New Cannondale Synapse Review: This Endurance bike has a BIG problem…

My review of the brand new fully updated Cannondale Synapse, this model does not have SmartSense and costs £6000 in the UK with Ultegra Di2

More info at https://www.cannondale.com

Content
00:00 Intro
1:08 Design details
3:24 More aero frame
3:53 More compliance
4:50 Weight
5:06 Price and models
6:19 Gripes
8:26 Ride and handling
9:22 Comfort is good
10:33 Compared to rivals
12:55 Conclusion

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The Synapse used to be the benchmark, the endurance road bike by which all other endurance road bikes were measured against. But then something really, really bad happened. Back in 2022, the company launched a brand new version with a new frame and something they called smart. A front and rear light and radar powered by a battery inside the frame. And the internet responded, “We’re very firm. We didn’t ask for this.” And it effectively killed the bike. It went from being the most popular bike to the least popular overnight and a really good lesson in how not to update a popular product. But now there’s a brand new Synapse behind me and thankfully Smart Ascent, while it does continue in a much much improved state, how it should have been in the first place is now optional. And the bike here I’ve been riding for the last few weeks doesn’t have it. So, that’s the last time we have to talk about Smart Sense in today’s review and focus on the bike itself and whether it’s good enough to regain it precision as a benchmark endurance road bike or is there something else out there that’s better than the bike here. So, Nissan apps and it really is all new. There are models with smart sense in the range. This one doesn’t have it, but the key features on the bike include space with 42 mil wide tire. So, more generous than most other endurance bikes and does give you that option for sort of light gravel. I wouldn’t use it on gravel personally. I want a 45 or 50 mil wide tire for the chunky gravel I ride. But if you have a champagne gravel, nice smooth dirt, then a 38 or a 40 mil tire might be the perfect setup for you. The bike here comes with a 32 mil wide tire, which I’ll be using for all my testing along with a tire upgrade, which I’ll talk about in a few minutes. So, big tire clearance. We got mud guard, fender mounts as well. We have down tube storage. A very popular and increasingly common feature on endurance road bikes. And I think a nice idea having all your tools inside a massive down tube. And it really is massive. Uh makes more sense than a saddle bag. It’s out of dirt. It’s out of rain and potentially more arrow if that matters to you. And this one works really well. They’re all different. Some are good and some are bad. And this one is definitely one that works really well. You get a small pouch like this. You put your inner tube in there, your pump, CO2, whatever you might want to put in there. And in my experience over the last few weeks, it doesn’t rattle around. You do have to pack the contents very well, just the same as a saddle bag, but it doesn’t rattle around, doesn’t shake, and the hatch doesn’t rattle or come loose. And that is nice and easy to operate with the bottom cage goes on top just there. So, that works really well. Up front, we have full internal routing with the same Delta triangular steer tube as on the Super 6 Evo, which is well proven. This bike has a two-piece bar and stem, so you can swap for another one, adjust the height of the spaces as you need. There’s a UDH dropout for any future drivetrain upgrades. A external threaded bottom bracket. Hidden top tube mounts as well and even a wheel sensor on the front hub which plugs into the Canell app which I don’t think you really need on a bike like this where you probably have a Garmin or Wahoo or something else for tracking your ride and following routes and stuff. So that seems a bit redundant on a bike like this in my opinion, but it’s there if you want it. In the company’s marketing blurb, they talk about how arrow the bike is. And they claim this new Synapse is as arrow as the previous generation Super Six Evo race bike, which is very impressive indeed. And you see the arrow profiles on the on the head tube there, the fork blade, the down tube, the way the fork crown flows into down tube, and the D-shaped arrow profile seat post and seat tube. So in theory, it’s fast. Uh we’ll talk about that in a minute in the rice section. And they’ve also improved compliance as well. The Synapse is always a good bike for really handling rough roads and bumps and cobbles and parv. And you can see they’ve taken that to the extra level with the shaping of the rear stays. Really, this is something that Cano have done really well on their drop bar bikes and