The trigger is Cannondales latest all-mountain mountain bike. It’s a full suspension bike with 145mm on the rear and 150mm on the front, running on 650b wheels, and it’s designed to be a brilliant all-rounder. A lot of focus has been given to the bike behaving super well on decents with modern attack geometry, but also still being a decent companion for the climbs, with really lightweight carbon frame and carbon rocker. The first two models in the three model Cannondale Trigger range use a ballistec carbon front end with an aluminium rear swing arm. The top model gets a full ballistec carbon frame including the rocker.
Ballistec carbon is Cannondales proprietary carbon that uses the same resins that you find in carbon fiber baseball bats and some of the same fibers that you find in ballistic armor. Other features on the Cannondale trigger frame include internal cable routing, a forged carbon rocker on all the models, and on all the bikes Cannondales AI. AI stands for asymmetric integration and refers to an offset of the rear end which allows us to give you the shortest chainstays out there in the market at 420mm.
This is going to give you better traction on the climbs and make the long front end, easy to pick up into a manual or over trail obstacles. A 66 degree head angle combined of a 45mm stem gives this bike modern and aggressive trail geometry. All three Cannondale Trigger models feature 150mm fox 34 fork up front, with a 145mm Fox Gemini shock on the rear. Gemini is a specific technology that Cannondale develop with Fox to give you two ride modes in one shock. In its open mode the Gemini will give you 145mm of linear smooth travel, simply flick the switch and you can adjust the shock to 115mm of more rampy more progressive travel, perfect for man-made stages featuring rollers, berms and more pedally sections, and then and the flick of the switch back into its 145mm mode which is going to be better for more natural looser downhill focused tracks.
The trigger carbon three features a Shimano 1 by 11 group set, the trigger carbon 2 and one feature SRAM Eagle 1 by 12 group set. A one by system on a bike is gonna give you a quieter, smoother riding bike but with the new 1 by 12 ten to fifty tooth range on the rear, just the same range as you’d expect from your double or even triple. Braking on the Cannondale trigger is provided by Shimano, and then SRAM on the top two models. All three models feature 180mm rotors showing the capability that’s built into this otherwise reasonably short travel bike. All three models in the Trigger range feature Maxis Minion tires, a great aggressive all-round tire.
On the first two models in the range that’s matched up to a WTB I 29 rim giving an internal measurement of 29 on that rim. That wide rim spreads out that tire giving a really comfortable really aggressive large contact patch. The top of the range Cannondale trigger carbon one features Cannondales own hologram carbon wheels. These are a super lightweight super wide modern trail wheel set that we were able to give you a really really good value for money price.
The Cannondale trigger represents what Cannondale can do best at this high-end carbon trail bike standard. 150 on the front 145 on the rear makes it a decent all-rounder bike, with a focus more towards descending, but that lightweight ballistic carbon is gonna mean that your bike is still going to climb really well, combine that with a 420mm chain stay, you’re going to get loads of traction.
When the bike starts descending that fox Gemini two-in-one shock is going to give you a really versatile bike 145mm of linear travel is perfect for most rough trail centers and local tracks, with that 115mm mode on call should you hit something a bit more flowy bike parky or even just your local single track.