CANNONDALE VS GT
Can the Topstone make the Grade? Two of the biggest launches in gravel for 2020 go head to head
Two of the best new gravel bikes, the Topstone and the Grade, battle it out in a head-tohead test
Californian mountain bike manufacturer GT Bicycles’s original Grade was one of the earliest ‘gravel’ bikes from a major player and it was key in making this new genre of bike as popular as it is today. On its launch we loved the Grade, awarding it best debut in CyclingPlus’s 2015 Bike of the Year awards. Initially, the team at GT had identified a trend away from traditional race machines with the shift to a more comfortable ride and position. The Grade was designed for adventure. It was also designed to be raced at a gran fondo, yet still be able to get you o the beaten track, aided as it is by the inclusion of large volume tyres and disc brakes.
The new Grade has been in development for four years and it shares a similar silhouette to the original. It’s lost some weight, got a little more aggressive in its geometry and gained the all-important tyre clearance (and dual wheel size compatibility). But can it take the crown as 2020’s most exciting o -road road machine?
Cannondale, meanwhile, started down the gravel path with the Slate, an aluminium machine with a gravel-specific version of its single-sided Lefty fork. The all-carbon Oliver fork was impressive but added considerable cost to the bike. For 2020 Cannondale has continued its innovative bent with the new Topstone carbon with its suspended rear end, which forgoes a shock unit in favour of a pivot and the flexibility of the stays to give up to 30mm of suspension travel at the saddle.
UNSHOCKABLE SUSPENSE
The key feature of the Topstone’s frame design is the back end, using what Cannondale is calling its Kingpin suspension system. The design maximises compliance in the seat tube with the pivot design, of that 30mm suspension total only 25 per cent (7.5mm) is at the rear axle. That means that the seat tube e ectively acts as a leaf spring, combining with flex zones in the seat and chainstays, and that maintenance-free pivot point holding everything
together. Cannondale claims a frame weight of around 1100g, pretty impressive stu for a bike with 30mm of travel at the rear. Pivot-less rear suspension isn’t a new thing for Cannondale, its 2017 Scalpel mountain bike features a back end with no linkage at the rear axle, instead relying on SAVE carbon to activate the shock; clever carbon innovations like this have facilitated designs such as the Topstone.
The clever part of the leaf spring design is that it’s proportional to the size of the bike. When you compare the width of the thinnest-section of the seat tube on the small size to the extra large, the di erence is significant: 16mm on the small and 28mm on the XL. The tube cross sections change according to size, and the laminate design also changes by size, which means sti ness is scaled to deliver a consistent experience, whatever the size of the rider.
GT has achieved a similar e ect on the Topstone’s shock-less suspension design. The Grade’s ‘floating seatstays’ is GT’s signature triple triangle. It has featured on GT’s mountain bikes for decades and in its road-bike heyday, such as on the beautiful titanium Edge as ridden by Lotto back in the 1990s. It’s present on the new GT Grade, too. However, there is a di erence: the long, low dropped seatstays are no longer bonded (or welded on the alloy models) to the seat tube. In the development of the new bike, GT’s engineers found that by leaving the stays unbound by the seat tube they were able to increase compliance greatly through both the seatstays and the seat tube. Both of these frame elements have some smart design at work. First up, the seat stays themselves, which are the thinnest you’ll see on any current production carbon bike. These, like on the original Grade, are solid in construction (not hollow like most carbon tubes). The technology here is called DFD tech, and it combines glass fibres with carbon. Glass-fibre rods, as used in the stays, have a similar strength to carbon but with a far lower modulus; that means they flex far more freely than sti carbon. These glass-fibre stays are finished with a final carbon layer to add impact resistance. The amount of deflection created was in excess of 10mm (in just the frame) on the original Grade. On this new frame it’s even greater. When combined with the seat tube – that's designed with a bi-directional taper at the bottom bracket – it basically means that the tube turns from a tube into a flattened section that looks a little like a leaf spring. This flattening shape essentially means that the tube acts more like a hinge allowing for more fore-aft movement, while the massive down tube and
CANNONDALE CLAIMS A FRAME WEIGHT OF AROUND 1100 G, IMPRESSIVE STUFF FOR A BIKE WITH 30 MM OF TRAVEL AT THE REAR
oversized chainstays and BB ensure that drivetrain sti ness is maintained.
The final component of the flexi-comfort design is the top tube. The flat, broad, yet shallow shape restricts the amount of lateral movement, while the shallow depth is designed to allow the top tube to flex. Combined with the downward kink in the top tube at the joint where seatstays and top tube meet, this tube flexes by arching upwards following the same path as the seatstays – almost as if the kinked top tube is trying to straighten as the frame moves.
FLIPPING FORKS
GT has one more trick up its sleeve on the Grade, and that’s in the fork. On this pro-carbon model the fork has an insert at the axle that you can flip. If that sounds familiar then you may recognise a similar design was used on CP’s 2019 Bike of the Year, the Rondo HVRT. Both employ a flipable chip at the fork dropout, but whereas Rondo employs its chip in a more vertical plane to enable you to alter the ride position between race and endurance (the Rondo’s adjustment has more of an e ect on the stack/reach/ head angle), the Grade’s chip is laid in a much more horizontal plane so that it has little e ect on the ride position and a larger e ect on the fork’s trail. The chip shifts the o set between a pretty standard 55mm down to a short 40mm. This changes the trail (the position of the wheel’s contact point relative to the handlebar – think of it as the contact patch that’s ‘trailing’ behind the steering axis). GT tells us the reason behind this was to make the front end more nimble in order to counter the e ect of weight when riding the bike fully loaded with bike-packing bags.
