CANNONDALE BAD HABIT REVIEW

October 17, 2026

The Cannondale Bad Habit was developed to excel at the highest level on the world stage, and already has two women’s Enduro World Cup overall titles to its name. However, the Bad Habit has the least travel and shortest chainstays in our 2026 Enduro Group Test, so can its World Cup pedigree translate into the best enduro mountain bike for regular riders?

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to the supporting brands who kitted us out and made this series possible. Without their financial support, this eight-bike comparison test would not have happened. Go and show them some love!

Fidlock covered our hydration needs with their excellent TWIST bottle system and neat hip packs. The system allowed us to maximize the hydration capacity on each bike, which was helpful for those long testing days.

Peaty’s provided their Monarch Pro Mushroom Thin grips and new Monarch saddles to give consistent touch points across the bikes. Their cleaning and lubrication products helped to keep the bikes running smoothly throughout the testing.

iXS kitted out our testers with their gear and protection. The Trigger X helmet is amongst our favorites here at TLW, so we were glad to have the opportunity to wear it as we attacked the trails, and their apparel was comfortable and helped us look good.

Pirelli equipped all of our bikes with their new Emperor Hardwall Super Soft and Black Sting DH Wall Soft tire combo. These burly tires offered excellent traction and control to help us push these bikes to the limit.

ABOUT THE CANNONDALE BAD HABIT

The Cannondale Bad Habit was developed to excel on the Enduro racing circuit, and achieved the World Cup overall under Ella Conolly before it was released to the public. However, the Bad Habit does not quite deliver the aggressive design that other bikes in this group test possess, instead coming in with more compact geometry and less suspension travel to make for a more playful machine.

CANNONDALE BAD HABIT FRAME & SUSPENSION

The Bad Habit is a new platform for Cannondale, built with a carbon fiber frame and excellent attention to detail. Using a Horst Link suspension system that delivers 155mm of rear travel, the Bad Habit sits on the shorter travel end of the Enduro bike spectrum, but is still built to take abuse with either an air or coil rear shock. The Bad Habit comes backed with a lifetime warranty to give peace of mind when pushing hard.

Up front, the Bad Habit comes spec’d with a 160mm fork – the RockShox Lyrik in the case of the stock builds. The frame is only compatible with a mixed-wheel setup, and there is slightly proportional geometry on the rear end with a 430mm chainstay on Small and Medium and 435mm on Large and XL frames. The geometry is fixed, keeping things simple.

Cannondale goes the extra mile in their design process, with the Proportional Response treatment on the Bad Habit frame. This gives each frame size a distinct suspension kinematic and some geometry tweaks to retain ride feel across the size range.

The Cannondale Bad Habit frame is given a list of high-quality finishing details, from the robust shuttle and downtube guards and the lower link mudguard, to the StashPort internal frame storage in the downtube. On top of the StashPort door, the bottle bosses will accept a 750ml Fidlock TWIST compact bottle. The internal cable routing is provided running through the ports on the side of the head tube, but the Acros headset will accept the cables through the top cap if you’re like that. Once inside the frame, the cables are fully guided through to the rear end.

Cannondale worked on the frame design to ensure there was excellent dropper post insertion and low standover heights across the four size range. Size large and XL bikes are supplied with 240mm dropper posts, which is incredible to see for us long-legged riders who value clearance on the descents.

The Bad Habit comes with Cannondale’s limited lifetime warranty, giving peace of mind when hitting the trails.

CANNONDALE BAD HABIT GEOMETRY

The Cannondale Bad Habit is offered in sizes Small to XL, with fairly typical Reach and Stack sizes across the range. We tested the size Large, with a 480mm Reach and mid-height 648mm Stack height. The Large and XL get a slightly longer 435mm rear end length, which is still amongst the shortest in our enduro group test, while the BB is on the lower side at 342mm.

The 64° Head Tube angle is joint steepest on test, and combines with the shortest fork on test to give a relatively compact front end. The effective seat tube angle measures in at a relatively steep 77.8°, but the actual angle is a slack 70°, so riders with taller saddle heights will feel more laid back.

