If you're jaded by an industry that seems driven by shadowy deception of the consumer, pay a visit sometime to Cannondale's factory in New Bedford, PA. Once there you'll see it all laid bare: the meticulous design processes, the demanding testing processes, the innovative engineering, and, yes, even the hands-on manufacturing and assembly processes.
At Cannondale, you won't see rows upon rows of ready-to-be-painted frames constructed in open molds held in some obscure Far East factory where untold hands of questionnable skill have churned out a quantum of frames ready to be badged by any number of private label companies. At Cannondale, you'll see the real deal: from conception to conclusion, the very construction process of a passionate cycling company hell bent on pushing the innovation envelope.
An outstanding 80% of Cannondale's bikes are made right here in the good ol' USA and those 20% that are outsourced to their Asian factory are still designed domestically and then tested and certified in Cannondale's multi-million dollar, industry-leading Experimental Stress Analysis Laboratory (ESAL). And if that's not enough, Cannondale doesn't just test their own products: nope, they test the competition's as well as the reliability of every single component and sourced widget Cannondale uses in their manufacturing process: fatigue, performance, maximum sustainable load, strength-to-weight, and safety are all evaluated to ensure that Cannondale stays at the top of the industry's dog-pile.
Since 1983 Cannondale has been a revolutionary innovator in the cycling world. From massively oversized aluminum tubes providing incredible lightweight, strength, stiffness and ride feel to their System Integration (Si) approach which yielded the revolutionary HeadShok, 1.5" headtubes, Hollowgram cranksets, the wild Lefty fork shock, and today's BB30 technology, perhaps no company in the history of cycling (with the possible exception of Campagnolo) has had such a dramatic impact on the sport.