Cannondale Topstone Carbon Lefty review: Suspension makes it better
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 05. 2020
- The new Cannondale Topstone Carbon Lefty is basically the same as the standard Topstone Carbon, but now with a suspension fork and a switch to 650b wheels and tires. The changes sound modest on paper but the difference you feel in the saddle is far greater than you might expect, and while that Lefty Oliver fork adds a fair bit of weight, it more than makes up for it in terms of capability and sheer fun. More importantly, it arguably makes for a more balanced and cohesive machine than the standard version.
If mixed terrain is more your style, the standard Topstone is still the better choice. But if your idea of gravel riding leans more toward the off-road end of the spectrum, this is the Topstone to get.
Full article/review: cyclingtips.com/2020/05/canno... - Sport
Love it! It seems like you guys found it fun to ride and I quite like the unconventional front fork. People always complain that all bikes looks the same but then also moan whenever manufacturers try something truly different (same thing with canyons handlebar on the grail). I think it looks great, especially in that colourway 🙂👌
Reminds me of the road bike suspension fork of the month from the first incarnation of Road Bike Action ~1995 with all these full suspension reviews. Yes, in this case “all these” = 2. 🙃 love it. Seriously.
Great review! Thanks!
It costs a leg as well. So it’s a match for the rider. 😂
Wow. They really did it.
I have the Cannondale Slate Apex 1 and I absolutely love the bike. It makes riding just so much more fun. I love DH MTB but I prefer this type of riding to XC because it is faster and yet still requires a lot of skill. I don't know if it is possible to get an easier climbing gear and also remove the threads for the water bottle cage so a drop post can fit (mine can't take one for this reason). Also I felt like the shock was a bit stiff for off-road but maybe something else would be sacrificed for a better suspension up front.
Do you have a video review of the regular Topstone Carbon? I bought one this winter. One quirk I just noticed - you can't use the rear fender bracket with the stock tires b/c it rubs. Super aggravating. Otherwise fantastic bike.
What are your thoughts on the alloy versions? Do you have any plans for reviewing any of them?
Not sure about that lefty, but the review was perfect!
Curious what trails these are, live near the boulder CO area.
Looks like a fun ride. Cross compatibility would be a deal breaker for me though. I want to be able to swap wheelsets. Don't like all the proprietary tech either.
If it was your money would you buy this over the new diverge you also tested? Considering 50/50 road/gravel to light trails
how tall was the second guy on the lefty 3? he said he had a size small frame and ran too big. I have an order placed for a lefty 1.
Makes we wonder... my old Trek SingleTrack MTB from mid 90's has almost the same frame geometry and is green metallic, too. The tires are oldschool 26x1.9" which is pretty close to state-of-the-art 27.5"x1.6".
My RockShox Mag21 has 63mm air suspension and blows the Lefty away with its measly 30mm .
I'll put a drop bar on my old MTB, maybe a 26" SID Fork for a disc front brake and I'm ready to go. And the Trek cost me USD 50.00 on FleaBay. Makes me wonder... we are back to square one.
Wasn’t the niner quite a bit heavier because of the actual rear linkage, had poorly conceived geometry, and the suspension was tuned to be super supple and absorb every bump making it comfortable but sluggish ? where as this fork rides more like an rtc3 fork in the pedal setting and had better tire clearance. Sounds like the cannondale addresses most of the complaints they had
omg!! i want one.😍
do you think cannonale's pressfit is as bad as tre's one but its great that trek gone threaded on their 2 road bikes
I have just buyed Lefty 3, same colour. I am very satisfayed. I knew weight is around 11 kilo with pedals and bottle holder.
But the comfort is amazing. The suspension makes small track in woods etc, be ridden faster than on bikes with no suspension.
Tracks that normal gravel bikes owner avoid..
This one loves it.
On bad normal streets, its just fun to experience how smoothe it rides.
I love this bike.
Maybe peoble Who competit, with other, rides faster on a 8 to 8.5 kilo gravel.
I dont know.
But this one i think will ve fastest on real vad track?
This bike is my keeper. As roadbike i use Cervelo Soloist.
What’s the height and inseam for you to ride a small?
i
love
it
Any trim come with 2x?
I’m torn between this and the canyon grail! Any tips or advice to finalize or am I missing another bike? I live in Salinas Ca, where the sea otter classic is held
Did you decide? I'm in the same boat
Hey, yeah I went with the canyon grail. Such a great value bike for all it has. I have suffered from back and knee problems from multi sports so I really wanted a comfortable ride. Grail offers a comfy seat post, front fork angle, 40’s, and the double bar gives multiple hand positions. I do feel the difference in shock absorption between other bikes.
