I was expecting a new gravelbike from Cervélo. But this isn’t. Not even with its bashguard under the downtube and fendermounts.
Instead it’s a really light endurance bike with claimed frame weight at just 840g.
Sold with HED Ardennes wheels and Continental 28mm tires it’s as compliant as a Cannondale Synapse. But which one looks the best?
Cannondale got their Synapse.
Trek got their Domane.
Specialized got their Roubaix.
Three of the biggest brand got a discversion of their comfort line. But if we look at their race line up it’s not so many brands who got their most race oriented bike with discs.
Specialized with their Tarmac.
Pinarello with their F8.
But now comes one more. Scott puts discs on their racemodel Addict:
And it’s with new standards. 12×100 thru axle in front and a huge 12×142 in the rear. Doesn’t understand why they don’t go with 135 in the rear like Specialized but. As other Shimanoloving bike brand they also got the new flatmount calipermounting.
The bike for 2016 that looks the same but isn’t (I hope) is the Addict CX, really like this colour and spec 🙂
more info: Bikerumor
So will you change for discs?
If it should be light, it should be AX-Lightness I think. Making light parts that work and look good, specially their Vial Evo frame, like the clean design where they didn’t make it alla black. Now soon you can buy the lighter Vial Evo Ultra and here the AX-Lightness man himself Alex showing it for R2-Bike:
And a complete other thing where you don’t want the lightest parts but parts that keep together and add as much comfort as possible. Paris-Roubaix tomorrow. And Cannondale-Garmin did a recon. Here with my friend Kristoffer Skjerping in focus:
If you want to see more about the cool bike Cannondale-Garmin is trying to beet Etixx-Quick Step with you can find one here: Velonews
Enve stole the design from Specialized Rib Cage and made it worse:
They stole Tillquist’s design of Garmin mounts:
But they also made a good thing. They made a new seatpost with a twin bolt system that comes in 25,4mm for the new Cannondale Synapse 🙂
With a bit odd weights:
More info and pictures of these parts here: Bikerumor
Got Cannondales best looking road frame for 2014 to work today. A Cannondale Synapse Hi-mod in size 54
So weight of the frame including derailleur hanger, liners, 4 heavy bottle cage bolts and seatclamp:
And fork with a very long steerer tube:
1412g for the frameset of a frame that first purpose is to be comfortable isn’t bad at all. Anyone got weight on Specialized Roubaix for comparing? Or Trek Domane classic edition?
The Synapse I tested yesterday and to work today (works well on pavé too) had to be weighted.
7,08kg including my Time Xpresso 8 pedals. A bit over 1kg more than my Evo. And I checked headtube difference. Between the Synapse and the Evo I have there is a little over 5cm difference from where the stem is sitting, huge difference. And then my levers sits probably a centimeter lower as I have a classic bar so total 6cm difference. 😉 Good thing is when buying one in my size (51 instead of 56) it will be 4cm lower 🙂 So maybe a 110mm -17° stem on that and it will be perfect racingbike 😀
And coming home I did continue with my Liteville building. Got blue Jagwire brake hosing and wirehousing yesterday. So more blue 🙂
Will borrow a nice Avidtool from work tomorrow to mount the brake hosing like it should be. Then just missing fork and rear tire before I will use it (start using in august after my vacation). Looking forward to it 😀
Sometimes things come up that you have say yes too, like trying the new Synapse from Cannondale including the new Sram Red22 and Vision Metron 40 clinchers that should be 1195g. Sad is that it was 56 so looked like this for me:
Too high in the front, first time I felt a bike to high so was hard for my arms. Don’t ride with a to high bar, best with right height.
Anyway, the question was if it’s so good that they say, if it got any good comfort and if it’s still racy. And short answer is: Yes! It’s so you looking for bad road, just riding and don’t caring where you put your wheels and just pedal on. Joined a friend at work for a ride after work, to get up some speed and enjoy the ride more as my legs still don’t have any muscles (feels empty). Was a bit funny to sit on his wheel and see how his Pinarello FPQuattro jumped while I just sat there. Of course, it’s not comfy as a mtb with big tires but I felt the difference between this and my SuperSIX Evo.
Then standing up and try to push on some it felt really stiff. Not the snappiest bike so there the Evo feels better but you have no problem ride fast with it and it feels stiffer than my Evo. So Cannondale managed to produce a maybe stupid looking but really well working hole:
And 73mm bottom bracket width with Cannondale Hollowgram SiSL2 crank makes some too. Impressed even that I mostly like to make fun of that hole.
And instead of making the hole chain and seatstays flat for better comfort they twisted it so closest to the crank and seatpost it’s more aeroshaped and stiffer while flexing closest to the wheel:
Awesome bike, even when it was way to big. Size 56 when I should have 51 😉 And a nice ride for almost 2,5h with the mountain goat at work that found his way back on the roadbike:
Road around Arna first and then on the way back up Sædalen and don’t know why I said yes but we rode up Furudalen which is a 2km climb that is way to steep for me now. But nice view on the top as you can see here with John and on the first picture. 🙂 Then a fast twisty downhill where I like the Sram Redbrakes with yellow Swissstop and Vision Metron 40 clinchers, good braking. Sad bye and thanks to John and turned home. For a while.
Like I wrote in the beginning you’re looking for bad roads so climbed up to Fjellveien and took it back to Sandviken. Asphalt in the beginning and then gravel/asphalt. Just in the drops and pedal on, perfect. Only bad thing was the grip in the 25mm Schwalbe Ultremo CX tires on gravel, sliding a bit but fun 🙂
Hard but fun ride and so nice after work. Love it even when I had to suffer a lot (good training).
Conclusion: Sell your roadbike, buy a Cannondale Synapse 2014, sell the groupset and buy Campagnolo for it. And a pair of Zipp 303 and you have a bike perfect for what you like to do, ride 🙂
Today we start our autumn sale at work so long day at work with good offers like Assos Early Winter gloves for 299NOK, Zipp 202 for 9900NOK and Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate for 9990NOK
click on the picture for more info
Liquigas-Cannondale got a new smaller sponsor for next year and Liquigas quits. So new name is Cannondale Pro Cycling. Cannondale shows they want to be a big brand in pro cycling. Just BMC that is as big sponsor now. See what Bob Burbank (Global General Manager at Cannondale), Ivan Basso and Ted King says about it:
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