Blast From The Past: Cannondale Delta V Prototype

Cannondale has a rich legacy of pushing the boundaries of mountain bike design. In 1991 sharp-eyed readers spied Gunnar Shogren riding a prototype Delta V full-suspension bike in a Cannondale advertisement that appeared in Dirt Rag #20. Our favorite lab rat spilled the story behind this vintage photo.

That was a prototype bike with the Headshok and all that. I got to race it at Mt. Snow [NORBA] that year, where the photo is from, because I was the ‘top’ rider.

And if you look closely you’ll see that my right knee is all banged up. I got several stitches in it from that big stupid rock off-camber rock that you had to go down. There was a good line and there was a bad line, and if you let your confidence slip for a moment on the good line you were going down. Luckily I went down in practice and not in the race.

Yeah, that was a pretty big one in my book.

Here’s the advertisement, as it appeared in the magazine.

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We’ve published a lot of stuff in 25 years of Dirt Rag. Find all our Blast From the Past stories here.