CANNONDALE SUPERSIX EVO ULTEGRA
£2099.99 › Can the silver and green bullet SuperSix gain five stars?
The American brand’s SuperSix has an honourable history, and the 2017 incarnation looks like it’ll live up to the heritage. It’s bang on what you’d expect at north of 2000 quid: Ultegra rather than 105, slimline carbon seatpost, an oversized head-tube, pretty much oversize everything else and, because it’s a Cannondale, it has the BB30A bottom bracket system the company helped to developed.
The just-under 8kg weight is also typical; lightish but still a kilo more than a Tour bike ridden by the likes of Pierre Rolland. And the disc version scored four and a half in our Bike of the Year test (issue 326), and that was priced at £2799.
Although Cannondale cut its competitive teeth with aluminium back in the days of Ronald Reagan, it has been manufacturing in carbon since 2005 after a brief flirtation with the carbon/alloy Six13 frame in 2004. The all-carbon SystemSix followed in 2007, leading us a decade later to this silver and green bullet. (Wondering about the numbers? Six is the atomic number of carbon and 13 is aluminium).
The kit is mainly Shimano Ultegra, and it works well. The only groupset deviations are Cannondale’s own chainset and FSA rings in the slightly racier 52/36 combo, paired with the nearubiquitous 11-28 cassette. It works as well as Ultegra and frankly we’d be hard pressed to feel the difference, though the Si/FSA unit helps the Cannondale stand out.
The wheels are Mavic’s familiar Aksiums with their 25mm Yksion Elite stablemates. All fine and dandy, they’re not that light but they are tough. We’d still probably take the own-brand Giant wheels and definitely the Cube’s more aero Cosmic Elites (with Yksion rubber) if we were speccing a two-grand bike.
This is a racing thoroughbred, its 73.5-degree head and 73-degree seat angle combining with the tapered head-tube for sharp, dynamic handling. The sub-metre wheelbase, short chainstays and short head-tube are also testament to its competitive credentials. This isn’t a bike for pootling but pedalling at full pelt where it will offer a slick and rewarding ride, but it’ll do all this and leave you coming back for more day after day.
The slimline 25.4mm seatpost contributes to the comfort, as do the Delta seat-tube, skinny seatstays and Prologo Kappa saddle. But let’s not forget that this isn’t an endurance machine, this is a race bike, fast, easy to manoeuvre and throw around and solid as a rock around bends and on descents. Okay, the disc version will have ‘better’ braking – though this bike’s excellent Ultegra callipers are about as good as rim brakes get – but you’re saving yourself £600, which isn’t to be sniffed at. Unusually all of the cabling apart from the rear brake is externally routed. Not quite as neat perhaps, but lighter and easier to service.
As with the SuperSix Evo Disc you’re getting the spot-on balance of pace, poise and plushness. Yes, you can stretch your racing legs on this, but if you want one bike for challenging your own PBs, besting your teammates on your club ride or notching a ton in double-quick time then Cannondale’s silver-and‘Berserker’ green offering is worth a very serious test ride.