https://imgur.com/a/8nXLztT
The pictured 2017 Cannondale Synapse was my first real road bike, but it’s since been supplanted by the S-Works in the background, a very generous hand-me-down from my father.
Other than as a backup, I have no real reason to keep the Synapse, and it’s also not worth much on the used market. At the same time, I’d love to set up a gravel rig but really can’t afford to at the moment.
Anyone have any input as to whether or not I can jerry rig this into a frankenbike capable of at least light gravel riding, i.e. nothing too aggressive or technical? As I understand it, my max tire clearance on this would be 32mm. Not great, but maybe I can make it work?
If not, I guess I’ll just sell this and start scrimping my pennies.
TIA!
by Tymaret16
8 Comments
Tire clearance is the limiting factor here. If your gravel roads are packed dirt, or finely crushed stone, 32s may be plenty (that’s almost CX width). I’d say give it a shot.
If you find you want more tire, you might have some luck swapping the bike with someone, rather than trying to sell then buy.
Yeah sell that bike buy a used cx bike from the beginning of the disc era. That would be about an 8 year old bike or so. They are cheap.
Most cx bikes from that era you can easily fit 38 to 40s.
For instance a buddy got a used fuji cross for 300 bucks last year. He had no problem keeping up on gravel rides with cable disc and 38s.
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I think what’s being missed here is that wider tires do not automatically make gravel better or easier. What they really do is provide more traction area, and a softer ride. However, if you’re not riding logging chunk, or super rocky single track, and are mostly in fact riding forest service or county gravel, then cx tires are generally more than enough.
There’s a lot of YMMV in the above statement, and you have to ride a few different configurations before you find out what best fits you, your bike, and riding styles / terrains.
Sure, just throw some Continental GP 5000 700×32 tires on there and you’re good to go. Plenty of people run 32s on tame gravel races, such as some of the belgian waffle rides.
It kind of depends on what you want out of it and how you view limitations of the equipment. You can have a lot of fun on a road bike with 32mm road tires on gravel, single track, and whatever that “road” was we ended up on my last ride. Mud is a challenge and road bike gearing can be an issue on hills but it’sentirely doable. I’ve ran 32mm conti gp4s for road and gravel use on my old CX bike and I’ve had a ton of fun with it.
I don’t think you’ll actually get 32’s on the Synapse. In the world of caliper rim brakes, the limiting factor is the brake itself. Most caliper rim brakes didn’t fit tires beyond 28mm. I would guess that the 32mm frame clearance is dependent on disc brakes (this bike was available with both in 2017).
Funny enough, I have an electronic dealers catalog from 2015 (which I think is essentially the same as the 2017 model) and they don’t even mention frame clearance in the dealer’s catalog. Why would anyone ever go beyond 28s!
AFAIK the brake calipers will be the limiting factor. They usually max out at 28mm.
I would just try it as is. If the gravel is quite fine and not too chunky, any road bike will pass as a gravel bike.
If that doesn’t work, do as others suggested. Sell it and find a secondhand cross bike.
Happy riding!