Bicycles Online > Comfort and Hybrid Bikes > Cannondale Bad Girl Review

Cannondale Bad Girl
Tough Hybrid with Style

No one can accuse Cannondale of not being creative with their bike names (or even with their bike designs, really). Cannondale likes to describe the Bad Girl as a tough bike with style. Actually that sounds pretty accurate to me.

The Cannondale Bad Girl is often placed in the Urban or Recreational categories. Regardless of the latest bike category names, I still think of this bike as a hybrid since it really is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike.

What you get with the Bad Girl is a comfortable, mostly upright positioned bike that is light and fast enough to handle streets and roads and rugged enough to handle light to moderate trails (or other difficult terrain that you may run up against).

One of the features that I really like with the Cannondale Bad Girl is the Frame Geometry. You get a lower top tube giving you a more stand over room but with the more traditional bike frame geometry for more strength.

Cannondale known for high quality bikes and winning races and cycling awards in just about every category. If you have ever ridden or even just checked out Cannondale bikes in your LBS, then you already know the quality of C'dale bikes.

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Note: The 2013 Cannondale Bad Girl is no longer available from this site or no longer for sale online.

(was selling for $1,599 (new) at REI).

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For more serious riders, this bike can handle commuting, touring and long distance rides, comfortably but with much less effort than a heavier comfort bike, and can handle paved, crushed stone, grass, or fairly rugged dirt bike trails.

The nice thing about the Bad Girl is that there are 3 models available so you can choose the high-end Bad Girl 1, with all of the best components, the much more affordable Bad Girl 3 or the in between model (the Bad Girl 2).

Even with the lower priced models (the Bad Girl 2 and 3) you will still be getting more for your money than with other lower quality brands and often you can usually find great deals on Cannondale bikes online (although these bikes must be delivered to a store).

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Cannondale Bad Girl Model Comparisons:

Cannondale Bad Girl Bikes have 3 price/component levels. The prices go down as the level numbers goes up so the Cannondale Bad Girl 1 is the high end and most expensive and the Cannondale Bad Girl 3 is the least expensive.

All Bad Girl Cannondale models have the Cannondale Bad Girl Aluminum Frame, Flat Bar Handlebars, Hydraulic Disc brakes, and 700x28 (Schwalbe Kojak) Tires and Shimano (lever style) shifters (Deore on the BG1 and Alivio on the BG2 and BG3).

The biggest difference in the Bad Girl models are between the high-end Bad Girl 1 and the other two. The Bad Girl 1 is quite a bit more expensive than the Bad Girl 3 but you do get quite a bit more for the price. There are some differences between the 2 lower end models (the BG2 and BG3) but it does not seem worth the extra cost for the mid-range model (the BG2).

The key features that you get with the Bad Girl 1 that you do not get with the other models is the Lefty front end suspension with 50mm travel and lockout and better shifters, derailleurs, brakes, pedals.

If you are not familiar with the Lefty (photo on the right) the front end (not really a fork) connects to the wheel on the left side only. This design has been around for quite a while now and is accepted as a very light, durable and high quality design although it may seem strange to those who are not familiar with it.

See the REI links (above) for their automated comparison feature to see all of the specific details.

About-Bicycles Review:

Cannondale bikes are excellent quality and I particularly like Cannondale Road, Racing and Hybrid bikes. Cannondale is known for their high quality bike frames (among other things) and I really like the Frame Geometry of the Cannondale Bad Girls.

About the only thing that I am not too crazy about ~ and this is totally a personal preference ~ is that the Bad Girl has lever (or trigger) shifters as opposed to grip shifters.

Although Cannondale Bikes can be a little more expensive than other comparable brands most of the Cannondale hybrids are more reasonably priced than some of their other lines.

I would recommend the Cannondale Bad Girl 1, with it's Lefty and higher quality components when you are ready for a fast, light weight, high quality and durable hybrid bike with all the extras. I would recommend the Cannondale Bad Girl 3 when you still want a high quality hybrid but need to keep your costs down.

Customer Reviews:

Since the Cannondale Bad Girl bikes are new for this year, I was unable to find any actual Customer Reviews for this bike online yet. There are, however, many reviews of the Bad Girl's brother ~ the Cannondale Bad Boy.

This year's Bad Boy and Bad Girl bikes are very similar so I believe that the Bad Boy reviews that have been posted will still have some relevance (at least until the Bad Girl bike has been out there for a while and we have some customer reviews posted).

Just a few of the Customer comments that I found on for the Bad Boy on Buzzillions.com include:

• “Urban Assult Bike” – lowrider
• "Awesome Frame With Good Components” – Williams
• “Stealth Bomber” – Colorado_Tim
  

See the REI links (above) for the latest customer reviews on these bikes and for detailed  specifications on more Cannondale Bad Girl models.

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