Cannondale Synapse

bikeit65

Anyone riding the Cannondale Synapse carbon 2 RLE what do you think of the Radar system, is it good or a gimmick?

pep.fermi

I am on actually my 2nd Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra and I adhore it.
But sorry no, I don't have the radar system.

Why on my 2nd? I loved my 1st Synapse Carbon Ultegra, still great after 16yr, but wanted to move to disc brakes because I'm the worstest descender ever. So bought a newer Synapse, Carbon Ultegra Disc. Then the 1st got stolen before I could sell it. Those bastards killed my heart :-(

Edit:
just looked at your photos: wonderful!

manxshred

The radar is just a similar unit to a Garmin Varia radar. Check youtube for videos on how those radar units work to get an idea if you think it would work for you. A lot of people absolutely love it.

whyamihere

I believe it's the same tech as the Garmin Varia radar, which I now consider to be an essential bit of kit. I thought it was a bit of a gimmick before getting one, but I wouldn't want to ride on the road without it having used it.

daniel_b

The radar is not a reason to buy that bike, but now I have the 515, I deem it an almost essential piece of kit, and miss it a lot when I don't have it.

In a nutshell it is one of those items I could only appreciate once I had used it.

Of you have a head unit that can connect to one, and ride with anyone who uses one, you should be able to add it to your device, and see the alerts come up.

I've never had mine not pick someone up, and as a result, it buys me time when I am needing to avoid the masses of potholes, as I can confidently know no one is about to overtake.

seanoconn

daniel_b said:

The radar is not a reason to buy that bike, but now I have the 515, I deem it an almost essential piece of kit, and miss it a lot when I don't have it.

In a nutshell it is one of those items I could only appreciate once I had used it.

Of you have a head unit that can connect to one, and ride with anyone who uses one, you should be able to add it to your device, and see the alerts come up.

I've never had mine not pick someone up, and as a result, it buys me time when I am needing to avoid the masses of potholes, as I can confidently know no one is about to overtake.

Is it still useful in urban areas? How long does the fully charged radar/varia last?

veronese68

seanoconn said:

daniel_b said:

The radar is not a reason to buy that bike, but now I have the 515, I deem it an almost essential piece of kit, and miss it a lot when I don't have it.

In a nutshell it is one of those items I could only appreciate once I had used it.

Of you have a head unit that can connect to one, and ride with anyone who uses one, you should be able to add it to your device, and see the alerts come up.

I've never had mine not pick someone up, and as a result, it buys me time when I am needing to avoid the masses of potholes, as I can confidently know no one is about to overtake.

Is it still useful in urban areas? How long does the fully charged radar/varia last?

This is what I was wondering, on my commute it's unusual not to have a car behind me whilst I'm on the road. On the paths in the park this is less of an issue of course.

whyamihere

I'd say it's still of use, though less so than on quieter roads. The biggest advantage in busier areas is probably that it can track multiple vehicles, so you could establish if there's just one car behind you where it may be easiest to just let them go or several where you may need to think about being more assertive. That said, I'm not sure I would use it if commuting in really busy areas where you know there will always be a lot of traffic, it doesn't replace looking and the beeping could get annoying. You can turn the beeping off, but then you'd need to turn it back on if you have quieter leisure rides. Battery life IIRC is something like 6 hours depending on the light mode.

daniel_b

@whyamihere has pretty much said what I was going to say - have seen similar battery life as well, although if I've been on a 4 hour ride with it, I would tend to pop it on charge irrespective - always run mine in flash mode.

You can also run it in radar mode alone should you want, which means extended battery life.

Personally I still find it useful in urban areas, although as noted not AS useful - the volume of cars coming behind you when there are several is a useful feature though, especially when approaching a traffic island etc

I bought mine for £120, and for that amount I think it is a proper bargain - safety wise above all else.
I'm having Raceware make me a custom mount so I can use it on my commuter attached to the bottom of the tailfin rack bag, looking forward to getting that all setup for the coming winter months.

That being said, my only gripe is that there is no factory way of securing it as a failsafe to anything like the seat rails etc, and the o ring mount is not my favourite, in that it could break at anypoint, and also the rubber bits are easy to drop/lose.

To counteract the first point I bought a little case off of Amazon or ebay for £12 which it clips into, and the second one there is no much I can do for my normal bikes, as they don't have round seatposts - well unless I ask Raceware to make me some mounts which perhaps I will now I think about it.
Garmin make a permanent one, but only for round seatposts.