Cannondale’s new SystemSix claims to be the fastest UCI approved road bike in the world*

02 Jul 2018 19:53

This article first appeared on BikeRadar.

Cannondale revives the SystemSix marque as its fastest bike ever. The Pennsylvanian brand's reputation for innovation was built on bikes like the original SystemSix, itself an innovation.

Based on Cannondale's ground-breaking CAAD aluminium bikes and the legendary Six13, while the original SystemSix co-moulded a carbon monocoque front end with CAAD8 level hindquarters, the new SystemSix takes its cues from lessons learned in the all-conquering Evo, and the sublime smoothness of the Synapse, and creates an aero-optimised package claimed to be the fastest currently available.

Nathan Barry, one of Cannondale's team of design engineers, is an aero specialist and has a background in aerodynamics, specializing in bicycles — he's published papers and his PhD on how to analyse real world aero for bicycling — and he explains: "SystemSix is the result of a ground up design where each element is optimized in pursuit of speed. Aerodynamic drag is the single greatest resistive force that riders have to overcome, so it is important to everyone, not just racers. SystemSix delivers more speed, to more riders, more of the time."

This in itself is an interesting concept, as we, like you, probably, are used to being bamboozled by numbers on aero efficiency at speeds that most of us would find hard to attain or maintain.

How does Cannondale do this?

Yaw weighted drag

Case studies

Devil in the details

Get KNOTted

Rapid thru-axles

Power options

Look inside

Cannondale SystemSix pricing

Cannondale SystemSix HiMod Dura Ace Di2: £7,999.99 / $10,999.99
Cannondale SystemSix HiMod Ultegra Di2: £6,499.99 / $7,499.99
Cannondale SystemSix HiMod Dura Ace: £5,999.99 / $7,499.99
Cannondale SystemSix HiMod DA Women's: £5,999.99 / $7,499.99
Cannondale SystemSix Carbon Dura Ace: £4,999.99 / $5,999.99
Cannondale SystemSix Carbon Ultegra: £3,499.99 / $3,999.99

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