The New Bike

Anybody who really gets into riding usually owns more than one bike. I bought my first real bike over 18 years ago. It was a Miyata 7-21 It was a relatively low end bike but it was so much better than an the 10 speed Schwinn I had. It was the bike that allowed me to actually keep up with the people on the B rides and start to become a serious rider. On the Miyata I went through the usual progression of a new riding and slowly increased my mileage until I did my first century. I also learned how to ride with a group and improve my bike handling skills.

After 8 years on the Myata I was a serious rider and was looking for an upgrade. I was looking for something lighter with better components and after a lot of research I was lucky enough to run into Tom at Speedway in Hightstown. He showed me the Feather and after a test ride there was no doubt that is was going to be my new bike. The Feather is a very light titanium bike with Dura Ace components and handles like a sports car. I was amazed how much better it felt than my Miyata and with it I was able to increase my average by a couple of miles an hour.

The Feather became my everyday bike and the Miyata was used only occasionally on vacations or on the rare instances when the Feather was in the shop. 10 years ago when I started doing hillier rides I would take the Miyata out on the tougher hillier rides because it had a triple and allowed me get up the tougher hills without my heart rate hitting its max or blowing out my knees.

The last few years I have started doing more hilly rides as I explore the areas around Califon and Schooley's Mountain. There are a couple of tough climbs on these rides so my Miyata is getting used more. The bike is showing its age and needs some upgrades if I am going to keep putting miles on it. The wheels bearing are shot and need to be replaced. The brakes also need replacing and the index shifters no longer indexes. I thought about stripping the bike down to the frame and building it up again will all new components but the Miyata is a pretty old and although a decent frame it's really not worth rebuilding.

This started a search for a new bike. It is amazing how many different bikes there are to choose from. I thought that the fact that I had some pretty detailed requirements for the hill climber I wanted would help narrow the field but it really didn't. I spent over a month looking around the Internet and stopping into bike shops to look at bikes. I narrowed it down to the Specialized Robaix, Cannondale Six or Cannondale Synapse. I considered a couple of the Bianchi and Trek models but none of them seem to be exactly what I wanted.

A couple of weeks later I test drove all the bikes and finally decided the Cannondale Synapse was the bike for me. The Cannodale Six was almost as good but the Synapse seemed to fit me a little better and the model I wanted came standard with most of the components I wanted.

So a week later I had a new bike a Cannondale Synapse Carbon 5 courtesy of Hart's. The bike is an all carbon frame. I was never a big fan of carbon because 10 years ago when I bought the Feather carbon bikes were a lot heavier and tended to have structural problems after a few years of riding. Today however the technology of carbon frames have really advanced and they are as reliable as any bike frame. They also can really tune the frame to be stiff and comfortable all at the same time. They have also been able to make carbon bikes a lot more affordable.

The Synapse is the most comfortable bike I have ever rode and is amazingly compliant yet has great power transfer so its also very efficient. Cannondale has really done a great job designing this bike and has really advanced the state of art here which is why it has got a lot of good reviews.

The bike has Shimano 105 components which is a good compromise between performance and price. If this was my one and only bike I might have sprung for Ultegra or even thought about Dura Ace but since this is my hill climber which I will ride about 30 % of the time the 105 components should be just fine. As with bike frames components keep advancing and the major difference between the 105, Ultegra and Dura Ace is weight and the difference is not real important for a recreational rider like me.

I opted for a triple on the bike since this bike will see a lot of tough hills. I have heard all the arguments about a compact versus a triple and the trade offs between each. For me it wasn't that hard a decision. A triple gives me a bigger set of gears to get up the hills. Yes I do have more overlap than a compact and yes it weights a little more (1/3 pound) and makes shifting a little more complicated but the lower gearing will keep my heart rate down and my knees happy when I'm headed up a 15 or 20% grade. If I had gone with a compact it would have been fine for 90% of where I go but for some of the real tough climbs I would either be standing or walking which I don't want to do.

To make this a bike that could climb ANYTHING I even changed out the rear cassette from the standard 11-28 to the new SRAM 11-32. This may seem real extreme to some people but I'm not one of those super thin 140 pound zero % body fat racers so I need a the extra low gears on some of the tough hills I climb. As I have become more adventurous I have shed my fear of hills and will try any climb. This has lead me to some of the steeper parts of NJ. On my hillier rides I will now climb some hills in the 10-15% ranges and may even do a 20% grade every now and then. So although the gearing is extreme it allows me to spin up any hill no matter how steep without burning myself out.

So how does it ride. One word. GREAT!!!

I only have a couple hundred miles on the new bike but so far the it is exactly what I wanted. I'm still making a few minor adjustments to the bike but almost have it dialed in and I am starting to get comfortable on it. One of the nice things about the bike is how comfortable it is. It really soaks up all the little road bumps and makes for a very smooth ride. But one of the amazing things about the frame is that the cushy ride doesn't cause any lost in efficiency. When you apply power to the pedals it is completely transferred to the rear wheel. I can tell that the power transfer is very efficient because I am spending more time in the big gear on the front chain ring.

The efficiency makes the bike a great climber. This is especially noticeable on 3 to 5 % grades where I'm climbing a gear or two higher than I do in my Feather. It also has no problems on steeper grades but the difference isn't as noticeable. A couple of days after I got the bike I headed to one of Michael's hilly rides and as expected he went up a couple of steep grades including the top half of Federal Twist.

For those of you who haven't been up to the top half Federal Twist its a pretty nasty climb in the with parts as steep as 15 to 20%. It's a tough climb but with the triple and my extreme gearing I was able to spin up with the top of the pack. It still took a lot of energy to do the climb but I still had something left when I got to the top.

On the flats the bike also cruises pretty well. Laura pulled in front of me on the flats at the top of the ridge I asked her if she was actully pedaling at which point she gave me the finger. I then said "let's see what this thing and do" and shifted up a couple of gears and stood on the pedals and took off. The bike really accelerated quickly and I was able to maintain a good pace and leave Laura in the dust although she quickly caught up at the next light.

Going down some of the down hills I tested the handling . I didn't push it to the edge because I am still getting the feel of the bike and don't know where the limits are. One of the criticisms of carbon frames is that they sometimes feel like dead wood and don't allow the rider to get a good feel of the road. The cushy ride of the Synapse definitely deadens some of the road feel so it takes a little more work to carve the bike around turns at high speed but I suspect that this will get better as I become more familiar with the bike and become more tuned to is ride.

All and all I am very happy with the bike and know I made the right choice. I'm a little sorry to see my Miyata be retired after many great years and rides together but I suspect after a some more quality hours in the saddle of the Cannodale we will become good friends. My Feather is still my main bike and it's sports car like handling makes it a joy to ride. But when the roads get hilly and I want more of a luxury ride I will be more than happy to bring out the Cannondale.