Remember too that there will be a lot of people in wet areas riding smaller tires with fenders
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I personally really like the integrated lights with the battery-pack. I never ride without daytime running lights and having this integrated so neatly is kind of cool. BMC and Scott do something similar but Cannondale has a radar built in, which is vital for me. And better yet: a front light.
With the two other brands, Iād still would have to take the Varia and without the light the seatpost kind of looks chopped off. Kudos to Cannondale on that front although I personally donāt like the look of the frame either. Proportions are way off imho but yeah, looks are subjective.
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But thereās very little downside to having support for larger tires. You can always run smaller. And I personally love running 42ās on the road. Iām mostly running 47ās on the road on my gravel bike, but thatās because itās the most common size I race with (so have a bunch of tires to wear out in that size). I think ~40mm is the sweet spot for road riding unless all your tarmac is super smooth. Sure, a little aero hit over running 35ās, but they just roll everything so smooth and are plenty fast enough for fast group rides or just cruising around. And much more friendly tire pressure for running tubeless (holes actually seal when pressure is under 40psi).
For me, this bike hits the mark for pure endurance road riding and would likely be very good on smooth gravel as well.
And itās another new bike launched with limited SRAM offerings, I have to believe Force/Rival updates are coming the week of Unbound (~3 weeks from now). I hope thatās the case, I have a bike waiting on the new Force shifters.
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More Sram builds are comingā¦
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Yes, Wide forkās are becoming more and more common. But look at every Tour Magazine bike that is strong in the wind tunnel. Ei, Scott Addict, Canyon Aeroad, I could go on. The seat tube hugās the rear tire. That is still clearly an important part of a frameās speed in wind. There is a reason the SL8 is slower (in the test) despite having a deep front end.
Yeah. I get that to an extent. I guess my argument then is just kill the endurance bike. If its just a gravel bike. Multiple people have pointed out that the Cannondale Gravel bike, has more aggressive/ roadie geo. 1 less mold, so lower production cost and hopefully we save 100 bucks or something.
I wouldnāt call this bike a gravel bike, Iād say itās primarily an endurance road bike that would do well on smooth gravel as a side job. My view of gravel bikes is closer to XC MTB with drop bars (chunkier gravel focus), so big tire clearance and super slack geometry. But I know that gravel spans a wide spectrum and the smooth gravel world certainly overlaps with endurance road bikes more than XC MTBās.
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I donāt know man. 42mm tire clearance and geo more gravel focuses then there own gravel bike. Lets be honest, you can probably fit a 47 up front if you want to. Seems to me like every gravel bike that has not updated tire clearance widths to match the trends. Rear tire clearance is the same as a Crux that is running a 2x. Thus my statement that it feels like the built it as a gravel race bike. But switched the marketing for it to be a endurance bike because the realized that it was already gonna be out dated but did not want to scrap it.
Thatās actually not correct. One of the most aerodynamic track bike, a Lotus, has very wide fork legs.
And one of the fastest tested road bikes, the 3T Strada Italia has comparatively wide fork legs, too. It tested 1 W faster than the Specialized Tarmac (208 W vs. 209 W), although Iād say thatās within the margin of error. The fork design quite a departure from the first-gen Strada (which I own), which has very, very narrow fork legs, they are designed to āhugā tire and wheel.
Just saying that there are several ways to make a bike fast. My guesstimate is that the wider fork doesnāt have as large an impact as we suspect. I reckon going for a narrower cockpit will be a much more significant aero gain.
The endurance bike is dead, long live the endurance bike. Whatās the difference. Tons of people (on this forum and off) have been riding e. g. fast gravel bikes like the 3T Exploro or the Cervelo Aspero on road with a second set of wheels for years. Many like GPLama seem to like it (going from his videos). My next dropbar bike after the Strada (a dedicated aero bike) will likely be something like the Aspero or Exploro.
Whatās changing is what an endurance road bike should be, and it seems that most companies are making the bikes more versatile. If you want a bike thatās all about speed, get an aero race bike.
Not probably, definitely, officially it supports up to 48 mm in the front.
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They were saying on the Velo podcast that it also had pass through charging. So Iām wondering if hypothetically you could run a dyno hub to charge the battery too.
That got my attention fast. Though Iām not in the market for a bike.
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I am sorry, I should have clarified. The gap in from the frame to the rear wheel. Yes, wide forkās are not slower or faster. It depends on how the fork is built to fit the bike. I was referring to the gap from the seat stay to the rear tire.
Theoretically yesā¦but nobody is supplying a bike with a dyno hub, and they also produce a minuscule amount of power (3 watts max). Really not worth considering for most people when USB-C power banks are inexpensive and light.
Taking a closer look at the geo charts, and they seem pretty aggressive for an endurance bike (at least in the smaller sizes).
Hot take, this looks like a reeeeally expensive Aspero. I know one is marketed as a gravel bike with a mere 3mm more clearance. But aside from the storage, I canāt see a reason to consider the cannondale.
Rewritten; Why get the Aspero when this has internal frame storage and SmartSense?
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Is it, in the uk and Aspero with Shimano GRX Di2 Groupset and reserve 40/44 is Ā£8000 (Sigma sports)
On the Cannondale website (provided we say GRX DI2 = Ultegra DI2) the equivenlant bike with deeper wheels, still Reserve but 42|49 Turbulent Aero is 500 cheaper, has frame storage and the option of smartsense
I keep wondering why are people calling a endurance bike slower then a all-out race bike. Considering you can archieve the same body position on the bike. Lots of people riding their aero hike with 3-4cm of headset spacers which would be the same as riding this bike without any spacer. Would the added comfort do this? As I do not think the few watts in the frame aero resistance are noticeable in real world conditions 
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I think more importantly, the endurance bikes run higher mechanical trail that is more suitable for the more upright body position, whereas the race bikes run lower trail figures, expecting more weight on the front wheel due to the lower/more forward body position. Even if you replicate the same position on the race bike, youāre likely forcing it outside the specs of how the bike was designed to be ridden.
For most people, endurance would be the better optionā¦but people like buying what the pros use thinking there are marginal gains to be had.
But butā¦then my big āAero is Everythingā on my wall looks dumbā¦