Jeremy_S

I want to take one for a spin one day. I love the way the caad 10 looked, the 12 looks great too, but having ridden carbon on chip seal back to back with aluminum, I don't know if I could ever go back unless it's gotten that good. 50 miles of chip seal on an aluminum bike I can no longer feel my manly parts and my teeth hurt.

macca33

Is this thread a bit of a pi55-take, or what???

topflightpro

Latest versions of the Caad 10 also have internal cable routing.

BB30A is not threaded. It's a wider version of Cannondale's BB30. It's 73mm wide compared to 68mm for the old BB30.

Stucky

Far as I'm concerned, the aluminum bike was perfected by Gary Klein. End of story. Lots of other good AL bikes out there too, I'm sure; as well as steel. CF= bOOOOOOOOring. -a gimmick, whose time may be drawing to a close. There's nothing like the feel of real metal between you and the road....even cheap metal.

RJM

Kleins were nice...I drooled over owning a Klein mountain bike back in the '90s. The paint jobs were awesome.

I'm glad aluminium is still out there and getting updates. This CAAD looks nice but I'm not into the internal routing and the bb standard.

WalksOn2Wheels

bikecommuter13

did some googling, caad10 black costs $4K. Is that right? How much faster can you go with it over an 8 mile ride compared to an $800 bike? 5 minutes faster with the same effort?

Deontologist

5 minutes faster? Maybe over the course of 10,000 miles, sure.

The CAAD12 is only 13% stiffer at the BB area, and that's assuming Cannondale isn't straight out lying.

Multiple well-regarded engineers have said that bike frame flex, specifically, BB area flex, results in power losses of 3-4% at most. That's assuming that none of the energy you put into flexing your bike is returned to you in an useful manner - i.e. propelling the chain forward. Energy put into flexing the frame MUST be returned in some manner - the bike must spring back to its original shape. Otherwise you just permanently bent (aka broke) your frame - congrats - time for a new frame.

So what's 13% of 4%?

That's 0.52%.

Assuming that you have an average power output of 300 W, then the new CAAD12 will save you a MAXIMUM of 1.56 W.

In real life this translates to about 27.6 seconds at most, which is significant if you are a PRO who is riding in the drops at 25 MPH for 100 MPH straight with no wind. Plug the numbers in yourself and see the difference that ~1.5W makes.

https://bikecalculator.com/

To put this all in context - power meters have a range of +/- 3%. So a bike's stiffness or lack thereof and it's resulting impact on power won't even be able to be detected on a power meter in most cases.

DGlenday

One of the local race teams (not my team) in my area supplies their riders with CAAD-10s for crits, at a hugely attractive price. It's almost part of that team's uniform.

I have a CAAD-9, and love it - have done crits and ultra-distance rides on it. And it isn't as good as the CAAD-10, and presumably, the CAAD-12 will be better still.

Going forward - I'd definitely use my carbon bike for longer distances, but the CAAD's responsiveness and nippy cornering is ideal for crits. That said - I hope the 12 will be lighter than my 9.

Interestingly - the CAAD-9's welds were FAR smoother and 'prettier" than the CAAD-10's welds. I'm not aware of any CAAD-10 weld failures, though, so I assume it's just a cosmetic problem. I hope they've fixed the weld quality on the new CAAD-12.

bikecommuter13

So if you are a pro or plan to be a pro, go for it. Or if you have extra money to spend and really want to spend it on a bike, go for it. But if you are the common folk wants to go fast on a bike, $800 bike is about as good as you can do, right?

Slackerprince

I've told this story many times here:
I rode my 2013 Synapse back to back with a 2013 Roubaix on a rough road, and the Synapse was MUCH smoother.
Since they are both endurance bikes, I didn't really compare cornering, out of the saddle stiffness, or other racing characteristics.
FWIW and all that.

S

Stucky

Wait. A lot of younger riders today have never ridden real metal. Some will "discover" it; there will be articles in the magazines about it, because now that the market is largely saturated with CF, the opportunity to re-saturate with metal would a natural for manufacturers looking to start the next big fad to get everyone to buy new bikes. Not to mention, that CF will lose it's "new and unusual state-of-the-art" status because it is now so common; and more people are realizing that a good metal frame actually rides better than CF. Might happen next year...or 10 years from now, I don't kno- but it'll happen.

WalksOn2Wheels

MOST of what you're saying is or has already happened on quite a large scale. There will always be a market for all these materials. Carbon will be the material of choice for high performance bikes for years to come. Its time has not nearly come to an end. Not even close.

PepeM

And people like you will be lamenting the change, exalting the virtues of carbon and how kids these days on their shiny steel frames don't get it.

Hmmm

As far as I understand it the CAAD9 was the last of the CAADs made in the USA, the CAAD10 was a redesigned model that they could manufacture overseas. That might be the difference in "prettyness"

mercator

qft

popeye

I nominate this thread for the most BS ever.

Deontologist

If you're someone who rides 13 MPH average over 10 flat miles at sea level, then an $800 dollar bike might be all you need. An $8000 bike might help you bump that 13 MPH to 13.5 MPH due to possibly improved aerodynamics, smoother bearings, and a smattering of other very small factors. In reality though if you're only managing 13 MPH over 10 miles you're way better off improving your own strength and stamina rather than getting a "faster" bike.

Stucky

True- not that CF has come to the end of the line- but it seems to me that metal is already starting to make somewhat of a resurgence; and the idea that CF is going to wipe-out every other material, and be the material that 98% of production bikes are made of, is showing it's age.

ColaJacket

In reading articles about the Specialized S-Works Venge ViAS aero road bike, it did say that internal routing did have some aero benefits. About equal to having shoe covers.

But I agree, that from what I've heard, it is easier to keep externally routed cables clean when riding in adverse conditions.

GH

sleepy

I'm just jonesing for steel brames with DT braze ons to make a comeback.

I don't know what the "Next Big Thing" is now that I've seen Fixie go to Cross go to Gravel go to "All Road" which will we always be code for "High End ATB bike".

And I like my naked cable CAAD10, screw that hidden aerodynamic PITA hid the cable spiel.

Save the road bike!

bt

research showed 12 to be fasterer.

WalksOn2Wheels

Tell you what, build two bikes. One on a touring frame with exposed cables and one on a cross frame with internal cable routing. Put them both through the same miles during a wet winter. Pull the cables from both bikes and tell me which ones look cleaner.

ColaJacket

Yes, external cables will get dirty, but they'er also easier to clean without replacing the cable.

GH

PepeM

The one with fenders?