Cannondale's Six13 Is One Hot Number!
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Cannondale's Six13 road bike is the lightest and most comfortable ever offered by Cannondale! It's so light, racing versions are actually too light for competition!
The Six13 frame uses carbon fiber (atomic number Six) in its main frame tubes, and aluminum (atomic number 13) in the seat and chainstays. Welded aluminum tube collars join the carbon fiber and aluminum elements into a complete frame. The frame weighs just 2.5 pounds (1,150 grams), and unlike most frames made entirely from carbon fiber, it's offered in 12 frame sizes to ensure a perfect fit for optimum comfort and efficiency.
As the tubes are being formed, the carbon fiber also expands slightly outward through small cutouts in the walls of the aluminum collars. The resulting mechanical interlock, paired with an adhesive bond, delivers unparalleled frame integrity. And, the carbon fiber protruding into the cutouts would have to be physically sheared in order to pull a cured tube from one of the collars. It all adds up to a difference you'll feel from your first pedal stroke on the Six13. It features the best of all worlds: it's efficiently rigid, ultralight and comfortable enough for stage racing. Come in and try one out. And, be prepared to be amazed! All three Six13 models are available in Saeco Team Replica (Red), Saffron Orange, Patriot Blue w/Blazer Blue Hyper Highlight, Jet Black w/Race Red Flare and Charcoal Gray Matte. | ||
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Gilberto Simoni of the Cannondale-sponsored Saeco squad was set to compete on a Six13 prototype at the 2003 Tour de France when team mechanics realized the bike violated the 15 pound minimum-weight rule of the UCI (the Union Cycliste Internationale, bike racing's international governing body). Team mechanics were forced to add weights to the bike to surpass the 15-pound minimum, but that didn't prevent Simoni from going on to win the Tour's brutal 191-km 14th stage aboard the Six13.
The Six13 is formed in an innovative co-molding method in which the carbon-fiber tubes and the frame are constructed simultaneously. The tubes, still in a soft, pliable, and uncured state, are positioned inside the aluminum tube collars. Bladders inside the tubes are inflated and heat is applied, and the finished tubes are physically formed within the collars to create a perfectly aligned, super-light frame. 
