The brand new yr is barely upon us and we’re already within the throes of recent bike launch fever. We have seen leaked pictures of a brand new Cannondale and we have reached the purpose the place we will say with certainty that it is a new Cannondale SuperSix. Whereas the Tour de France tends to get an ideal swathe of recent bikes, the primary race of the season, the Tour Down Below, has given us the chance to stand up shut and private with this new bike, past what we have already been capable of collect from spy pictures, and footage of the bikes from the launch of the new EF workforce kits.
Past the preliminary hypothesis, we’re able to carry you the whole lot we all know in regards to the new Cannondale SuperSix. We have interrogated all the pictures, pored over databases of UCI registered framesets, and received a good thought of what “Lab 71” is all about.
What is going to the brand new Cannondale be referred to as?
Upon interrogating the record of registered frames it seems we’re right into a three-tier system. They are going to all be often called the Cannondale SuperSix. Nevertheless, solely two of the three will get the ‘Evo’ moniker.
The trio consists of the SuperSix Evo 4, the SuperSix Evo 4 SL (‘Superlight’, one presumes), and the SuperSix 4 Hello-Mod. The latter would be the very top-tier light-weight frameset utilising the next modulus (learn: stiffer) carbon permitting for a lighter body weight.
How has the brand new Cannondale SuperSix’s frameset modified?
Due to pictures taken by the Cyclingnews workforce on the bottom on the Tour Down Below – earlier than the road-bikes-only opening prologue of the Tour Down Below noticed some extremely modified bikes – we’re capable of peep the UCI Codes on each the body and fork for each the EF groups in addition to the ladies’s St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 workforce.
As you’d count on, the race bikes on the highest degree of the game that we will see listed here are the SuperSix Evo 4 Hello-Mod, as denoted by the ‘S6HM’ coding on the downtube.
Taking expertise from bike ranges of the previous, the variations between these framesets will probably be inside (lighter, stiffer carbon for the upper-tier fashions), and within the specs. The body silhouette and geometry will probably be constant all through, although a barely extra aggressive geometry for the higher echelons is one thing we do often see.
The brand new SuperSix Evo 4 framesets do bear a hanging resemblance to the outgoing mannequin, however with some large tweaks throughout the general bundle. Firstly, the change that almost all Cannondale followers will likely be most happy to see is a redesigned cable routing from the handlebars into the body. The outgoing SuperSix Evo featured a channel on the entrance of the pinnacle tube, by way of which the cables entered.
From what we will see from pictures from the EF package launch, it seems that the bike can run an array of cockpits, although we assume it will come inventory with an built-in one-piece system, no less than for the top-tier fashions, as has been the case for many new race bike launches in latest reminiscence. Nevertheless, we will see that if you wish to run a standard spherical bar and stem with no inside routing you’ll be able to, in addition to midway home programs like we will see under (left) from Imaginative and prescient with built-in cables within the bars, and routing externally below the stem. In each non-integrated programs, the hoses would run by way of the headtube by way of a slot within the backside spacer. You’ll find an identical setup on Remco Evenepoel’s bike, so if it is ok for him it is most likely ok for you too in case you’re not into a totally built-in cockpit.
The portal on the higher finish of the downtube remains to be current. This was utilized in earlier generations as a cable insertion level, so it is not a wild hypothesis to suppose that the decrease tier fashions will nonetheless be out there with cable-actuated gearing, maybe to work with what’s rumoured to be a new cable actuated 12 pace Shimano 105 groupset. The exit level for a cable from the rear dropout, shared between cables and Di2 wiring in older fashions, would see the derailleur cable tracing fairly a pointy curve although, most likely requiring a level of inside cable housing routing to guard the body internals. Do not get your hopes up for a loopy Hello-Mod hill climb construct utilizing a classic SRAM MTB derailleur simply but; the jury’s out on cables.
Up entrance, we now have a modified head tube, which eschews that cable-entry channel from earlier than, and appears to have been formed in a barely extra aerodynamic means with a deeper general profile and truncated rear edge.
One other space of reshaped tubing is discovered on the seat tube. On the outgoing mannequin, the seat tube remained a constant depth all through its size, however right here there is a marked change on the junction with the seat stays. The seat stays meet the seat tube decrease than the final mannequin, and above this junction the seat tube is deeper than earlier than, probably for aero positive factors. Beneath it, the tube is shallower, little question in a bid so as to add compliance together with what seems to be a flattened high tube.
Will the brand new Cannondale SuperSix have a threaded backside bracket?
The pattern of excessive finish bikes reverting again to a threaded backside bracket is one we will completely get behind. They’re simpler to dwell with and simpler to work on, whether or not you are a UCI mechanic in a service course, or simply at dwelling in your storage.
Photos of the brand new SuperSix Evo 4 verify that, to the collective delight of everybody in addition to these with shares in Massive Press Match, it has a threaded BB. It is probably it will be a T47 slightly than BSA commonplace.
In equally stylish trend it seems just like the Evo 4 can take fashionably chunky rubber. The professionals will most likely experience something between a 25mm and a 28mm, however there seems to be loads of free actual property on the fork crown to take one thing probably as massive as a 34, a la the new Canyon Final.
Lab 71
Here is the place stable educated guesswork turns into barely extra speculative. Cannondale was based in 1971, so maybe one thing commemorative? Yeah, for that basic 52nd anniversary..? C’mon.
The most certainly situation is that it is some kind of top-tier run, not dissimilar to how S-Works lives alongside Specialised. We will not say for certain, however there are some particulars to be discovered with somewhat deductive reasoning across the UCI stickers.
The EF groups’ bikes have “Lab 71” plastered down the seat tube, whereas the St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 bikes don’t. Each units of workforce bikes function the ‘S6HM’ coding on the UCI stickers, indicating that they’re the Hello-Mod frameset. EF are utilizing Dura-Ace groupsets, whereas St Michel get Ultegra, and from this, we will deduce to a degree that Hello-Mod frames aren’t going to completely be used on the ‘Lab 71’ bikes, however that ‘Lab 71’ may very well be the very highest spec builds; these with Dura-Ace, SRAM Pink, Campagnolo Tremendous File EPS, maybe additionally utilizing light-weight paint and extra premium construct kits, however nonetheless based mostly on the Evo 4 Hello-Mod frameset.
As ever, time will inform, and we’ll add any extra particulars that we will garner to this web page as they come up.
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When will the brand new Cannondale SuperSix launch?
Sadly we do not have a selected date for the launch simply but. Nevertheless, given the frames are registered and are at present being raced in plain sight on the largest stage, we will most likely count on a correct launch and all of the juicy particulars within the very close to future.
