Cannondale’s newest trail bike
Cannondale recently released it’s newest version of one of their most popular mountain bikes, the Habit. This is the second version of the Habit and I was excited at the chance to build one up. The Habit comes in two versions, the standard Habit and the longer travel Habit LT. Both frames are the same and only differ in the stroke length of the shock. I found a deal on a partial build on Pinkbike.com but had planned to make it my own with the parts I trust the most.
How was I going to start the build?
My plan from the start was to build the bike as the LT version, which gives a front travel of 150mm and a rear travel of 140mm. The bike came with a coil shock but I plan to run it with an air shock so I would need to find one to replace the coil. The bike also included a Rock Shox Lyrik fork which was set to 160mm which I could run as is, but I usually like to start the bike out with the intended travel so I would need to reduce the travel of the fork to 150mm.
Drivetrain: Shimano or SRAM
I have been a fan of Shimano because of it’s good value compared but I am curious about the new SRAM transmission. The plan is to build the bike with Shimano XT but I will do a cost comparison with the new SRAM transmission and see if I can budget it in.
Cost
I don’t have a specified budget when starting this build but I usually like to do my best to keep my bikes light while not spending too much. This usually means I don’t run XTR or SRAM XX1 unless the weight savings can be justified by the increase in cost. I usually end up in the XT/SLX or X01/GX range.
Conclusion
Follow along with this build and let me know if you have any suggestions