Cannondale Synapse
As chosen by editor-at-large Stu Bowers
Before we get down to the nittygritty, a quick bit of cycling trivia to impress (or bore) your mates with. What was Cannondale’s first full carbon road bike called? That’s right, it was the Synapse, released all the way back in 2005 and made entirely in the US too. Anyway, moving swiftly on...
Thanks to Google continuously tracking everything anyone does, we now know that the Synapse is one of the most searched for bikes on the planet. There is, of course, a perfectly good explanation for this, and it’s nothing to do with guerrilla marketing.
Historically the Synapse has set a high bar in the endurance sector. Cannondale’s engineers have done a great job of delivering traits that middle-of-the-bell-curve riders
(in other words, most of us) find desirable. More relaxed fit? Check. Comfy? Check. Lightweight? Check. Clearance for wide tyres and mudguards? Why not? And since this latest generation, released in 2017, disc brakes too. Look back through my reviews of the Synapse, and those written by any cycling journalist worth their salt, and you’ll find heaps of praise and scarce criticism.
I’d argue that Cannondale, as it often has been, was way ahead of its time. Component integration, internal cabling and features such as a hidden seat clamp were present on the Synapse as far back as its second generation in 2013, a bike that Peter Sagan had one of his most successful ever spring Classics campaigns riding. Some brands are only just getting on board with stuff like that now, and I’d wager if we pitched that neareight-year-old model against a good number of bikes released in the past couple of years it would still fare favourably.
And yet as I write this I can’t help but ponder what might be in the pipeline from Cannondale. The fourth-generation Synapse is approaching its fourth birthday, and if we know one thing from our industry it’s that bikes rarely make it to five. An update is almost certainly on the way, and arguably can’t come soon enough. The Synapse’s rivals are threatening like never before. But I’m not here to speculate on what isn’t, rather to tell you why I’m voting for what is.
I like the way Cannondale interprets the needs of the endurance sector differently to its competitors. While for many the prefix ‘endurance’ means sky-scraping head tubes, elongated wheelbases, flexy parts and/or actual boingy bits, Cannondale’s slant is that bike riders are all united by one thing: we all want to ride fast.
Can’t shake the speed
Speed is the measure by which all cyclists compare. So whether it’s giving our mates a kicking up a climb, achieving a gold time at a gran fondo or simply getting to work faster, we want a versatile, agile and fast road bike. Which is exactly what the Synapse is. Save for a 10mm higher head tube, it is but a hair’s width away from its racier sibling, the Supersix Evo. In fact it’s hard to decide whether the Synapse is a comfortable race bike or a racy endurance bike.
It hits that sweet spot so well that I chose a Synapse when I wanted to build a proper year-round mile-muncher. I like its no-fuss approach. The lack of any moving suspension parts keeps maintenance seldom and easy, plus it gives the bike a really clean silhouette. The super-skinny 25.4mm Save seatpost deals with the bulk of the vibrations and bumps well, although most of that work is already being done by the tyres, the Synapse being one of the first road bikes of any kind to really push the tyre clearance envelope.
Getting on board with wide, tubeless tyres (with the Synapse catering for 32mm) and much lower pressures (like 55-60psi) means frame engineers, who have scratched their heads for years over ways to deliver more compliance, can now take a breather. Let’s all hear it for disc brakes! Thus the frame doesn’t need fancy ways to suspend you when these modern tubeless wheel/tyre combos can do that far more effectively and without compromising performance and weight. Cannondale was quicker to realise this than most, and I’m excited to see where its engineers take the Synapse next.
It’s hard to decide whether the Synapse is a comfortable race bike or a racy endurance bike