The all new Cannondale Slice triathlon bike will formally debut at Ironman World Championships Kona in October, but we’ve got a first look at the top model, the Slice Black Inc.
Goals were to reduce weight as much as possible, add aero efficiency and make it more comfortable. Compared to the outgoing model, they don’t have final wind tunnel data but they’re saying it’s significantly improved. That was done by making the frontal profile narrower, reshaping the fork legs, and smoothing the fork crown to downtube transition.
Those aero changes were the obvious ones. It’s the other little tweaks that make it unique -and UCI illegal- along with the impressive frame weight…
The cables all enter the top tube behind the steerer rather than from the side of the down- and top tubes like before.
asdf
They made the seatstays super thin – so thin that they’re not UCI legal. That not only reduced drag but also gave the bike a bit more compliance so you’ll fresher for the run.
Cannondale’s PR manager Bill Rudell told us many triathletes are running shorter crank arms these days, so that trend allowed them to lower the BB by spec’ing about a 5mm shorter crank arm depending on frame size. Lowering the BB puts the whole rider lower, which reduces total drag.
The trailing edge of the downtube was flattened to make it easier to mount a water bottle.
The yoke at the top of the seatstays has a relieved channel that helps move turbulent air off the top of the tire, which they say created a small amount of drag.
Frame weight was dropped down to about 1,000g, roughly 120g lighter than before. That’s very light for a full featured tri frame, and Cannondale says it’s the lightest one out there.
The Slice Black Inc model shown here will retail for $10,830. That gives you FSA aero chainrings on SiSL cranks, Vision deep section carbon wheels, Dura-Ace Di2 and FSA/Vision cockpit. There’ll also be DA and Ultegra Di2 versions, plus Ultegra and 105 mechanical versions.
The sleeker, even more aero Slice RS introduced as a 2012 modelremains the absolute top model, but this new standard Slice puts it one step closer.
We saw most of Cannondale’s 2015 road bike lineup at Presscamp this summer, but they saved a few new ones for Eurobike to keep things interesting. Above, the CAAD10 alloy frame gets a “race” build spec’d to provide the biggest bang for the buck for crit racers. Money was prioritized for parts that make a performance difference, so it gets a SRAM Force group with FSA 52/36 chainrings on Cannondale’s SiSL cranks. FSA Energy wheels and Schwalbe One tires keep the rolling stock light and fast. Up top, they saved some coin by sticking with house brand alloy cockpit parts. Unfortunately, we won’t have pricing on this or any of the rest of the road models for a couple days.
The new CAAD10 Track 1 takes their top level alloy road bike and converts it to sliding dropouts and gives it a SRAM Omnium crankset, Mavic Ellipse wheels and Schwalbe Lugano wheels.
Not that you need it for track riding, but the frame keeps the SAVE comfort stays and carbon fork, so should you take it to the streets it’ll be a little less punishing.
The Synapse Carbon Hi Mod Red Disc is one of the top spec’d models for the line, getting a SRAM Red Hydro-RD group and Cannondale’s superlight one-piece double chainrings and new carbon C-Zero wheels.
Cannondale, like everyone else, is expanding their e-bike offerings. They’ll start in Europe, like almost everyone else.
Some incorporate a rigid Lefty fork, some get the Headshok. And some are just standard commuter bikes without the Bosch e-bike system.
As usual, they had a custom painted bike for Peter Sagan gracing the booth.
Sparkly.