their mountain bikes. But you see all that shaping of the tubes and a flattened seat tube there. all to allow that rear wheel to flex a bit more when you hit a bump. Although the space between the seat tube and the wheel does look a bit odd with a 32 mil wide tire. So yeah, the move to big tires are fantastic for fitting big tires, but does create quite spacious frames when fitted with fairly narrow tires. So that is a bit visually a bit jarring for me, but let me know what you think by dropping a comment down below. And they claim compliance has been improved by 20% over the old bike as a result of all those changes. It’s also pretty lightweight as well, 1 kilo for a frame and a bit lighter if you go for the expensive Lab 71. And on my scales, it’s just over 8 kg. So yeah, power of course for an endurance road bike with Altegra Di2. Then the price. The range starts for a carbon fiber synapse at £3,000 in the UK, goes all the way up to a quite staggering £13,000 for a lab 71. This model here costs £6,000 with an Altegra Dit group set and it should come with some DT Swiss carbon wheels, but they’ve been recalooled recently, which is a bit of a headache for bike brand specking DT Swiss wheels. I’m sure of it. So UK distributor Saddleback for Canidel swapped in these hologram wheels which is a Canell branded product and they have a similar specification to the DT Swiss wheels. So a good light for light comparison. But during my testing I also swapped in my MV SCS 4.5 wheels for control testing. The tires are a 32 mil wide Furia Rubinho tire which is a it’s not a top level race tire. the tire design for riding in crappy conditions. So, a bit more grip in wet conditions and a bit more puncher retention as well. So, it’s heavier and not as supple and the roll resistance isn’t as good as a race tire and a good option I think for a bike like this for year round uh riding. But the tires are a gripe for me for two reasons. I would much prefer a high level tire, a Ftoria control tire or a Grand Prix 5000 STR or the AS for that high quality tire experience you want from such a bike. And also tires are tube type. They’re not tubeless. Most new bikes these days come with tubeless ready rims, which these are, and tubeless tires, but with inner tubes fitted. So you can if you want go full tubeless or just run inner tubes like a latex or a TPU inner tube and have that choice. But here you don’t have that choice. So for me I would be upgrading the tires straight away to both a high quality tire which is by red deserves and also a tubeless tire. And I rode a few weeks with the tires on and then swapped to a GP5000 STR in the same 32 mil width on the wheels. And as you expect, the performance was definitely improved a lot. So a high quality tire is something your bike deserves and should come with out the box, out of the store, as other brands do specs on their bikes. And at six grand, you shouldn’t have to upgrade the tires straight away. And given tires can cost £50 each, £70 each. Yeah, a bit of a shortcut there by Cannondale, I think. And while I’m getting gripes off my chest, the other one for me is a handlebar. Now handlebars come in all manner of shapes and profiles and styles and they’re all different and everyone personal. We all have our personal preference for handlebars, but given how important a handlebar is to control performance and also given you do hold it all the time, the handlebar has to be spoton. as a handlebar I didn’t gel with at all. And while I wouldn’t say ruined my experience riding a bike, it definitely tainted my experience of a bike because a handlebar just an odd handlebar shape. But you might ride a bike and be fine on the handlebar. And at least with a two-piece setup, you can change the handlebar. It’s not Mission Impossible because not a one piece setup and you can adjust the stem length as well. But there is lots to like about the Synapse and that’s the way it rides. The Synapse has always been a fantastic riding bike. That blend of speed and comfort and also geometry, the stack and reach always work really well for me and I know lots of people who bought the bike over the years. And the new bike doesn’t change too much. There are a few key changes to account for the bigger tire clearance, but it does compare well to other endurance bikes like the MV3, which is one of my my benchmark endurance road bikes and gives you a stack and reach that gives a nice comfy fit and position on a bike when you are doing long rides. It’s much easier to ride this bike for 100 miles than a race bike with a handle bike a bit higher and a bit closer to you. And then all the comfort you get from the frame and the wide tires as well. So definitely a really fantastic option for long rides doing a sporty Grand Fondo. This is a bike I