Cannondale Slate gravel road bike goes for a long ride with new Lefty Oliver

“650b + 42c = 700c + 22c … That means more cush and traction without giving up the speed and roll-over of a standard road bike wheel and tire.”

Haven’t 29ers taught us that bigger wheels have better speed and roll-over? So a 700c wheel + 42c tire should have better speed and rollover.

I’m not against the 650b, I’m just not biting on the claim. Sounds very opportunistic.

Initially I thought about how a suspension fork would be terrible and get junked up quickly on a gravel bike, but the lefty seals are away from the tire and inverted, so it might be the best fork for the job.

Interesting concept, seems like a niche of a niche.

P

My goodness, when will roadies invent something of their own instead of copying from the Mountain Bike arena… tubeless, disc, cushy frames and then tip-toeing on “gravel,” (don’t call ’em dirt, roads), not to mention suspension yearning. I would wager that next will be a dropper post with some kind or aero-brag of course.

That being said, this bike would make a fabulous addition to my Cannondale quiver, sign me up, it looks like great fun!

…actually a dropper on a road bike would be handy occasionally, especially at stop lights –drop down and avoid the “hope-my-shoe-don’t-slip-tippy-toe” stand.

@timquila, to be fair mountain bikes stole carbon frames and rims, index shifting, 650b (27.5″) rims/tires, multispeed drivetrains, clipless pedals and a whole lot more from road bikes.

@Adrian
I see, they are comparing a 650B/42 against a 700/22(or 25 or 28). I misread.

I think is an interesting concept. I wonder if front suspension is very beneficial when the rider is seated so much.

@Timquila
Dropper posts are on Specialized Diverge. I would not mind a dropper even on my road bike. You just can’t beat the security of getting low on a fast corner (and on a gravel road x1000)

650bx42 means running a big tire but still being able to keep things like a short rear triangle and road chainline intact.

There is a reason bikes that run tires bigger than 700×33 have longer stays. A 700×42 would hit the seat tube on any bike with chainstays in the road to “endurance road” range.

Also fitting that wide a tire on a 700c rim also has potential problems with road gearing. It’s not a big deal if you are using the wider spaced mountain chainline standards but it takes some serious finagling to the chainstays to make room for a wide tire AND a 110 bcd road crankset.

The whole point of 650b for these kinds of applications is that it does not come with the inherent design problems associated with wider tires on a 700c rim.

Love it! All the pieces are finally in place for my next-next gravel hardtail! Front suspension, dropper post, hydraulic road brakes. The only thing missing for me is in-line hydraulic breaks, anyone working on that?

They might sell more aftermarket forks if they made it for adult sized wheels. 650b are for shorties and retro grouches who wouldn’t use a lefty anyway.

Rockshox makes a 50mm travel 700c fork that no one uses. That’s probably because it’s not necessary.

Timquila, you realize that the first MTBs borrowed their entire drive trains from road bikes, not to mention 29ers use 700c “road” rims.

Though didn’t Specialized come out with a road dropper late last year.

@Timquila

I can only assume you haven’t been riding for very long! No other way to explain your astonishingly clueless statements. MTB has borrowed far more heavily from road than the other way around. Also riding “road” bikes on gravel is hardly new. Maybe you’ve heard of this little thing called the Tour de France? For decades much of it was run on dirt. Also just about every MTB pioneer – Ritchey, Fisher, Potts, Breeze, Chance, Bontrager, etc, etc, etc started on the road. Of course you’re such a newbie you probably have no clue who these people are! Seriously, try doing some reading next time so you don’t look like an idiot.

+1 randonneur who’s never seen a 650C randonneur frame. To the contrary, Jan Heine – who’s the most well-known proponent of 650/27.5 wheeled rando-frames – sells only 650B tires.

https://www.compasscycle.com/product-category/components/tires/650b/

650b x 42mm tire for a gravel bike means you don’t have to use a tall cyclocross tire, and hence a cyclocross fork.

