Cannondale Prophet 400 Reviews - Product Reviews

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Posted: 12/08/07

'FOR A REGULAR BIKEMAGICIAN.'

Strengths:
Great frame ready for upgrading (cheaper to buy a bike than the frameset). Quality wheels (as long as you don't want/need a bolt-through solidity). Workable components that won't spoil the fun.
1point5 headtube allows to fit Shermans (£100 from eBay), 200mm eye-2-eye shocks are dirt cheap (my TFTuned 4Way was £82), the frame is light enough to be an all-day beast, whilst riding some stupid downhills won't be too much either.

Weaknesses:
Narrow bars, weak-looking stem, rubbish grips. Seatpost - too short on a medium for me (5'7"). The original air shock was not subtle enough for my liking, but I prefer coil anyway.

I bought mine from Leisure Lakes in a semi-built form. It needed a complete strip down and a rebuilt. The shop messed up the cable/line routing, and the headset was lose. Reacting to my complaint the shop said: THE CANNONDALE ISN'T THAT GOOD, YOU KNOW.

Overall:
You can't deny the quality of the frame, the sanded welds and its straightness. Looking at the bike you begin to wonder why so many poorly finished bikes are more expensive.
The bike should be looked at as a frameset with some extra bits for less money than the frame alone. Hence you can afford a custom for non-custom sums. I've found loads of great cheap stuff on eBay and the bike is as I want it for under £2k.

One thing needs noticing - fitting a pair of Blacks was impossible as the dials were hitting the downtube. Nixons, however, were fine. As are the Sherman Breakouts.

Performance		80%
Reliability		100%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

87%

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