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74 Main Street Middlebury Vermont (802) 388-6666 |
It's official: 14.94 pounds, with clinchers and reflectors! A 54cm Cannondale Super Six 2, equipped with SRAM Force and Mavic R-Sys wheels, was our first out-of-the-box bike to break the 15 pound barrier on our digital scales (without pedals). Super Six 1
BB30 is a bottom bracket standard pioneered by Cannondale, used with great success in models beginning with the CAAD6. Wider = stiffer, so a wider bottom bracket shell means better power transfer. Other big players on the road racing scene, notably Specialized, are now using the BB30 for their top models. The same goes for the crank axle of Cannondale's SI cranksets. At 30mm, the SI axle is 25 percent wider than the current industry standard used by Shimano, Campy, and SRAM. Wider also means stronger, so Cannondale is able to use a lighter aluminum crank axle. What about lightness? The Super Six is not one of those frames that
tries to tip the scales at 850gm or less. The Cannondale philosophy is to
use more material to make the frame stronger. Cannondale offsets the
higher frame weight (1,000gm) with the very light, very stiff SI cranksets.
14.94 pounds is light, especially when you consider that a 54cm Super Six uses
the SRAM Force group, not SRAM Red. |
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The Super Six is Cannondale's first
made-in-the-US all-carbon road frame. Cannondale molds the massive BB30 Super
Six bottom bracket shell and both chainstays in one piece. This results in
exceptional lateral stiffness at the center of the drive train, to optimize
power transfer. The tapered head tube accommodates a fork steerer that
tapers from 1.5" at the fork crown to 1.125" at the top of the
steerer. The resulting lateral stiffness at the front of the bike
translates into an extremely stable ride, even in a 100kph descent like the east
side of Bethel Mountain in the Green Mountain Stage Race. This concept was pioneered several years ago by Time, the French company which
makes all the forks on US-made Cannondale road bikes.