A SAFE BET

ALL THE PRACTICAL CHANGES COULD HAVE MADET HIS A WORTHY BUT DULL BIKE, BUT THANK FULLY IT RETAINS ALL THE CHARM OF ITS PREVIOUS MODELS

The legendary Synapse is one of the most successful endurance bikes ever, a winner of multiple awards (including our own Bike of the Year back in 2014) and has seen success at the highest level (a young Peter Sagan rode the Synapse to sixth place at the Paris-Roubaix in 2014 and won Ghent-Wevelgem the same year). So it would have been easy for Cannondale to ensure the Synapse’s success by using lessons learnt from its other road bikes, the brilliant SuperSix Evo and SystemSix. It seems, however, that this wasn’t on the agenda. While previous versions of the Synapse were very much racing/raceable bikes, this one has the real-world rider in mind.

So what’s different? The frame’s geometry has stayed much the same, save for a slightly longer wheelbase to accommodate larger tyre clearances. It now has 30c tyres as standard and clearance for 35c tyres (with 6mm of clearance either side) and can even run the standard 30c tyres with full mudguards without issue.

Elsewhere, changes are all about making the bike easy to live with. Instead of the complex through-the-bar/stem internal cable routing that’s the norm on modern road bikes, it takes its cables through a large port in the downtube that has internal channels to help with maintenance or replacement. You’ll also get a set of bolt-in rear through-axle extenders to make the bike compatible (and safer) to use with an indoor trainer.

Gone too is the