My Cannondale CAAD12 in 2025

During the peak of my 2024 summer of road cycling I decided to upgrade from my trusted Planet X RT58 to something a bit more premium and serious. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lot of Planet X bikes over the years and they make some really solid stuff at a great price point, I’m still tempted to pick up an On One Freeranger and a Kaffenback, but I’d caught the Cannondale bug earlier in the year and the CAAD 12 in particular had caught my eye.

I took to the classifieds here in Germany, Kleinanzeigen to be specific, in search of a CAAD12. Kleinanzeigen is basically the equivalent of Gumtree (UK) or Craigslist (US) and was once actually owned by eBay. I spend too much time on Kleinanzeigen, when people mention that they are addicted to social media I say, “Oh not me, I’m fine without doom scrolling on Instagram” but little do they know I sink hours every day into checking my saved searches on the classifieds in search of a bargain.

I’d spent a good few weeks looking for a CAAD 12, they are holding their value quite well here in Germany with many good examples up for sale for over 1000 EUR. I was also a bit torn about what size to go for, I’d generally favoured slightly smaller 56cm bikes (I’m 1,85cm) so I was open to both 56cm and 58cm bikes, figuring I’d manage to make either work for me. My budget was a bit stretched at 1k but my patience eventually paid off when I found a 58cm Ultegra example up for sale in Potsdam for 800EUR.

I was on holiday in Mallorca at the time but I sent over a message to the seller and we agreed upon a price of 750EUR and that I would pick it up when I returned.

Above: A quick photo I snapped of the bike on pickup day.

It was in pretty good condition and fortunately on my short test ride the 58cm frame seemed to fit me pretty well. Phew! So back to Berlin I drove with the CAAD in the back of my car, excited to make this my own a little bit.

Funnily enough the first proper ride I did on the bike was a pretty hefty 100+ km tour of which featured a torrential downpour halfway through. You can view a short Instagram reel from that ride here.

Above: Picturesque stop off during the inaugural ride.

I survived the first 100km with just a slight knee twinge on my left side which stuck around for a few weeks of riding the CAAD12 but soon magically corrected itself, maybe due to the slight adjustments I’d been making to the fit every other day.

So with the new, pretty much stock, Cannondale in hand, what have I done to make it my own? Well not too much but a few adjustments have been made.

First to go was that horrendous Fizik Arrione saddle. That was just not for me. I replaced it for a while with a Terry Fly Arteria before settling on a Selle Italia SLR Superflow that I picked up for just 20EUR from, yes you guessed it, Kleinanzeigen.

Next I swapped out the 110mm stem for a 100mm one of the same model, Cannondale C2. I felt just a bit too stretched out on 110mm and at the same time I wanted to flip the stem to get rid of that unsightly rise. So in doing so I didn’t really fix the problem but it looks better.

I also swapped out the stock Cannondale drop bars for some Deda Zero RHM-EVO ones. The main reason for swapping them out was that the stock bars were gnarly under the bar tape. The bike must have been used on the turbo a fair bit without a towel and the aluminium was corroding from the salt. But, this was fine for me as I love the ergonomics of the Deda RHM bars, super comfortable.

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