We calculated the Bad Habit to have a 1.89 Front Center : Rear Center ratio, close to the most rearward-biased on test. However, on the trail, the Bad Habit felt to be the most rearward biased, leading to a light front end at times.

CANNONDALE BAD HABIT BUILD KITS

Cannondale offers the Bad Habit in the “2” build tested at £5,000 / $7,599, or the top-spec “1” at £7,000 / $7,999. There is also a frame-only offering at £3,000 for those looking to spec their dream build.

Our Bad Habit 2 was equipped with Select+ RockShox suspension, with the 160mm Lyrik and Vivid Air combination offering good tuning potential and excellent performance. Cannondale gave the Vivid Air a specific “Bad Habit Tune”, which combined with the frame kinematics on the size large to deliver stellar performance. Also from the SRAM family were the Maven Base brakes with large 220/200mm rotors; the Eagle 70/90 drivetrain, and a Zipp rear hub with quick engagement.

The finishing componentry came from Cannondale with an alloy bar and stem, and OneUp with their V3 dropper post in generous lengths. A WTB ST i30 Tough rim pairing was wrapped in a Continental Kryptotal Enduro tire pairing as standard, however for this Enduro Group Test, all bikes were equipped with a Pirelli Emperor Hardwall Super Soft 29×2.4” and Blacksting DH Wall Soft 27.5×2.4” tire combo for consistent and dependable traction. The touch points were also changed for the Peaty’s Monarch Pro Thin Mushroom grips and Monarch saddle.

On the scales, the Cannondale Bad Habit 2 with our control tires and touchpoints in size large weighed in at 36.8lbs (16.7 kg).

THE DIRT

The Cannondale Bad Habit was a late entry to our Enduro Group Test, arriving on the last day of Adrenalin Uplift testing before we commenced filming of the main show. As such, we had to hit the trails immediately and quickly iterate the setup to get it to a comfortable space and feel where it would stack up against the competition. We would have loved to spend more time on the Bad Habit, but it wasn’t the way things worked out. And maybe it was for the best, as Robert’s time on the Bad Habit felt somewhat cursed.

SETUP AND FINISH | With limited time to get the Cannondale dialled in, it was a relief to find the Bad Habit unfussy. Or more to the point, we quickly landed upon a comfortable setup at the 30% sag mark, albeit requiring more air pressure than any other bike on test to get it there. With the 155mm travel managed by a shorter 55mm stroke shock, higher air pressure is demanded to achieve the desired sag. In the past, a notably high leverage ratio like the Bad Habit may have led to a high degree of shock stiction or poor damper performance due to an inadequate tune, but the Vivid Air Select + with Cannondale’s Custom Bad Habit Tune performed well. In fact, the rear end felt very good, which led to confidence that the rest of the Bad Habit sometimes struggled to match.

Bar height was set with the overall foot-to-bar measurement in the upper middle of the pack, but in hindsight, the Bad Habit would have likely benefitted from the front end being dropped slightly. It can be tempting to lean into the strengths of a bike at times – in the case of the Bad Habit, its playfulness and ability to get onto the back wheel – but this can also worsen the drawbacks, in this case forcing weight off of the front end. If you’re going to run the Bad Habit and seek more confidence at speed and in technical terrain, dropping the front end spacer stack a little is worth considering.

Across test bikes, Robert set the front Pirelli Emperor Hardwall Super Soft tires to 25psi and the Blacksting DH Wall Softs in the rear to 27.5psi for his 220lbs (98kg) kitted mass, whereas Graham opted for 21psi front and 23psi rear for his 155lbs (70kg). We were genuinely impressed by the performance of the Pirelli tires. The immediate familiarity which they offered ensured we could focus on putting the bikes head-to-head to assess their characters.

Though we certainly didn’t put the Bad Habit through enough trail time to test its durability, the initial feelings of quality were excellent. The pink paint on the StashPort frame storage looked out of place, but the door itself was effective and rattle-free. The Bad Habit ran quietly, aside from a little cable rattle as a result of a missing rubber grommet – the kind of issue you could easily resolve given a little more time. Frame protection was well-considered, and the hardware all felt solid. The Cannondale exuded high-quality feelings and sported attractive lines, so although the paint on our Bad Habit 2 was divisive, positive opinions were unanimous for the beauty of the Bad Habit 1, and especially the frame-only colorways.