ON T HE T R A IL A ND TA R M AC
On paper these two machines look almost identical, the specs are closely matched and the price is exactly the same. The Topstone is lighter thanks to its carbon wheels, whereas the GT’s frame is lighter than the Topstone at 980g (to the Topstone’s 1100g). The GT can handle up to a 42c tyre in 700, the Topstone a 40; and in 650b size the GT can go 47c and the Cannondale 48c. So, it’s all very similar. Even the ride position on the bikes is close. On both large bikes the GT has a 612mm stack and a 400mm reach while the Cannondale has 610mm and 394mm. The numbers are so close as to be almost indistinguishable, and when you factor in that they are running the exact same tyres and saddles, even the contact points are close. You would imagine that because both bikes are so similar in spec that it would really come down to which one you prefer aesthetically. I thought so, too…
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU
I set out testing both bikes over multiple weeks on the same routes, a long (80-mile) loop that mixed
tarmac and gravel roads from one side of Salisbury Plain over to Stonehenge and back. Then further rides over more technical terrain, including old mountain bike race courses, proper single track in the woods and some more simple towpaths and bridleways. On the longer rides the Topstone showed its metal on the tarmac. It’s a bike that feels fast, powerful and superbly composed, stable even. The GT by comparison feels more agile: the bike that likes to dart around and is flickable and fun.
When you head o! road it’s a similar feeling. The Topstone on the Plain’s wide gravel roads is blisteringly quick. The rear end’s compliance is subtle and superb; it never even gave the suggestion of ‘bobbing’ even when powering along seated and in the drops giving it full beans. The back end’s smoothness is a good match for the Topstone’s front end, which is firm, but never harsh and only adds to the overall impression the Topstone gives, which is a bike that’s built to go fast. If your idea of a gravel day out is a competitive gravel event then the Topstone is worthy of some serious consideration.
In comparison, the GT Grade on gravel is a bike that pings o! undulations. It’s super-lively and comfortable. I found myself actively looking for things to launch o!. When it comes to the tighter, more technical stu! the GT really wants to play compared to the Cannondale, which wants to get from A to B more e"ciently.
One criticism that stands for both bikes is the tyres. They roll well on the road, and grip brilliantly on loose gravel but I notched up multiple punctures on both bikes, and it was only when I converted the Cannondale to tubeless (both wheels and tyres are compatible) that the perforating stopped. If you intend to use either bike in their gravel heartland, then tubeless is a must. Ask the retailer to make them tubeless when you buy.
Both bikes combine ‘adventure’ 2x gearing with a smaller 46/30 chainring pairing and 11-34 cassettes. I thought this would make it a bit too ‘spinny’ on the road and even under-geared. To a certain extent both bikes do require a higher cadence, so you end up with a more ‘aerobic’ ride experience than relying on sheer power. But I really don’t mind this as any improvement in aerobic performance without having to cross-train is absolutely fine by me. The GT’s shifting, thanks to its clutch-equipped RX Di2 rear mech, is smoother, but as the Cannondale has the clutch-equipped RX mech, both keep their chains in place over seriously rough terrain. Both also
THE TOPSTONE SHOWED ITS METAL ON THE TAR MAC. IT’ S A BIKE THAT FEELS FAST, POWERFUL AND COMPOSED
deviate from the Shimano standard with chainsets. Cannondale with its machined marvel hologram cranks and Spider-ring combo, the GT with FSA’s great-looking gravel/adventure specific Energy modular unit with direct-mount chainrings.
QUIVER KILLER
Seeing as both bikes impressed me on a multitude of surfaces and terrains it got me thinking. Both have geometry that’s at the sporty end of endurance, so could these be the bikes that mean you don’t need a sportive and a gravel bike? I’ve tried the GT with a light set of road wheels (Zipp 303 disc) and it feels fabulous. The lively handling remains but it shed some weight and the compliant frame makes for a magic carpet-feel on the road. The Cannondale is a bit trickier as, just like its SuperX cyclo-cross bikes, the rear wheel has a custom dish (it’s an easy adjustment to make for a competent mechanic).
So, it’s not just a case of switching wheels, but the Topstone does come with lightweight quality carbon hoops as standard and these fitted with 28mm Continental GP 5000TL tyres makes for one awesome soft-tailed machine that made me seriously question the future of the brand’s own Synapse – even though I’m a big Synapse fan.
WHO DARES WINS?
The advent of disc brakes fundamentally changed road bikes and allowed for machines like these to exist. Now that road-bike design is embracing elevated tyre sizes (the Roubaix, Defy and Domane all allow for 30c+ tyres) it does seem that we are seeing some sort of convergence. So, rather than bike designers creating another sub-genre of the road bike, this may well be the genesis point at which the endurance, sportive and gravel bike are converging. Even if it’s not, I fully believe the smart way to get some truly exciting cycling kicks is on bikes like these. Factor in a second set of wheels, or put time aside for tyre switches, and both the Topstone and the Grade will open up a whole new world of bike-based fun and adventure.
This is a head to head review, so I’m duty bound to make a decision as to which bike I’d chose. It’s probably one of the toughest choices I’ve ever had to make over more than two decades of testing bikes. The Cannondale exemplifies everything that’s really great about the brand: innovation, progressive design and handling to die for, however, it’s the GT that has truly won my heart. This is a bike that’s both comfortable and compliant, and the fast handling comes over controlled yet chaotic. It’s a bike that takes you back to your childhood, blasting around the woods finding things to flick between, jump o and drop o . Anything that can make me get back to more carefree pursuits is always going to come out on top.