it is not an issue. I had the same thing happen on a clear coat six/13.

I had one of those bikes and wish I still did. Great riding bike. And no failure. But I am somewhat confused on the OP's description...are you referring to the "lawyer lips", the little protrusions above the dropouts on the fork? No clue why that would be an issue...I file mine off on an aluminum fork (CAAD9) just because I think they are stupid and I know how to put a wheel on.

Never had a failure.

CAAD10 is so good you won't realize you are on aluminum.

I <3 Robots

IIRC there was two versions of the System Six fork. One with aluminum dropouts and one with carbon. I had an 08 System Six 1, and that came with the carbon dropout fork. I replaced mine with an Easton EC90 fork. I did have a bottle mount rivet come out of the downtube of the frame. Had a local shop repair it for 50 bucks.

The Super Six forks with the 1.5 lower bearing will also fit a System frame.

dtrain

I'd pick up an Evo. Here's a nice one on C-List:


Cannon dale

gsa103

Wow! Is that a Denali that someone slapped a bunch of C-dale stickers on on? I seriously hope no one ever buys that bike.

dtrain

Yeah, it's something like a Denali (you can see the twist shifters). It just popped up on C-List for $500 obo (WTF!). I'm sure the seller is a real honest broker...or not.

Jiggle

Wow, a $200 fork broke on your 6 year old frame and they're sending you a new CAAD 10 frameset??!!!??

professorbob

Here's the latest on my new frameset. They sent a frame and forgot to include a fork with it. Back it went to CDale. I got a call a week later saying that my new frame just came it and it looked beautiful. I asked if a fork came with it. "Hold on..." "Swearing in the background".... "Ahh, very sorry but they forgot to put a fork in with the frame again." So i'm still waiting. I'll report back when I have something in hand.

professorbob

@Jiggle... I was surprised myself. To be honest, I'd rather have a just a new fork as despite the System 6 cosmetic issues, I really like the bike. My son has a CAAD9, which I took for a short ride just to see how it feels, and I must say that it was quite good as well.

topflightpro

OP, my System 6 was a replacement for a cracked Six-13. I also had a Caad 9 for awhile that served as a back up/race bike for the System 6. I liked the 9, but it paled in comparison to the System 6.

The Caad 9 and System 6 share the same rear triangle - To make a System 6, they made a Caad 9, cut off the front half and attached a carbon triangle, or so I have read. It was apparently quite expensive and produced a lot of waste, which is why they scrapped the otherwise awesome design. As a result though, the Caad 9 lacks the front end stability of the System 6. It also is a bit less comfortable over a long ride, but nothing unmanageable. I had not trouble with 60-80 mile rides on the 9.

But I think a new Caad 10 as a replacement for a seven-year-old System 6 is a pretty sweet deal.

loimpact

I honestly didn't even Google, but anybody got a link or cliff notes on where the whole "6" part came about?? I noticed System 6, 6thirteen, Supersix......(I notice the graphics have gone back to using the "6" for 2015 vs the word EVO which was usually pretty hard to see anyway as they bunched the letters together)

TIA

topflightpro

Check the periodic table of elements. Carbon's atomic number is 6. Aluminum's is 13.

loimpact

Indeed it is! Thank you! I'd have probably never gotten there without asking. (or at least Googling)

cgates66

I have a SystemSix (red / black) and there is some corrosion at the top-tube joint bubbling up through the paint. I had it inspected; while they said it wasn't structural, they offered me an upgrade path (I had to pay some cash and I'd get a SuperSix of some sort) - this was two years ago. I'd be curious about the CAAD10 as I've heard that the rear triangle supposedly is not as robust as the SystemSix - although it probably has numerous other advantages. It's too bad they didn't keep making the System - I love mine and haven't seen something to compare it with.