2012 Cannondale SuperSix EVO- Mount Washington Hill Climb Bike & First Ride Impressions

The 2012 SuperSix EVO with SRAM Red.

Smooth as Silk, and Lightning Fast! These are just a few very technical words to describe the 2012 Cannondale SuperSix EVO 2. I've been riding Cannondale road bikes for over 10 years now and they have evolved a lot since my 2000 era CAAD 4 Aluminum R1000. More recently, I've been riding a couple of different Cannondale's. I have a 2004 Aluminum R3000 with Optimo tubing, that I just love to ride, it's responsive with excellent power transfer and not too stiff to provide a harsh ride. I also ride a the 2007 SystemSix which was my first road bike with a blend of carbon and aluminum. The SystemSix has been by the far the lightest and stiffest, but also the fastest road bike I've ridden, until now! 

As pictured above, the SuperSix EVO has been changed from the stock build to accommodate my upcoming up-hill race on Mount Washington. I've added a SRAM X9 mountain bike rear derailleur, a SRAM 11-36 tooth cassette, and SRAM chain and paired up with a Cannondale Carbon Compact Crank. This is going to be the ideal gearing choice for the average 12% grade up the hill, 7.6 miles to the summit. Other subtle changes I made were in regards to my fit, so I widened the handlebar to 44cm and installed a longer, 110 mm stem.

 Gears for Hill Climbers.

Having spent a few hours yesterday morning dialing in the bike for the first ride, before I knew it, I was out on the roads of Southern Maine heading for some nice little hills around Mount Hope in the Sanford area. The roads leading up to the climbs are generally light rolling, but mostly flat. I am instantly amazed at how comfortable the ride is, bumps and cracks in the road surface pass under me unnoticed and I'm speeding right along with maximum efficiency, all pedal effort just progressing me forward. Standing up to sprint, I jet ahead in amazingly fast form (as fast as I can push this bike).

That's some low gearing!

Arriving at the base of the first climb on Fox Farm Hill road, I am able to maintain 7.5/8.5 MPH, 80-90 cadence and my heart rate around 170-180, well shy of my max HR. I find myself using the 34 chain ring with 28 or 32t cog and climbing with ease. As I stand on the pedals to climb, the bike just shoots uphill defying all gravity. Since that first lap was so much fun I descend and go back to hit it again! On the second descent, I push it hard to hit a fast speed, there's some nice corners and bends in the road and the bike just floats through with pin point precision where ever I want it to go. I'm able to experience even more bliss as I start to climb Mount Hope, it's amazing how this bike rides, accelerates, and how comfortable it is.

Our Super Star Cat, Harry, in full approval of the SuperSix EVO.

Here is my ride up and around Mount Hope from the park and ride in South Berwick, ME.


I'll be blogging a bit on my training on this bike in the next couple of weeks ahead of the race and definitely a blog on the race itself. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Steve

First Ride: 2011 Cannondale CAAD10 3

A quick ten miles on this early spring morning before the rain and snow swept back through New England was all I needed to get a good feel for the new CAAD10 from Cannondale.

Cannondale could have taken the easy route with the tenth generation of their flagship aluminum race frame, shipped the CAAD9 blueprints off to Asia, trimmed a little weight and called it a day, devoting their engineers to working on another carbon bike.

Instead, they devoted resources in time and money to creating a revolutionary aluminum bike, borrowing technology from their Flash mountain bike and Synapse road bike frame designs, coming up with a new 1 1/8 - 1 1/4" headtube standard, and dropping nearly half a pound off the CAAD9 frameset!

THE RIDE
Snappy, peppy, ready to sprint! The CAAD10 retains Cannondale's 25+ year race pedigree. It is as light as most competitor's standard carbon bikes, has similar vertical compliance (this means that the spring potholes don't rattle your fillings like they usually do on an aluminum bike). Gone are the wishbone seatstays of the last few generations of CAAD frames, replaced with SAVE stays that are super rigid laterally, but give you micro-suspension vertically.

The CAAD10 3 has some pretty big shoes to fill. For the past decade its predecessors: the R2000, then R1000, then CAAD8 Optimo, then CAAD9 3 have been the best-selling workhorse race bike in our store - perfect for hill climbs, crit races, anywhere that speed, lightweight and precision handling are called for.

Look around at the next criterium you go to in New England - you'll see more CAADs than any other bike! It is fast, light, stiff, and won't cost you a mortgage payment when some wingnut takes you out in a tight corner.

Shimano Ultegra 6700 drivetrain, FSA SL-K Light carbon BB30 crankset and Mavic Aksium wheelset rounds out a solid package and keeps the weight of the bike to just over 17 lbs!