The History Of The Cannondale Habit

The Cannondale Habit is one of the world’s most renowned and loved mountain bikes, available only in full suspension guise - the Habit has always been a bike which a rider has been able to simply jump on and ride. At Westbrook Cycles, the Cannondale Habit has long been one of our best selling and personal favorite mountain bikes - and at the moment we have worked hard to secure some excellent discounts across the range.

In this post, we look at the Habit in greater detail - looking at where it started from, over eight years ago - to the current day.

Early Beginnings

Cannondale was originally founded back in 1971 and first concentrated on the design and manufacture of outdoor gear and bike trailers. Like all great bike manufacturing companies, it took a few years for Cannondale to design and manufacture bikes - with their first bike launching in 1983. Cannondale did not follow the crowd here, it was the first bike brand to use aluminum framed bikes instead of steel, and it’s great to see Cannondale still using innovatively designed aluminum frames on its bikes today.

The Launch of the Habit

The Cannondale Habit was first introduced back in 2016. The first habit was a true all mountain bike machine, it was designed to both climb and descend really well, it was launched with 27.5 inch wheels and boasted 120mm of suspension travel.

The Habit, much as it does today - provided an agile and playful performance - and it perfectly bridged the gap between fast cross country bikes and full on downhill orientated bikes. The Habit always has been a bike which does all mountains, really well.

Evolution of the Habit

Those who know the mountain bike industry well, will know that nothing stands still for very long - and that new technology is constantly putting older bikes out of date, but also pushing the boundaries of the performance of mountain bikes.

The Habit has had continuous improvements and redesigns. In 2019, the Habit had one of it’s largest updates and redesigns - this update kept the bike in the mix with the world’s most capable trail bikes. Everything got bigger this year, there was an extra 10 mm of travel added both front and rear, giving the bike 130mm of travel, the wheels were also increased in size to 29 inches, to aid rollover and stability off road. There was also a slacker head angle and a steeper seat angle for improvements when climbing. There were also a range of proportional response changes made to the suspension, tailoring suspension kinematics for different frame sizes - meaning more consistent performance.

In 2021, there were further updates and improvements - pushing the boundaries of what the Habit was capable of and keeping it up to date with the bikes in its competition. Carbon Fibre was finally introduced into the Habit range in 2021 and the Habit also became more integrated - with integrated chainstays and cable routing, to keep the model range looking sharp.

The Cannondale Habit Today

Today, the Habit has been brought right up to date and provides all of the performance and design that it needs to. It’s built a great reputation as a fun bike and amongst the competition, the Habit represents excellent value for money. The Habit handles descents and ascents with ease.

The latest stats and specifications from the habit include: 140mm of front travel and 130mm of rear travel (although this does vary model by model) The Habit also has mixed wheels, with some models offering a 29 inch front wheel and a 27.5 inch rear wheel for agility. The latest Cannondale Habit’s are also equipped with suspension from world leaders including Fox and Rockshox.

Cannondale Habit Online

At Westbrook Cycles, we stock a complete range of Cannondale Habit Full Suspension Mountain Bikes. These bikes are available to order online and are delivered to an address of your choice.