Another what bike. Cannondale Synapse v Cannondale Quick 1

markybhoy67

Hi, I am going out today to buy a road bike for doing a supported LEJOG in October.

I currently ride a Ridgeback Nemesis Alfine hub hybrid, I like the relaxed geometry of the bike. I have bar ends on the flat bars to give me different hand positions.

There are 10 of us doing the LEJOG and all of them have road bikes, the plan is to do a 100 miles a day for 10 days (we will be doing a lot of B roads) and are looking to average 15 MPH over the 10 days.

I am going to buy a Cannondale Synapse 105 due to the relaxed geometry, but the LBS have put a spanner in the works by suggesting a Cannondale Quick 1.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products-com ... 0|ec025273 (link doesn't seem to work properly) will have to copy and paste the full link.

The Synapse has RS10 wheels, the evans spec is wrong

He assures me that this bike will keep up with the road bikes all day long and to be honest I prefer flat bars to drop bars.

Anyway is the LBS right about the quick being able to keep up with the road bikes?

I am reasonably fit and go out and do 50 -60 mile solo rides on my hybrid in reasonable times.

Thanks

Mark

optimisticbiker

i'm no expert, but the obvious differencesare:

riding position - more upright less aero on the Quick the Quick is a triple... the Quick has fatter tyres, but not overly so price and availability, the Quick is £400 more but available now

How much those will make a difference over 1000miles I don't know. 15mph average is high for the terrain you'll be crossing (obviously some days will be better than others) but I can't see that the Quick would be at a significant disadvantage - maybe fit some aerobars to help on those long downhill runs? The 50 x 10 on the Quick v 50 x 11 on the Synapse ought to spin out faster...

jgsi

It's a personal choice.... but a flat bar bike for the 'miles' ??
Ok, I ride a Synapse... I'm biased... but it is a dream to ride and race... but again it's not about the bike when it comes to 'keeping up' with the pace.

markybhoy67

Thanks for the replies.

I can get the Synapes for £850 and the Quick for £950

I will be changing to quicker tyres on whatever bike I get.

I am sure the road bike will be better for the miles, it's just that I am used to the upright position of the hybrid.

I had a look at a Synapse yesterday and it looks the biz, the shop has built up the quick for me to compare them today.

I think it will be the Synapse that I get, it's just the fear of changing from the hybrid.

OptimisticBiker, thanks for the gear ratio explanation, seems the LBS was right then.

JGSI, do you think the Synapse can take Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700 x 28?

I have 650 x 1.6 Supremes on my hybrid and I swear by them.

titch124

personally i would go for the synapse hands down, just to have that extra bit of aero when cycling into a strong headwind at the end of 100 miles, will be a lifesaver

ride_whenever

eeerm, so you're looking at buying a flat bar hybrid to replace your flat bar hybrid which isn't going to be fast enough?

Seriously????

Get the synapse because it's actually what you're trying to buy otherwise you'll end up with two bikes of nigh on identical speed. If you don't want drops then do it on the ridgeback and spend the money on coke and hookers.

taimur

synapse

jgsi

markybhoy67 wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

I can get the Synapes for £850 and the Quick for £950

I will be changing to quicker tyres on whatever bike I get.

I am sure the road bike will be better for the miles, it's just that I am used to the upright position of the hybrid.

I had a look at a Synapse yesterday and it looks the biz, the shop has built up the quick for me to compare them today.

I think it will be the Synapse that I get, it's just the fear of changing from the hybrid.

OptimisticBiker, thanks for the gear ratio explanation, seems the LBS was right then.

JGSI, do you think the Synapse can take Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700 x 28?

I have 650 x 1.6 Supremes on my hybrid and I swear by them.

It can certainly take 25s no issue... if 28's because of comfort.... then you havent ridden a Synapse yet have you?
With 23 Pro race3 .. still up there in ride qual

markybhoy67

ride_whenever wrote:

eeerm, so you're looking at buying a flat bar hybrid to replace your flat bar hybrid which isn't going to be fast enough?

Seriously????

Get the synapse because it's actually what you're trying to buy otherwise you'll end up with two bikes of nigh on identical speed. If you don't want drops then do it on the ridgeback and spend the money on coke and hookers.

