Rebirth of the Slate in a new form?
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I’d be interested in test riding a full sus gravel bike.
I’d give it a spin. Probably not right for my typical gravel rides, but it’s an interesting bike for sure.
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IT’S A MUTANT
YES
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Sadly, it contains a bunch of the C’dale proprietary setup crap that makes them a bit of a hassle in the long run. That’s all without consideration to the clear uniqueness of the whole bike in the first place 
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Everyone who knows me is aware of my absolute love for Cannondale bikes, but I agree with this. The rear wheel dish is what pushes me away from the SuperX and the regular Topstone Carbon. I can handle all the other stuff, but the inability to quickly swap wheels with my other bikes is stupid.
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As a new Cannondale Topstone carbon buyer, can you give details on the rear dish? I didn’t know this and probably need to plan my backup wheels setup.
Any other gotcha’s I need to be aware of? I’ve always admired Cannondale for their bikes and tech, but not a fan of proprietary stuff like BB or what not. Hoping I can make future upgrades if necessary, otherwise this will be a 1 yr ride then sell later.
Thanks!
Yeah, the rear dish is non-standard; it’s built offset to increase tire clearance without the need for longer or dropped chainstays. But that also means you can’t just take any rear wheel and put it on the bike—you have to take it a shop and have them adjust the dish. Then you won’t be able to use that wheel on other bikes. As far as I know you can’t buy stock wheels with this dishing, either. It has to be done after the fact (unless you do a custom build, of course, in which case they’ll build it with the appropriate dish).
Otherwise, the only other real “issue” is the proprietary crankset removal tool for Cdales. Not a huge deal imo, but it could be a problem if you want to remove the crankset yourself or take it to a non-Cannondale shop.
Ugh ok thanks for the heads up! Will have to see how the bike rides next few weeks with stock setup and maybe if gravel races/events happen still. Appreciate the info.
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The rear wheel dish is what Cannondale calls AI Offset. In addition to allowing increased clearance while keeping chainstays short, it also offers a likely stronger, more tension balanced wheel - that is, less of a tension difference between driveside spokes vs. non-driveside spokes.
Of course the downside is yes, as mentioned, a standard wheel needs to be re-dished the 6mm toward the non-driveside. And then it’s not swappable into a bike with standard symmetrical rear triangle. That said, any wheelbuilder/good shop will be able to do the re-dish in a matter of minutes (assuming the wheel’s in good shape to start).
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Yea just read some of the articles on Cannondale’s site about this. I’m going to call my local shop and see if they can dish my spare rear wheel for this. Otherwise might have to find a new wheelset too. 
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Thanks for the YT link! Looks fairly simple, I have a truing stand already, just no dishing tool. If I can overcome some of these minor Cannondale annoyances and the ride is fantastic, I should be good (for now).
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