CLIMBING | The Bad Habit’s reasonable weight, geometry and suspension platform combined to make a solid climbing bike in mid-grade terrain. For Robert and his tall 820mm saddle height, the slightly more rearward position of the saddle than on paper combined with the short rear end to leave things a little unwieldy when the climbs got steep.

When standing up and pedaling dynamically with attention focused on maintaining traction on each end, it was manageable. However, the Bad Habit didn’t exhibit the effortless seated climbing of some machines on steeper and more technical uphills. Dropping the spacer stack would have helped, but the relatively high front end felt so comfortable for the mellower climb sections that it wasn’t a change we felt all too inclined to make.

The pedaling platform was reasonably well-mannered, but it benefitted from use of the climb switch for the smoother sections. When left open and pedaling dynamically, there was some pronounced suspension movement which risked the already low-hanging pedals. Traction was adequate pedaling through the rough stuff, leaving you happy spinning your legs while remaining seated.

DESCENDING | Some bikes deliver performance beyond the spec and geometry sheet, whilst others like the Cannondale Bad Habit sit more in line with expectations. From the shorter travel to the short rear end, the Bad Habit delivered a more agile and dynamic handling package than anything on test. But, it came with its compromises when it got fast and gnarly, giving Robert’s iXS Hex Pull-Over vest some work to do on a couple of occasions.

The suspension performed amicably, delivering a lively yet relatively planted and bottomless feel that didn’t necessarily give away that it was the shortest travel bike on test. With sufficient leverage ratio progression and the hydraulic bottom out of the RockShox Vivid Air rear shock, the Bad Habit took big hits without much complaint. With a bikepark or freeride bike mindset, the Bad Habit felt to be in its element, offering high levels of fun factor for popping and playing on the trail, with enough reserves to get out of trouble.

In rough terrain, Cannondale’s Horst Link rear end continued to do an amicable job at eating it up, carrying reasonable speed yet still giving enough feedback and platform to return energy when pumping. On the brakes, it remained active, with a slight forward weight shift that was manageable with a dip of the heels.

Tight corners were navigated with a grin-inducing ability to whip the Bad Habit around, combining the tight rear end with solid frame stiffness to slash and cutty for fun. In steeper terrain, the Bad Habit felt competent with its short rear end. The resulting playful antics it encouraged were a riot. The relatively tall stack setup helped to reduce the feeling of steepness of the trail, adding confidence on the most fall-line runs. However, when trail speeds increased, the more compact geometry delivered less confidence, especially when it was fast and rough.

On three separate instances, the drawbacks of this geometry delivered the consequences, either tucking or washing the front end. With further tuning it could likely have been improved, but there is only so much you can do. The suspension’s stellar performance delivered stability through the rough to which the geometry couldn’t quite compare.

THE CANNONDALE BAD HABIT PERSONALITY

The Bad Habit is the kind of enduro bike that the 50-to-01 crew would have a riot on, giving excellent fun factor for tight terrain and a play-minded approach. As evidenced by Ella Conolly, the right rider can still pilot it to greatness in a racing scenario, but it wouldn’t be our first choice. It leans more rearward-biased, with agile geometry for a fun-loving rider. The suspension has a neat balance of pop and plow, and more precision than forgiveness.

WHO IS THE CANNONDALE BAD HABIT FOR?

The Cannondale Bad Habit is likely to please riders with tight and slower-paced local trails, or those looking to pop and play their way down the trails. It climbs with reasonable effect, but demands a more active approach to maintain its weight bias.

Buy this bike if you prioritize fun factor and agility, but want capable suspension to tackle rough and rowdy descents.

Consider another bike if you desire confidence at speed and want a more passive, balanced enduro mountain bike.

The Wolf’s Last Word

The Bad Habit was not a bike you could sit back on and let it do its thing at speed. With a more active riding approach, or for a less speed-focused rider who wants an enduro bike that encourages playful riding, it could be the dream machine. But there are other bikes I would choose to tackle the gnarliest trails or take between the tape.

Price: £5,000 / $7,599
Weight: 36.8 lbs | 16.7 kg
Website: Cannondale.com

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