Yeah, about that new road bike. It's nice
Really,
Really
Nice.
Back in the spring of 2016, I found a crack in the chainstay of my old Cannondale CAAD 9. I had bought it used when I lived in LA, and buying that bike and going on the group rides with my roommate is what turned me into a serious cyclist. It was a great bike for those 5 years and around 20k miles, and while I hadn't been seriously conisidering a replacement I guess the bike decided it was done before I did. My cyclocross bike does also work on the road, and I used it for the rest of that year with no major complaints, even at wednesday worlds. Road riding and racing also seem to be on a bit of a decline, but I still wanted a new road bike.
Since I had a pretty much fully functional road bike (although the mud at the rocky mountain roubaix did a bit of damage to some bearings and other components), my first thought was to just find a replacement frame, swap some stuff from the old bike, and maybe buy a few new parts like some wheels and possibly 11 speed shifters. After doing the math on everything, it turned out that just buying a complete new bike wasn't going to be any more expensive. A new caad, with something like rival or ultegra would have been an option, and then I was looking at the supersix, the carbon cannondale road bike, as their ultegra build would have cost me about 2k. "cheap" for a carbon race bike. But then Alex from Missoula Bicycle works mentioned that he was looking to sell his bike. It's also a Cannondale Supersix Evo, but a slightly nicer version. Alex and I are almost exactly the same height, and he goes through a lot of really nice bikes, so this is pretty convenient for me and a few other guys in town (my mountain bike came from him too). As an added bonus, he let me take it and pay over time.
My last bike was a Cannondale, and so is this one. It's not that I'm picky about brands; it mostly comes down to what Missoula Bicycle Works carries because I ride for them and they are nice to me and I get a discount. But I liked my caad and was already looking at Cannondales so this was pretty convenient. It's a very similar (but nicer) bike. They are both meant for racing and have about the same geometry, so I was able to just hop on it with minimal adjustments.
So onto the bike. Like I said the supersix is a race bike, so it has a pretty aggressive, low fit, a stiff and responsive frame, and no provisions for racks, fenders, or big tires. There are two versions of the supersix- the regular, and the hi-mod. This is the hi-mod. What's the difference? Well, it costs more. The carbon is more carbon-ey. But really hi-mod stands for "high-modulus," which means it uses a different, and stronger type of carbon fiber. Using stronger carbon in the layup means you can use less to make the bike lighter. It might change the feel and performance slightly but I think it's mostly about weight. Yet, with all things bike related, using less somehow makes it more expensive.
In addition to the fancy frame, the parts on this bike are fancy. The groupset is dura-ace di2. Dura-ace, which I believe is pronounced "duracchi," is the nicest stuff Shimano makes, and all the parts are inhabited by the spirits of long-dead samurai. That means it's expensive. Di2 means the shifters are electric, which also means it's expensive. Instead of pushing a lever and pulling a cable and moving the derailleurs, on this bike you push buttons and the derailleurs are moved by electric motors. On the plus side, you don't have to push as hard or as far to shift gears, which, if your hands are frozen and wet actually makes a difference. There are no cables and housings to wear out, stick, stretch, or break, so it shifts exactly the same every time. A motor instead of a cable and spring might also let the derailleur move more quickly and firmly to improve shifting. On the minus side, there's a whole mess of wires and junction boxes going in and out of the frame and a battery that can die and leave you without shifting in the middle of a ride. You have to plug it into a computer to update the software and change settings. It might just be a whole bunch of unnecessary complexity where a simple cable works just fine.
While I might not go out of my way to buy a brand new bike with di2, I do like it and appreciate a lot of the features. There are hidden buttons under the hoods and you can program them to do things like change pages on your garmin (if you have the wireless adapter) or shift gears. Mine are set up to shift the rear derailleur which is kind of nice. You can add extra shift buttons wherever you want, and holding the button down shifts multiple gears on the cassette. Shifts up to the big chainring are incredibly fast and smooth. You just tap the button and it's on there and you don't even really have to ease up on pedaling. I've only needed to charge that battery once in 2100 miles and when it gets low the front derailleur stops working but leaves you with the rear shifting for a pretty good amount of time.
The frame is good, the group is good, and the wheels seemed to be good too. The Shimano RS-81 is like a Dura-ace wheel but not quite as fancy (the hubs and stickers are different?). It has an aluminum core and brake track bonded (glued), to a carbon rest of the wheel. The benefit is that you get the braking performance of aluminum but it's lighter and stronger. Supposedly. My rear wheel blew a spoke after about 15 rides and went irreparably out of true. So I'm on a cheap mavic rear until I decide what to do there. A replacement isn't actually too expensive, but I feel like I want to go with something else given this one's track record. And sure, I might have done some riding in the dirt and mud and maybe found a few potholes on the hell ride, but this is a first after all the miles I've done on road, cross, and mountain bikes.
Also that happened on my birthday, and I was in Canada and couldn't ride my new bike for like a whole month. Still kind of mad about it. I think the problem is that they weren't dura-ace- those samurai are good at dodging things like bumps, potholes, and swords.
Well, that's the new fancy bike. All the carbon and dura-ace stuff means it weighs 15.5lbs, with ultegra pedals, cheap bottle cages, an aluminum handlebar and stem, and 25mm gp4k clinchers. With a few changes it would be pretty easy to get under 15. In comparison, my old caad 9 was closer to 18lbs, which I still considered fairly light.
How does it feel? The geometry, fit and tires are essentially the same as my old Cannondale so it rides a lot like it. If you can pedal hard it goes pretty fast, it's stable, and it's comfortable to ride all day. Getting out of the saddle and having the bike just jump forward immediately is one of those things I love about road biking. You just don't get that efficiency and instant response anywhere else. My only issue is that it seems a little sluggish to turn- I'll find myself a little behind and missing apexes unless I really pay attention. Partly I think because it's a big bike, a 60cm frame, and also because I've been spending so much time on my cross bike, which is smaller and has a steeper headtube angle. That steep cx headtube (74 degrees!) is great on a race course with lots of tight turns, but at higher speeds makes the bike seem unstable. I have just never been comfortable going faster than about 25-30 on anything but pavement with it. Conversely, you want a road bike to be stable at high speed so it's fine that it doesn't turn in quite as quickly, but on those fast mountain descents I need to make sure I'm staying balanced and leaning that bike over.
In conclusion, it's a pretty cool bike and nicest thing I've ever ridden. #worthmorethanmycar is actually true. Would I buy it new, at retail price? Uh, no. Probably not even if I could afford it. A high end road bike is really only incrementally better, and not a new mind blowing bicycle experience that can only be achieved by spending nearly ten grand. That nice regular carbon supersix with ultegra I mentioned goes for less than a third of the price. And this is a little bit embarrassing and stressful to own and ride. You get a lot of "woah, dura-ace?" "how much did that cost?" and "what was that noise?" (oh, just my derailleur shifting). I'm not really excited about the maintenance it will need (the spidering chainrings cost $250!), and I'm terrified of crashing it or breaking something or it getting stolen. I literally have nightmares about it. If I didn't have other bikes to buy first (full suspension mtb, gravel touring, fat), I would actually consider a 2nd not as nice road bike for things like crit races, traveling, and bad weather. But enough about my first world white person problems, here are some pictures
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