Cannondale’s Hooligan stands out, attracting attention and comments wherever it goes. Its small wheels, non-traditional tubing and stumpy single-sided rigid ‘Lefty’ fork entice eyes to follow it down the street.
- Highs: Fun, easy to carry up stairs
- Lows: It suffers on fast open roads
It has been built ‘for the demands of the urban jungle’ – something that's evident in its ride. Its Delta V frame and the big tubes provide lots of rigidity while its low step-over height is ideal for quick dismounts and weaving through congested traffic.
The snappy handling enables you to duck and dive between vehicles and errant pedestrians, its 20-inch wheels accelerating quickly and reacting immediately to changes in direction. The flipside is that in rides of more than a few miles, the frame’s stiffness and the small wheels make it uncomfortable, every bump travelling up the 31.6mm diameter, 500mm aluminium seatpost.
Thanks to the compact design, grabbing the Hooligan and carrying it up flights of stairs is easy – in fact, this is pretty much its raison d’être. The spec is sensible for city riding: mechanical disc brakes give reliable stopping power and the range of gears from the 1x9 setup (48t chainset, 11-25 cassette) is wide enough for most situations.