Evaluate: The Cannondale Topstone Carbon Gravel Bike Does it All

Gravel Bike

Gravel bikes have at all times been one thing of a nebulous style. For years, producers didn’t got down to make gravel bikes—they made highway, cyclocross, and mountain bikes after which some courageous souls cobbled them collectively into bikes that might do some little bit of all the pieces. Gravel bikes are, in a way, the mixtapes of the biking scene. That’s what makes them nice, really—you may kind of make them what you need and, identical to a mixtape, you may lower out all of the crap that no one likes anyway.

The factor is, the primary technology of gravel bikes have been like a mixtape made by your uncle with horrible style. I keep in mind a first-generation Specialised Diverge that I took bikepacking throughout Baja California. The tires weren’t fairly large enough, the gearing wasn’t fairly straightforward sufficient, and the rivnuts have been nowhere close to strong sufficient. Standing within the desert in Baja with a cracked rim and a entrance rack that had pulled its means out of the fork and brought a dive into my entrance tire, I definitely didn’t really feel like I had acquired a “quiver killer” of a motorbike, regardless of its billing.

Issues have moved on since then, thank goodness, and the Cannondale Topstone Carbon is the results of that evolution. Initially, it has suspension. Not “compliance” however an precise bearing and measurable rear wheel journey. There’s not numerous journey, however it works (Cannondale declare 30 mm of journey however that equates to 10-12 mm on the axle). On the path, it was sufficient to take the sting out of rocky and rooty Vermont singletrack, albeit this does depart the entrance finish feeling just a little disjointed.

A have a look at the easy however succesful suspension setup.

Maybe Cannondale will convey their light-weight Lefty Ocho fork to the Topstone platform earlier than too lengthy; their xc mountain bikes present that a gentle, stiff, and dependable suspension is nicely inside their ability set. Fortunately the slacker entrance geometry of the Topstone, inherited from their wonderful cyclocross bikes, makes it straightforward to unweight and steer the bike off highway. And the absence of linkages, shocks, and different transferring components makes the Topstone loads much less maintenance-heavy than a telescoping fork and rear shock would.

I examined the Topstone in forests, gravel roads, and single-track trails all through Vermont. Whereas the geometry is definitely extra upright than a highway bike, and the marginally wider stance width feels a bit alien to anybody used to driving a highway crank, the slacker head angle, springy rear finish, and built-in app all have actual advantages.

Wait, an app? For a motorbike? Yeah.

Look if you’ll spend automotive cash on a bicycle, the bike ought to most likely inform you when to take care of the factor. The included Cannondale app helps remind when it’s time for supplier service and exhibits you issues like torque specs and cable routing, a useful gizmo when you journey with and work in your bikes loads.

Good quantity of room for beefy rubber.

Apps apart, the journey really feel on the highway was unspectacular. Like many different gravel bikes, the Topstone feels a bit sluggish, particularly compared to the model’s crotch-rocket highway bikes. However within the dust, the Topstone does what no highway bike can—it feels steady and secure. Positive, you’re nonetheless underbiking, however in a means that makes singletrack difficult, not sketchy. Anybody who remembers the selfmade gravel bike days will know what sketchy seems like—keep in mind bombing down a rock backyard on 33 mm clinchers with cantilever brakes that solely sorta labored? I do.

What I actually preferred in regards to the Topstone although are the little touches that make an awesome journey bike. It’s dropper put up prepared, thank goodness, as a result of dropper posts make any bike extra enjoyable. It clears 650b x 48mm wheels, superior, as a result of extra rubber is healthier off highway. It has actual load-bearing mounts for a low rider rack, fenders, a prime tube bag, and three bottle cages. The thru-axles don’t should be absolutely eliminated if you wish to take a wheel out (take it from somebody who has gotten desert mud in a thru-axle, that is no enjoyable).

Easy on the highway and off, gravel roads are this bike’s bread and butter.

So who is that this bike for? Not like first-generation gravel bikes, it isn’t attempting to be a motorbike for a highway century and a singletrack Saturday journey. As an alternative, this bike skews in direction of the tough facet of gravel. That signifies that not like many gravel bikes, it’s appropriate for bikepacking in addition to commuting. Certainly if I wished to cowl floor moderately quick on dust roads, I’d be very comfortable choosing the Topstone, even when I wouldn’t be seeing anybody else for every week. Certainly Cannondale crew rider Lachlan Morton lately used the bike for a profitable journey down the size of the UK on and off highway within the GBDuro.

With fashions from $2,750 to $6,750 the bike covers fairly a spread of value factors, however I think Cannondale will promote significantly extra on the decrease finish of that vary. And that’s high-quality. A cable-actuated 105 groupset with hydraulic disc brakes is superb for almost any sort of biking and it’s not so costly that you simply’ll be nervous about driving the bike within the locations the place it actually needs to be ridden.

The bike does use a proprietary seatpost and wheel customary, which in my thoughts disqualifies it for world touring kind bikepacking (good luck discovering replacements). However to be trustworthy, I don’t suppose a carbon gravel bike is correct for that anyway. If you wish to line up at Soiled Kanza or Crusher within the Tushar, do some experimental in a single day bikepacking, and journey to work regardless of the climate, you gained’t be left wanting for any of those with the Topstone. And that’s precisely the form of combine numerous cyclists need. And want.

Read more:

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