Help with choosing new Endurance bike

if you like your position on

if you like your position on the synapse alloy, then check out the synapse carbon or if you want pro level quality and weight, then check out the synapse carbon hi-mod

there are great deals to be had at the moment on the synapse range! – you can get the synapse carbon hi-mod with dura ace and carbon wheels for under £4k!!!

Hi bignormz,

Hi bignormz,

Glad to hear that you’re enjoying your riding!

In terms of riding you mention doing long rides and are you racing or just riding for fun doing recrational club rides, sportifs, audax/randonneur rides or just riding on your own for fun/adventure?

In your message you’ve said that you’ve got into road bikes in the past year and have you just had the one drop bar bike so far being the Cannondale Synnapse that you’ve mentioned or have you had more than one bike so far?  If you’ve had or have ridden more than one bike what were the characteristics that you either did or didn’t like and what has suited you.  For example at the extremes do you like a low down aerodynaic/aggressive riding position on a bike with a long reach and low stack?  Or do you prefer a more upright/ relaxed riding position on a bike with a shorter reach and higher stack?

In terms of geometry have you compared the geometry of your current bike to the new ones that you’re considering?

On the subject of getting a bike that fits you have you considered getting a bike fit?  If you’re spending this much money on a bike then a bike fit coud well be a wise investment as part of your outlay.  However just make sure that the bike fitters know & understand your riding style and what you want from a bike so that for example they don’t misundrstand and recomment a very aggrssive race bike to you.

Also are you set on one type of frame material or open to suggestions.  Whilst eberything is subjective in the eye of the beholder and we all want different things from our bikes and desire different frame materials/ bikes if it were mea and if I were not racing I would be spending my money on a steel frames bike with the ability to take wider tyres for increased comfort.

Also some companies such as the one I’ll mention below offer different versions of their frames to suit different body types.  For example two people of exactly the same height may have a different torso to leg length ratio and so they would need a different frame geometry wise in order to get something comforatble to fit them.  However on this subject there’s a better explanation of this in the links and video below.

Fairlight Cycles produce their bikes in both regular and tall version of their frames in order to suit more people and you can find out more about this here:-

https://vimeo.com/180866780

https://fairlightcycles.com/why-fairlight/fit-function-form/?v=79cba1185463

Also if you don’t already have the benefit of bike fit data for you don’t have to be an expert in order to figure out which frame size and version (regular or tall) is correct for you because all you do is select the model of bike that you want from the Fairlight website and then you can enter both your height and inside leg measurement and it will recommend which frame is best for you.  If you want to do this if you go to their website and then to Shop Bikes > Strael > then click on one of the bike builds (this is all for the Strael Mk 1 on the website but don’t worry about this because it’s just about fit and the frame geometry is the same for the Mk2 as the Mk1 as far as I’m aware unless anyone knows differently) > then scroll down below the heading ‘Find Your Fit’ and you can input your measurements and it will recommend a frame size to you.

One reason that I’ve mentioned Fairlight bikes is because of your height and I think that Fairlight do quite large frames and potentially it’s worth emailing them if you’re interested in one of their bikes because I think that they introdcued a new large frame size with the Mk2 Strael and so that may not be factored in on the website that shows the fit data for the Mk1 frame.

As you might be able to tell I’m quite a fan of the Fairlight bikes and if I had enough money and I could persuade my wife that N+1 was a good idea then I’d be getting myself a Fairlight like a shot.  However I’m not the only fan of them and I think that at least one Road.cc staff member, if not more, has bought one with their own money which is saying something when cycle media people who test all sorts of bikes and are lucky enough to test all sorts of expensive dream bikes but they choose to spend their own money on this.

There are some review of the Farilight Strael (more road) and the Secan (able to take wider tyres so it has more off road/gravel capability) below.  Plus I’ve heard of several owners in Australia.

https://road.cc/content/review/240016-fairlight-cycles-strael-20

https://road.cc/content/review/248008-fairlight-cycles-secan

They are available in various builds with lots of different groupset and wheel options.

If steel bikes are of no interest to you then my apologies and good luck finding the right bike for you!

John

I’ve ridden the Synapse you

I’ve ridden the Synapse you have, and the Canyon.

To be honest there is not a great deal in between them. You already have a good bike there. Di2 is good fun though.