Cannondale SystemSix Carbon Ultegra Road Bike - 2020 - Black/Grey

About The SystemSix:

Cannondale's SystemSix recorded the lowest ever drag for a UCI-legal road bike, fact. Just think how much faster you could be riding on this beauty...

The SystemSix is a full-on, no-holds-barred race bike. Aerodynamic tube shaping, integrated components, and a whole host of technology make this one of the fastest road bikes in the world, as at home in the biggest races as tearing around your local routes.

Cannondale's Ballistec carbon keeps the weight low while allowing each tube to be hsaped for maximum aero efficiency. But this sin't a load of tubes stuck together. It's a whole system with one line flowing seamlessly into another. The truncated airfoil shape of the fork and frame are continued at the edges where the fork and headtube meet, making for smoother air flow and less drag. Where the seatstays meet the main triangle is a minimalist join to prevent undue turbulence while the seatclamp is hidden inside the frame so air just cruises on by. Up front an sleek bar and stem hide cables and run them through the headtube, while shaped headset spacers keep all the lines smooth for perfect wind cheating.

So, it's definitely aero. How about fast? Well, Cannondale's Hollowgram chainset and BB30 bottom bracket is renowned as the stiffest in the business. When you give it full gas, every watt is transferred straight to the back wheel with minimal flex so you can really hammer along. The rolling stock is Vision 55mm deep carbon rims which blend seamlessly with the Vittoria 26mm tyres to create a super aero wheelset. Cannondale designed the SystemSix to fit these wheels perfectly so the air flows as easily as possible pver and through the bike. What does this all mean? Simply, for any given effort you can ride significantly faster on the SystemSix than a standard road bike, and probably faster than many other brands' aero bikes. It really is the pinnacle of speed.

So it's fast, but is it a bone rattler? Even with all that stiffness, strength and aero tube profiles, Cannondale have managed to squeeze in their proprietary SAVE seat stays which are engineered to provide vertical compliance. That means comfort on rough roads, it means being able to ride for longer in comfort, it means better performance.

As the name suggests, the SystemSix is a system. Each components is carefully chosen to fit perfectly together for top performance. The Hollowgram chainset and SpideRing is proprietary and a work of engineering art, as are the sleek Vision carbon bars and stem. Shimano's Ultegra groupset takes care of shifting duties admirably. There's a reason you find it on many top bikes: it's light, it's smooth, reliable and looks great. The matching disc brakes offer plenty of power mixed with control so you can descend in confidence without having to haul on the brake levers to slow you down. Disc brakes might seem an odd choice on an aero bike, but moving the brake away from the fork crown allowed Cannondale's engineers to actually improve aerodynamics. So better braking and more speed. Yes please.

The bottom line: the SystemSix is fast. Really fast. Faster than virtually any other road bike you'll swing a leg over. It's the Cannondale way of supreme integration and taking care of every conceivable detail, and it's a sure fire way to find more speed whther you've got a season of racing coming up or want to smash those Strava times.