Commuter/road bike - Cannondale Synapse 105 flatbar

The Big Cheese

Cycle 2 work scheme is up and running now so am looking at a specific commute/road bike (without any of that dropped bar nonsense!!)

They only think that I am waiting on is to find out what the 'nominal fee' is at the end of the 12 months - if reasonable I shall be getting this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=86910

Was looking at the bad boy but want something a bit lighter and a fair bit faster....

Has anyone ridden one, obviously I am going to go and try it out but thought I would ask on here first ...

I am not even going to bother if the fee to 'make it mine' is too high

Works out roughly that I shall get the above bike for £450 over 12 months but save loads on train fare(s)

The Spiderman

My mate`s wife has the drop bar version,that shes uses for genaral road riding and the odd triathlon.He has ridden it and says it is very forgiving,and comfortable over long distances.(The bike not the wife.....)

Very nice frame,though having flats on it is just wrong!

ride_whenever

Do you need gears? If not then get a singlespeed road bike, much lighter and tbh, with big gearing then it'll be a lot faster.

The Big Cheese

There are no hills (well not steep anyway) so that's a possibility... will look into it...

Only problem with Evans is their range.... it's limited

ride_whenever

Not really, they have plenty of track/singlepeed/fixie, the pista is nice.

The Big Cheese

the only thing is that I can't stand drop bars - I am in no sense a roadie and find it awful. I can't ride clipped in either - imagine a nice roadbike with some V12s on - gash

I suppose I could swap the bars out for flats.. but then it would mean new brakes etc etc....

Theres a singlespeed Badboy that's not too bad:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=86896

I like the synapse better though... looks nice and light...

ride_whenever

Swap the bars for bull horns?

Put on small platforms with those rigid toe clips (non-tie in ones), old school! And that has a hub gear...

Anonymous

i ride a similar bike for road training (the fun link in my sig) and love it, i ride it with flat pedals and a flat bar. my old giant road bikewas also ran with flat pedals as i just dont like being clipped in.

ride_whenever

Does look a bit silly. Maybe beartrap style would look better as they are a bit more open?

The Big Cheese

ride_whenever wrote:

Swap the bars for bull horns?

Put on small platforms with those rigid toe clips (non-tie in ones), old school! And that has a hub gear...

Yep, I meant to post the singlespeed version, it has a rigid lefty which looks shite..... I love the lefty's but not that one

ride_whenever

Surly decent normal forks are lighter than a rigid lefty?