Cannondale Supersix Evo Disc
Squint and you might not even notice this bike has disc brakes
It’s been nearly five years since my review of the Supersix Evo appeared in the very first edition of Cyclist. I couldn’t resist flicking back through an old copy, revisiting what I’d written back then, before setting to paper my thoughts on the most recent, disc brake version of Cannondale’s flagship race bike. Nostalgia is the fiendish ally of procrastination and, just like finding an old photo album in the midst of clearing out a cupboard, I lost a few hours reading through the entire issue cover to cover.
It felt strange to recall how we agonised over that first issue, and how uncertain we were about launching our new magazine. But another thought struck me as I pored over those pages: blimey, haven’t road bikes changed?
Old times
The Supersix Evo in that first test had skinny (23mm!) tyres that I probably pumped up to around 110psi, as was usual at the time. Shimano’s electronic Di2 shifting was still considered futuristic and at that point required a sizable external battery to power it. Rims were skinny compared to the fat – and more aero – rim profiles of modern wheels, and there was only one option for braking: traditional style rim callipers. Fast forward 61 issues of Cyclist and the Supersix Evo Disc Black Inc on test here is an entirely different beast. That is, apart from one crucial detail – its classic-looking silhouette has barely altered a jot.
The Supersix has long been the preferred race bike of Cannondale-sponsored pro teams, and Cannondale has resisted the temptation to mess with the tube shapes or geometry of the bike in search of performance gains or – as is more often the case – a punchy marketing message.
‘We actually wanted to reduce the silhouette and keep it really simple,’ explains David Devine, senior road product manager at Cannondale. ‘How a bike speaks to the rider out on the road has always been more important to us than the upfront in-your-face
look of the bike. The Supersix Evo Disc is an honest bike, straightforward and purposeful.’
It’s an ethos I’m glad Cannondale has stuck by and funnily enough, in my older review, I’d given it praise for proving that simple ideas, done well, are still the best way to create a great frame. I appreciate that not everyone wants a traditional look to their bike, but for me it’s one of the most alluring features of the Supersix. I like the horizontal top tube, and the fact that the tubeset is neither too chunky nor too oddly shaped (in fact the tubes are close to being round). It’s an understated aesthetic, but it belies finely honed levels of performance. Once I clipped in and started pedalling, the Supersix Evo Disc immediately gave the sensation that it was ready for anything.
Less is more
My experience suggests the majority of new disc bikes are being overbuilt. This is probably because companies are erring on the side of caution, adding extra strength – and weight – to frames to ensure they can cope with the additional braking forces that come with discs, but the result is that many are left feeling noticeably harsher, or a bit wooden, in comparison to their rim brake counterparts. Often the sense of connection with the road is significantly dulled too, taking away some of the invaluable feedback you need when you want to push the bike to its limits. So far, of the many discequipped bikes I’ve tested, only Specialized’s S-works Tarmac Disc has persuaded me it is possible to have disc brakes without significant compromises in ride feel. But now I can add the Supersix Evo Disc to my list too.
There’s no sense that the addition of discs has dampened the Supersix Evo’s spirits at all. The frame retains a level of performance that means it’s ready to slip straight into the pro peloton, as and when the need arises. I found feedback from the road surface easy to decipher, which meant I could predict how the bike would respond when I pushed it hard through corners. Its poise and balance at speed made descending thrilling, especially with predictable braking at my fingertips.
On the ascents it proved as capable as virtually any calliper brake bike I’ve ridden, no doubt ably assisted by Zipp’s superb 303 Firecrest Disc wheelset. These wheels exemplify most of the current developments – a 45mm rim depth and 29.9mm external width puts them right in the sweet spot where aero performance meets all-round usability, durability and agreeable weight (claimed 1,645g).
More importantly, tubeless tyre compatibility and a capacious 21mm internal rim width meant switching from 25mm to 28mm tyres only seemed to improve the ride characteristics further, with the increased air volume adding to the smoothness of the ride and increasing grip without piling on any palpable rolling
The frame retains a level of performance that means it’s ready to slip straight into the pro peloton
resistance. It also increased the Supersix Evo Disc’s versatility, such that I was able to stray quite far from tarmac before it got out of its depth.
A factor that undoubtedly adds to its spritely feel is the bike’s impressively low weight – just 6.91kg – a rare close encounter with the UCI weight limit for a disc-equipped bike. When I ask Devine how far up his list of priorities weight was, he says, ‘We didn’t chase after x, y or z frame weight, but we did want to make it light enough that we could remove weight as an objection to a disc brake bike.
‘The foundation of the 829g frame weight is that the tubeset is not actually all that different from the rim brake bike [777g]. Flat mount [for the callipers] is a big component of that, as it doesn’t have such a big impact in terms of needing to completely restructure the frame and fork.’
Clean as a whistle
I must confess this is not the standard spec. It came with Shimano Dura-ace Di2 but I swapped it for Sram’s wireless Red etap HRD groupset. Why? Because of a tiny detail – Cannondale’s completely removable cable guides – which just begged for this opportunity to get rid of any clutter, leaving no trace of unused cable ports or unsightly bungs that can easily ruin the look of an expensive frame.
If there are ways to improve on the Supersix Evo Disc then I’m struggling to find them. It’s an elegant, no-nonsense frameset that delivers hard-to-beat ride quality, and in this (albeit modified) guise you won’t find a cleaner-looking bike with discs. It is, quite simply, everything I want in a road bike.