Founded in 1971 by Joe Montgomery, The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation initially designed and manufactured bags and backpacks specially for camping. They soon expanded and began manufacturing bicycle trailers for bicycle touring purposes. Headquartered at Bethel, Connecticut, USA, the Cannondale Bicycle Corporation currently offers a wide range of mountain bikes. They pioneered the aluminum frames for bikes when steel frames were more widely utilized. Their highly renowned products range from bicycle frames to forks and various other components for bicycles. Their flagship product, the oversized aluminum tube, provides greater stability as it is stiffer and sturdier than steel tubes.

Their well-known models include the CAAD4 which was first introduced with S-bent aluminum seats which offered great comfort. Their CAAD7 and CAAD8 models disowned the previous oversized tubes formula for enhanced shaping instead. These models also used a different alloy to further improve effectiveness and comfort. Introduced in 2004, the Six13 model used carbon tube sections in the core triangle but stuck to the original aluminum rear triangles. Cannondale's CAAD8 model, launched in 2006, also uses aluminum frames, though its predecessor was a first-of-its-kind all-carbon framed model; termed the 'Synapse', it was built in China.

Cannondale also produces components for mountain bikes; their star component is the trademark 'Lefty' fork. These suspension forks were developed by Scotland Cannondale. They use 88 bearings to give riders a smooth and friction-less ride. This also eliminates static friction. Other components developed and manufactured by Cannondale include a proprietary bottom bracket that joins hands with the crankset technology. 10% less stiffer than 'Dura-Ace', the hollowgram bottom bracket shells allow external bearing cranksets with the help of an adapter and also accept standard 68 mm english-threaded bottom bracket cartridges.