would choose would just definitely look after you. The comfort is very good indeed. I can’t tell if it’s 20% better than the old bike without riding that bike beside it. And with some more familiar tires on both these wheels and my MV SCS 4.5 control wheels, the comfort is indeed extremely good. is wonderful. In fact, it smooths out all the crappy roads I have to contend with here in my part of the world. There’s definitely a noticeable amount of flex on the seat post and the back of the bike. Can feel the saddle gently moving up and down kind of like a Tre Demani really. The front end is a bit harder in comparison. We do have an aluminum handlebar, so carbon might potentially give more comfort. And the head tube is massive on the bike. Big arrow chunky profile, so clearly not going to help in terms of compliance. And the fork is oversized, too. So yeah, the front is a bit harder. And for front end comfort, the Specialized Rube SLA is still the bike the beat. Now future shock, you might call it a gimmick, but it really does work. compared to average endurance bikes. Endurance bikes are on a sort of spectrum of speed, lightness, stack and reach and geometry. So you got a giant defy which is one of the racier endurance road bikes with the lowest stack and definitely a stiffer ride. Maybe not the most comfortable in the world. Then like a specialized rub the other end which has a much higher stack but amazing comfort thanks to a future shock. And in the middle you got the entry fray track demani BMC road machine and then the synapse somewhere in between at the slower end of that sort of spectrum. For me it doesn’t have the the ride quality of the M3 which I rode earlier this year. The M3 is a beautiful bike to ride. It rides so nicely. It’s a bike I happily own. But worth remembering the frame set is almost the same as the entire bike here. So, not really an apples to apples comparison. And the Defy is a much more engaging, racier, fast bike. And the BMC road machine also a racier race endurance bike really. But what was really telling for me was riding this bike in Morca, which has some of the best roads in the world. These amazing flowing carving descent on a range of road surfaces, mostly smooth, but also crappy tarmac in places. and fantastic roads where you have a lot of fun like a roller coaster. But this bike definitely took some of that excitement away that I was looking forward to experiencing on a road. I think giving it such a long wheelbase which probably necessary for the massive tycoons. It definitely numbed the ride quality of the bike and it definitely it’s not the most exciting bike to ride. Doesn’t feel very agile. It doesn’t feel very responsive and willing to go with you when you are riding fast and you’re throwing it through the corners. It’s such a steady, planted, sedate riding bike just don’t have that fizz of excitement that some endurance bikes like the Frey and the Defy have. And even not technically an endurance road bike, but the 51 Seeker, which is a endurance all-road bike with similar tires, but a slightly racier stack and reach, but still more relaxed than a race bike. That bike is light and it’s responsive and it’s fun to ride over any distance on any road. This bike didn’t have the fun factor for me at all. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. I think it’s just a fact that the endurance category has moved on so much and there are some fantastic bikes in that category now and you can choose what sort of endurance bike you want depending on what you want from your riding that the Synapse has taken a taken a good step forward with tire clearance and geometry and other features and it’s definitely a bike I would choose or recommend if you want a really easy riding very calm slow steering planted sort of bike but if you want something that gives you that Fears of excitement would be my third choice. [Music] So that’s my review of the new Candal Synapse. A lot to like, a few things to not like so much in my humble opinion. And if you want to see some other endurance bikes, definitely worth checking out, then watch this video right up here. And if you’re considering the Synapse, is it on your short list? Love to hear from you as always. So, drop a comment down below. And I put a link to the company website down below. As always, this review wasn’t sponsored by Canada, fully independent. So, you can trust my opinions on these bikes. These are my unbiased, honest, genuine feelings about the bike and how it rides compared to all the other endurance bikes I’ve been fortunate to ride over the last few years. Just trying to be as helpful as I can before you make an expensive purchase on a bike like this. Anyway, that’s all for today. I’ll see you again very soon. Thank you so much for watching.