LOL

The hybrid that I have only has 8 gears, so I could either set it up for hills or speed depending on rear sprocket but I couldn't have both.

Also this bike will be my winter bike due to the alfine hub.

I quite like the upright position on the hybrid and have done quite a few thousand miles on it over the last 2 and a 1/2 years.

I was thinking of the cannondale because it had the full gear range than my alfine hub didn't have and I could have kept the cad for dry and sunny spring / summer months (or days in Glasgow)

BUT I bought the Synapse 105 today

Very happy with the bike but I ain't picking it up till Friday as I got the shop to order conti gator hard shell tyres for the bike and just keep the lugano tyres for my turbo trainer.

markybhoy67

taimur wrote:

synapse

markybhoy67

JGSI wrote:

It can certainly take 25s no issue... if 28's because of comfort.... then you havent ridden a Synapse yet have you?
With 23 Pro race3 .. still up there in ride qual

It was purely because that is the narrowest marathon supremes but from reading other threads the conti gator hard shell gets good reviews for performance and the p protection, so I ordered the 700 x 25 contis

I can't wait to ride the bike, I could have got the bike today but they wanted £60 for Shimano A530 pedals, so I said friday as I am working wed and thur, this has gave me time to order the pedals from chain reaction for £33 8)

Can't wait, I would imagine once I have ago that the hybrid will be getting put away for a few weeks or even till winter

BlueScot

You've already done the deed, but I would have voted another +1 for the synapse. Me and the GF are doing a supported JOGLE in June and we were keen on buying a synapse for her as it is ideal for the miles involved. As mentioned on other forums, availability was a problem until recently. Also, we have Conti ultras on one bike and Conti Gator hardshells on the other, both 23.
A bit of advice - start training ASAP! At least you have a few summer months to train, but get yourself out as often as you can to get some miles under your belt. There are loads of nice runs south of EK.

markybhoy67

Just picked up the bike today from Cycle Lane, excellent service, if anyone is in the south side of Glasgow then defo look them up, as they have some excellent deals on the go, give them a call and haggle, as I say they where more than happy to knock £150 cash off the list price.

Swapped the tyres over and put spd pedals on.

Took it for a 5 minute spin up a hill, I flew up it, compared to my hybrid!

Who was it that asked the stupid question about a hybrid keeping up with road bikes on the big climbs...........LOL

Cheers for the advice BlueScot, I am going out to do a 50 miler tomorrow.

Yeah you are right regarding the routes roundabout ek, I have quite a few routes on map my ride ranging from 30 - 50 milers.

Will post another wee update tomorrow after my first ride

Ben6899

Fuck me. Why do people fuck about with hybrids!?

Synapse mate, you won't regret it.

markybhoy67

Ben6899 wrote:

fark me. Why do people fark about with hybrids!?

Synapse mate, you won't regret it.

I still like my hybrid, as it has served me well, I think it will now become purely my winter bike due to the alfine hub, although I may be tempted to get a Sora Synapse for the winter...LOL

Looking at your sig, I bought a 2008 felt z35, loved the bike but couldn't get the fit quite right, I ended up selling it on this site a year later after having only done about 140 miles!

I regret that now but hey hoo, Synapse here we come

Ben6899

The Z35 is relaxed geometry. I fitted a longer stem and removed all the spacers and it rides much nicer now.

unixnerd

I will be changing to quicker tyres on whatever bike I get.

I did a very hilly 35 miler on my steel tourer yesterday (Inverness to Aviemore), quite a bit of that has a fairly poor road surface. It was my first time out on my new (second hand) wheels, which came with some 23mm tyres. Normally I run on 28mm but fairly heavy Schwalbe Marathons. I couldn't believe how my normally comfortable tourer had become a boneshaker on the 23s! Heavier or not the 28s willl be going back on soon. I thought I was doing Paris Roubaix around Moy.

I run 25s on my road bike and even it's not that jarring.

webby_1805

Hi folk i don't want to hi jack this thread but i was thinking of buying the CADD 10 until i read this post ,as i mainly ride on the hoods i thought this bike might be better for me , my LBS has the CADD 10 but not the Synapse , what would your thoughts be at the moment i am riding a giant scr2.

Cheers W

unixnerd

I've always wondered how much difference there would be between the Synapse and a CAAD10 with the stem flipped upwards!