I bought the regular TopStone 5 Carbon, its epic. can confirm.
Will Cannondale also release a new "non-lefty" topstone this Summer?
Daniel The Righty. For Republicans.
Topstone the best gravel with lefty 👍🚴👍
What is the stand over height?
Somebody really needs to just go and try to find the actual "break-even terrain" where you couldn't decide on bringing a gravel bike or a short-travel XC hardtail.
I think in terms of what you “should ride” there would be a fair bit of overlap where it comes down to personal preference. However it’d be interesting to see a time trial with this bike, a typical gravel bike and an xc bike on some different tracks
There's a perfect jeep trail for that just outside of Boulder called Switzerland trail. Really its a toss up if a gravel bike or a full suspension XC bike would be the best tool for the job.
If you ride mixed terrain many routes may be as fast and fun with both gravel and xc bikes. Like tarmac, gravel and a bit of technical single tracks.
@@aaronbanks3232 yup, hard to say... I'm in the top 10 on Strava up Switerland trail and can say, from the looks of the list, it's split between gravel and some MTB riders, with gravel bikes taking the majority of places. I'd say for the type of alpine gravel (or is it groad) riding here in Boulder, gravel bikes are faster.
Wallst+Sswitz
www.strava.com/segments/2373698?filter=overall
S. Switzerland Climb:
www.strava.com/segments/725199?filter=overall
Nice bike, looks like a much more refined take on the old Slate. That said, wish Cannondale would suspension correct the frame. What happens when riding off-road and the fork compresses the full 30mm? Well, you'll likely get some pedal strikes now and then, that's what. If C'dale would just raise the BB a bit more....
It's already quite high as it is!
The heir to the Slate has arrived and it looks nice... But I can't get past the fact that Cannondale added yet another proprietary part to a frame that already has too many proprietary parts. Hard pass from me because of that.
You can still change out the lefty for a solid or a dual leg fork. My biggest reservation about it is the unique offset on the rear wheel, but I guess it won't be that much of an issue overall.
@@DaveCM no one offers a short travel fork with the same offset as the lefty. Topstone carbons roll a 55mm offset
I’m torn between this and the canyon grail! Any tips or advice to finalize or am I missing another bike? I live in Salinas Ca, where the sea otter classic is held
@@DaveCM it's not like you gonna be using that lefty front wheel with any other bike
I want to like it, but all the proprietary parts mean i cant use a lot of my own so Diverge it is
I'll get it if I win the lottery
So was the slate ahead of it's time? Or is Cannondale doomed to repeat their mistakes every few years?
I rode a Slate with a Lefty Oliver. It was terrible.
@@jaymueller2418 why was it terrible? Dirty Kanza was won on one. Just curious.
Dirty Bismarck bike?
$1500 for just the fork... Or a perfectly good XC mountain bike. I still want one of these though!
@James Huang I wonder if you could use this as an MTB and Gravelbike (mtb on moderatly difficult terrain) maybe with an extra set of wheels? Maybe an idea for a long term review?
@@MacMasore I feel like you'd be better served by getting an XC bike and sticking drop-bars on it, if you must.
@@vomErsten but just sticking drop handlebars messes up the geometry - you'd need 90s MTB geometry MTB and a longer stem, which is what some people do...
And I am here with mine 26" hardtail in 2020
few more years and you'll be ahead of the game when 26 come back
i just did a 130km hilly gravel ride , me on my 29r xc hardtail and my bud on his carbon gravel bike. he was faster uphill and pulled me on the flats but on the rough descents i was way ahead and he had to stop to fix flats twice. so overall, i feel like it was a toss up!
Doesn't really make sense imo. That rocky section looked sketchy. Full suspension xc would have flown through it and with locked out shocks and bar ends they're a blast on gravel roads too.
and the thing ist, for USD 7500.00 (Topstone) you get both a good full-suspension MTB and a good roadbike.
This thing looks like a blast, but I test rode a Topstone and it did not fit me at all. Seems designed for people with super long legs and no torso...
Yes. Agreed to some extent, especially if you are in between sizes. You can always try it again with a much longer stem or handlebar with more reach or that is wider...
most gravel bike have endurance geometry, you may want to check out cx bikes, they are usually more aggressive
I was perusing the cannonade website and was looking at this bike and was mystified by the price. $9500 🇨🇦 for this model. But the carbon model with the lefty fork and wait for it... the electric motor is $8000 🇨🇦. How is the e-bike version cheaper?!? Looks like if it’s a cannonade for me it’s at best the alloy top stone with 105. More likely the Sora and hope to upgrade drivetrain down the road.
probably not carbon oliver fork-suspension, just look at the prices between the lefty 1 and 3. Lefty 3= aluminium shock. Lefty 1= Carbon schock.
