Cannondale’s venerable SuperSix Evo has continually been loved for its low weight and excessive stiffness — the suitable combination for climbers and traditionalists that prize a quick experience. The new 0.33-generation model remains light and still stiff, but Cannondale has now additionally infused it with a hearty dose of aerodynamic efficiency as well.
Taken in total, the new motorcycle must make for an excellent-better all-rounder for people who no longer handiest need to sense fast, but absolutely go rapid, too.
Keeping up with the Joneses
No one has ever debated that the outgoing 2d-generation SuperSix Evo changed into both light and stiff; however, the truth is that low mass and high stiffness are most effective get you so far. It’s long been widely widespread that, barring mainly steep climbs, growing aerodynamic performance is more useful than losing grams about going rapid. Unfortunately, the nominally spherical tubes long favored with the aid of the SuperSix Evo, which can be incredible for structural performance, are also quite horrible in terms of slicing through the wind.
And so in a pass that must wonder nobody, the new 0.33-generation SuperSix Evo, in the end, provides an aero issue to the formulation, with new truncated airfoil tube shapes that supposedly generate as much as 30% less drag than the vintage bike’s rounded tubes. According to Cannondale, that is common via the distinctive feature of how the trapezoidal move-sections do a much higher process of decreasing airflow separation at the tube’s trailing aspect.
Perhaps greater impressively, Cannondale claims to have done this even as adding no weight relative to the previous model. In fact, growing stiffness barely — claims echoed using quite lots every other motorbike employer that has included such Kamm tail profiles to its quiver of bike designs.
Further including to the aero tale are newly dropped seat stays — a well-proven way to lessen drag — a new aero-profile Knot 27 carbon Seatpost, a low-profile Hollowgram SAVE SystemBar included bar-and-stem and completely inner cable routing from tip to tail. In total, the new SuperSix is stated to require approximately 30W, much less attempt to keep the velocity of forty-eight.3km/h (30mph) relative to the outgoing model.
Naturally, Cannondale is making a few large claims in phrases of aero blessings over a few key competitors, too.
According to Cannondale’s trying out, a rider on a Trek Emonda will crank out over 40 greater watts at that equal pace. At the same time, a person on a brand new BMC Road machine will want to find an extra 23W or so compared to a person on a new SuperSix Evo. However, even greater thrilling is that Cannondale is even claiming fairly considerable overall performance gaps over the further aero-minded Cervelo R5 and Specialized Tarmac SL6, with roughly 12W and 9W benefits, respectively.
As always, though, there is some information to struggle through.
Cannondale carried out those tests inside the Low-Speed Wind Tunnel in San Diego, California, using complete motorcycles in similar sizes and equal Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets, however, with variations in wheels, tires, and cockpit components based totally on producer spec. Some discrepancies are to be anticipated given the differences in rim depths — the Emond’s 28mm-deep Bontrager Aeolus XXX 2 wheels aren’t even claimed to be remotely aero, for instance — but what matters extra right here are the front-give up setups.
Of all of the bikes examined, handiest the SuperSix Evo become equipped with an aero-focused bar-and-stem, and for the reason that Cannondale fees a nine.1W saving for that element on my own — relative to a conventional non-aero setup — the claimed gaps close considerably. Similarly prepared, the Road machine and Emonda would nevertheless be slower, however now not as dramatically so, and this 0.33-gen SuperSix Evo would essentially fall proper on a pinnacle of the current Tarmac SL6 and R5.
That’s rarely bad organization, thoughts you, however possibly now not the primary gap that Cannondale’s an advertising and marketing substances may have you agree with.
There’s additionally the difficulty of the examined velocity. Needless to say, few of us are typically cruising at 48.3km/h on a day-to-day foundation, and for the reason that aerodynamic drag increases exponentially with pace, actual-international differences could be appreciably smaller in phrases of watts stored. That said, even at more modest speeds — say, 15km/h — greater than half of-of your attempt when riding on flat ground is devoted to overcoming aerodynamic drag. As such, any profits in that department are nevertheless noteworthy, as a minimum assuming you’re interested in going faster with the identical attempt or saving strength while shifting at the same pace.
Weight-smart, Cannondale claims that the pinnacle-stop Hi-Mod Disc version suggests the scales at 866g for a painted 56cm pattern, plus some other 389g for the matching fork, reduce to in shape. The proprietary seat post adds some other 162g. The popular SuperSix Evo Disc — which is constructed with a less superior blend of carbon fiber — is available at 999g, 436g, and 162g for identical specifications.