The real beauty of this bike is its use of a normal road-ish length axle-to-crown fork. And since the fork length is approximately the same as a road fork, this Canondale handles more like a road bike instead of a cyclocross bike.

AND if you want to put on a 700 x 23mm tire or a 700 x 28mm tire, all you have to do is change wheels! No fussing with changing to a different reach brake!

650b + disc brakes = AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Using 650b with up to 42mm tires is awesome! Great, Cannondale!

Also bring on long chainstays!

I have 470-480mm chainstays on my touring bike. Gear shifting is awesome, I can run big
tires and the long wheelbase makes the bike very stable.

I’m confused though as to why both the author and the screen shot (that presumably was supplied by Cannondale) have got mixed up with the use of 650c and the BSD’s. Ie, 571mm is 650c (tri and small road bikes), and 584mm is 650b (touring bikes and french porteur/randonneur for decades…).

Yes. I will not buy it die to it being a 650b. If it was a 700c bike yes. I would buy it ao i can yake wheels off of my scalpel and swap around. But 650b is not helmping me there. Cannondale please make it 700c.
Thanks.
Larry
the happy canncannondale customer

SOMEONE has to produce 100% crazy to move things forward. Cannondale is consistently that someone.

Cannondale has done pretty much exactly this before with their BadBoy range. In that case, they used the Caffeine 26″ MTB frame, stuck 28-622 tires in there, and slapped on a 50mm Lefty. No redesign required at all. You could swap on some 50-559 tires and go rock some mild singletrack. This is probably the same thing with whatever their ‘mountain hybrid’ frame.

Me personally i’ve got to say “nah”, but I don’t hate it.

Not hating on Cannondale but for the price of the Oliver Lefty alone there are lots of creative gravel options. 650bx42 works out approximately to 26×2.1″, for which a plethora of rim and tire choices (these days quite economically) are available. Figure out a favorite cockpit setup and old MTB frames are new again!

Can’t wait to see people shredding these on the local crushed limestone “gravel” trails. /s

Sorry to get you all rialed up. Perhaps I should have prefaced my rant with ” seems like recently” and responders, most of which are respectful, maybe start with”historically…” But Chris L, relax already, as a matter of fact, I’ve been riding aggressively for 40 years or so and I currently have over twenty modern Cannondales in my “A” fleet, road, mountain, hybrid, road tandems, mountain tandem, literally at least one for every venue that I may chose. All are very clean and at the ready. Some I purchased complete and some I built frame up, some geared, some single… some of everything. And yes I am quite familiar with cycling history and yes again; I’ve lived a lot if it. Some of you haters really crack me up.

This just in!!! Companies are researching a long lost 26″ wheel size for benefits compared to 650B and 29ers. Finding lighter rotational weight and greater lateral rigidity over both alternate wheels. Some engineers have just uncovered century, err decade old tire molds to kick this new phenomenal discovery into full gear. Prepare for some new designs exploiting this new, soon to be standard size covering a wide range of offerings. Integrated lever operated not-so thru axles will be in production soon to satisfy the eminent onslaught of early adapters. Oh what a time we live in.

I look forward to taking one out for a ride. Test ride then decide.

Right now I wouldnt be interested but a test ride on my local loops would shape my opinion better.

Way to put my secret fishing spot on bikerumor C’dale!

Did anyone else notice that in the side by side capture of the two bikes, each has the fork crowns oriented differently? Wonder what’s up here or if it was just them testing out various heights.

I’m sure it works ok, but Lefty’s are just…. missing something.

It’s not a fork

Why are you stuck to your CX bike? Stains on your saddle?

Cannondale should have gone full proprietary on this. Can we develop a new wheel tire system that doesn’t use an old wheel size? How about we shrink the bead seat diameter of a 700c so fatter tires fit in almost every road frame with extended reach calipers?

27″ road bikes will fit cross tires without issue if you change the brakes. You could turn a $400 craigslist road bike into a Salsa Warbird with a new set of wheels, tires, and brakes.