Quote Originally Posted by tzvia View Post
If everything checks, and different wheelset makes no difference, I'd say sell it and move on, the geometry just isn't working for you.
Oh, I am already moving on...my Salsa El Mariachi 3 should be in my hot little hands sometime next week! The Cannondale will be going on to my 11 year old DS. We figure he will fit it for a year, but in its current operational state he's going to be loathe to use it. Once he outgrows it we'll likely scour eBay for a used frame that we can build-up...he can learn some wrenching with this, too. Or a used bike with better components to begin with.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to test an El Mariachi 2 during a Salsa demo, yesterday. I did one loop of some new trails on that bike. The handling was very different, in part due to handlebars that are way wide for me. It didn't feel any different on downhills, but when I did 2 more loops on my current bike I realized that there were a lot of uphills that I totally did not feel on the Salsa. My El Mar won't be quite as zippy as the one I demo'd (I think there's about a $500 difference in components, which is pretty huge), but I shouldn't be losing momentum as soon as a trail flattens and starts to rise, anymore.

That's something I had forgotten to mention. During a relay race this Summer I was just behind a pro endurance racer, Danielle Musto (who is, BTW, the NICEST pro athlete you could imagine. She shuts all the stereotypes down) and was actually gaining on her on a grassy downhill section. Afterwards we were laughing at how I sunk like a stone on the Cannondale, but as soon as we leveled-out she and her Ti El Mariachi were gone. So, yeah, that makes it seem unlikely that it's an issue of hubs or brakes rubbing, too.