Slate V2, if they could just make it in TI or steel - Cannondales are per definition the nicest riding non-custom bikes but im not gonna get a plastic or aluminum bike as long as Cannondale pioneers horrible tolerances combined with proprietary standards :-(
...still searching for a short 40-60mm head-shock stem for my 2011/2012 flash
lefty oliver vs lauf gravel fork
If its anything as good as a 80mm Fatty DLR i'd prefer the C'ndale fork any day.
Doubling down on the wack Slate front suspension
Brb putting a flared drop bar on my XC bike. See you losers in 2025 when the industry catches up with me!
its already available its called Salsa Cutthroat
@@aaronbanks3232 it's not overpriced enough!
Nice try, but John Tomac beat you to it, circa 1990s.
Go for it. Then come join our local group ride and see how long you last.
evil's gravel bike already a xc bike without fork but then again you can buy a frameset & change that
Just buy a quality XC mtb and put drop bar on it, looks better choice for me, especially at the weight/ price point.
wait so y'all are in Boulder and aren't using Switzerland Trail as your test route?
The ride from Downtown to the trail runs the range from smooth road, pea gravel bike path, smooth dirt roads up to Switzerland, the trail it self is a good climb with lots of deepish gravel and lose rock, what are you guys doing. It's one of the best "gravel/ adventure" loops on the front range.
Why would you want your fork to have one fork?
why would you want two forks when you can fit everything in one leg?
it's lighter and stiffer
Be a great road bike with a set of 700x28s
225/5000
A lady from Florence broke the rear of the Carbon Topstone with the rigid fork. Get the message across and ask other owners if they have had a problem. Write to info@reporterspress.it. Thank you
so let me understand...a kinda full suspension bike that can only take 700x40? Whatever.
the real question: do tires count as damped suspension? if they do, that's kinda awkward.
William Olling no, they're undamped.
Ugh, still 650b based wheels and limited 700c width support. This is exactly why Cannondale's last Lefty gravel bike (Slate) wasn't particularly popular. People want 700c from the get-go.
You said in other videos that you like to be underbike when doing gravel. That was one of the reason you didn’t like the Niner but you said here you didn’t want to get off this bike. Not fair at all. I feel you should take back some of the bad things you said about the Niner. It sounds biased and hypocritical when giving contradicting opinions.
cycling fan, you need to ride more bikes, feels them, to get to the point where you look on the bike or geometry tables and see that bike is shit or not shit (;
James Huang thanks for replying !
Wow James. You were very critical of the Niner. You praised the Topstone bike for the same characteristics you criticized on the Niner. I don’t know what to say about your reviews on both bikes. I thought you weren’t biased. If you watched both reviews back to back you can tell you didn’t give the Niner an opportunity from the start. I expect a video comparing both bikes.
I love this and also would never buy it. Proprietary parts kill it. Both front and rear wheels are specific to this bike and incompatible with all other road/gravel bikes? Yikes! The lefty on the front is one thing, but I'm not re-dishing the rear wheel when I want to switch between bikes. (FYI I have owned an Ai rear spaced mtb before and regretted it even though it does ride nice). I think this bike is about marketing. Kinda like a halo car in the dealership. You make a small number of these and a few passionate people buy them despite the impracticality. It gets a lot of people talking about the brand and attention in the press but as a company you're happy if you just break even on it.
All the “that’s basically a soft tail mtb” people need to look at the front ring before they open their mouth..... in theory, they are mostly right..... until they got dropped.
It has a 40T instead of a typical 32T of a MTB. So you're probably right, they'll get dropped by the MTBs on the steep hills if they can ride even ride them at all.
mtb
Lefty forks just look weird! No ta.
650 wheels👎👎
Repeating of a Slate mistake😂
Go Out and buy any xc Bike and it's probably better in nearly every way than this and If you do some research it's also cheaper
Just put us out of our misery and ffs put the flat bars on, and we can get back on with our lives as off road MTB riders again without all the " gravel" bullshit!!
I'm a Cannondale fan, but this is THE ugliest bike in years.
Go take a look at the Bianchi Arcadex and get back to us on that point 😁
@@XX-is7ps not even close 🤣