Cannondale  Adventure Neo 4 Bike

Great bike. I have a fleet of them that we rent out. They bikes perform well, and for the money it is a fantastic ebike. The only reason for three stars instead of five is the rear wheels. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH REI. The rear wheels on this bike are bunk, and probably defective. I will not say how many tens of this bike I have, but exactly 90% of the rear wheels, properly tension balanced, cracked and blew apart at the spoke holes. This a dangerous problem to have! I've sucked it up and replaced with higher quality rear wheels. This was not as issue with the 2023 model, so maybe Cannondale can isolate it to a serial number span. Cannondale pretty much told me to just take the bikes back to REI, which I refuse to do and punish REI. Buy this bike, but carefully inspect your rear rim frequently

I'm 5'7" and am apparently right in between the S/M and L frame sizes so neither was quite right. I gave the bike 2 stars because Cannondale has really cut some features on this bike that you see on other comparably priced bikes. There are no lights, fenders, gear indicator, seat suspension, bell or rack. The hand grips are just inexpensive plastic tubes without the palm rest that other bikes have. The handle bars are not adjustable up or down. You can only tilt them a bit more towards or away from you. The gears shifted very roughly. REI had checked out the bike before I picked it up so I'm assuming it's an issue with the bike. A lot of the features that were missing are just the part of what make a bike "nice" to ride but for the price, they should be there.

This is a nice bike with a solid Bosch Active Line motor which works well but for some reason Cannondale decided to save a few bucks and used an Altus derailleur and shifter which is next to the bottom of the range for Shimano and is often found on the cheapest of bikes sold at discount stores. Why not spend a few dollars more (under $100) and use a Deore 10s group? My Specialized Roll Comp X1, a $900 bike (on sale now for $700) uses the Deore 10s and the shifting is far smoother and quieter. I would have gladly paid $2,800 instead of $2,700 for a better bike, actually just a reasonable bike as Altus is not reasonable for this expensive bike. I am seriously considering removing the Altus junk and replacing it with Deore which will take time and effort. It is a shame that Cannondale chose to use low end components for an expensive e-Bike.

Bike checks most of the boxes very well - market-leading mid-drive, battery/range, weight, comfort and price point. However the trade offs for the price point IMO are the lack of accessories and second-tier components. The Adventure Neo 4 is a stripped-down version of its trim lines - e.g. eliminating the rear rack and lights; even though the frame and wheels are identical across trim lines, the rack isn’t available to order and install on the Neo 4, and for us the rack is essential. We also tried gold-standard Topeak aftermarket racks, but the geometry (top of rear tire relative to braze-on) would have required some heroic bending of the support arms or perhaps fabricating replacement arms. This rack issue ended up being our deal-breaker and we returned the bike for a Gazelle. But while I’m at it I wasn’t super-happy buying the bike with microSHIFT components vs industry standard Shimano - we were told that Cannondale substituted microSHIFT for Shimano at some point in its model life as supply chains got tight. Probably not a material compromise but all else equal we’d rather have Shimano. Hope this was helpful.

My wife loves the pedal assist e-bike! Makes hills and head winds disappear. Comfortable riding position.

Chain fell off the chain ring twice in the first month - the chain stuck fast between the chain ring and the crank arm. Dislodging it was difficult due to the chain guard being in the way - fixing it resulted in some scrapes (paint loss) to the chain ring. Took it back to REI, good customer service, something was fixed around the hanger bolt on the rear, no problems since (so far). Electric boost is meh. The seat is not comfortable for long rides. Would call this an entry-level ebike. Gets the job done, no frills.

Purchase went smoothly, we were helped with everything, Bike is great!

I have only rode this bike a couple of times but let me say that it was fantastic! It has a wonderful step-thru frame that allows me to get on the bike so much easier than my old bike.