Confessing Our Toxic Cycling Traits and Defending the Cannondale CAAD14

We tackle a hard question on the podcast this week: what’s your toxic cycling trait? Levy came up with this question, and I have no idea why, but the basic premise is the thing you do on the bike that the group ride probably hates. Levy had a lot, but half-wheeling was a big one. I talk too much. And Lisa… well, Lisa is so darn nice that she had to really think on this one. She managed something eventually, but it took a while to get there, and I don’t think it’s actually that big a deal. You’ll have to let us know both what your trait is and if you think Lisa’s is actually an issue.

The other big topic this week was the Cannondale CAAD14 review. This is a bike that I’ve had all summer and I absolutely love. I talked through how a mistake by Cannondale made the bike better, but the real meat of this discussion was two interconnected things.

The first is that yes, this is a budget bike. It’s an incredible value, and some people will buy it because of that. There’s a good reason why, even in the face of other cheap bikes, an aluminum Cannondale could still be worth a purchase.

That leads to the other big thing we talked about. I think other reviewers out there are missing the point of this bike. It doesn’t matter that there are cheaper carbon bikes from Chinese brands that are faster; the Cannondale CAAD14 should still be on your short list if you are considering an entry-level bike. Or, if you are considering a bike that has a vibe, even if it’s not the absolute fastest out there.

Between debating bike vibes and calling out our own bad habits, we also tackled some reader questions. Since Logan Jones-Wilkins is off at Leadville playing at high altitude, it was just me, Lisa Charlebois, and Mike Levy running the show. That meant I got to step in and field a few questions directed at Logan. Would he have suggested a Trek endurance bike instead of the gravel bike I recommended? Hard to say but he probably also would have had more to say about the 32-inch Mosaic that launched this week. We’ll never know, but we managed.

Check out the full podcast this week and let me know if you’ve ridden a CAAD bike and you know what I am talking about. Or let me know if you think I am off my rocker and there is a cheaper carbon bike people should buy instead.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro
00:53 – Toxic cycling traits
21:26 – Mosaic 32-inch bike
26:58 – reader questions
34:55 – CAAD14 review

Articles covered in this episode:

• Review: Cannondale Made a Mistake and the CAAD14 Is Better for It
• The New Trek Domane is Too Good to Call an Endurance Bike
• The New Mosaic 32 Gravel Bike Fixes 32-Inch Gravel Bikes’ Biggest Problem