We tested the new Cannondale Gemini last week. It was equipped with 7" of travel at both ends. It is technically a freeride bike because of the front derailleur. We took it on one of our 4 to five hour urban tours of Toronto.

It really excelled at drop offs and stairs. It sucked riding curbs, ledges, flat, any kind of incline etc. Forget about trialsy manouvers. The problem was weight. Maybe I need to beef up a bit but it seemed to take about three times the effort to get it up off the ground. I can hardly imagine taking this bike on any kind of trail where climbing would be involved as it was too heavy and the suspension moved around all the time while pedalling.

What this bike would be good for is a place like Blue Mountain where you pedal about five strokes the entire day and you have a truck to get you to the top. It definately holds an advantage when travelling down as it came equipped with 8" Hayes, Junior T, and Fox shock with adjustable rebound and compression, wide Easton Bar, Funn Serial Killa stem and WTB downhill seat.

Also included in the $ 3999.99 price are Hugi Rear Hub, Mavic D321 rims, Maxxis Mobster tires and XT kit. The only cheesy things were the cheap WTB headset, the required headtube adapters required for its installation and the under the BB cable routing for the front derailleur.

The problem I have is that I don't know if there exists enough "on the way down lots of stunts and no climbing trails" around here to justify blowing four big ones on a bike. Freeriding for me means riding up down and over lots of stuff to get to the good stuff. I think that the Cannondale Gemini focuses too much on one specific use and sacrifices performance in all other areas.

For the geometry freaks chainstays were 17" on the nose (awesome for a 7" travel bike) top tube was approximately 22" and gobs of standover room was present. Weight was approximatley 45lbs but by the end of the night the bike weighed 653lbs.

All in all, this bike would be best for a person who wants to do downhill, but does not want or cannot afford a quiver of bikes in the garage. Being equipped with three gears up front makes this bike somewhat more flexible than a straight downhill machine.

Pics from the Gemini 2000 test