Carbon Topstone

Interesting flexy rear with a pivot. Nice and light though

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An unprecedented gravel bike for going places a gravel bike dare not tread. Introducing Topstone Carbon. #rideTopstone #MoreGiveMoreGo

A post shared by Cannondale Bicycles (@ridecannondale) on Jun 20, 2019 at 8:05am PDT

Never owned a Cannondale but I love the fact that they are really willing to try out some outlandish designs.

I wondered how they did it. It’s a similar concept to the Trek isospeed bearing pivot but in a different place on the frame.
I couldn’t see anything up front though?
I wonder, and this applies to the Trek too, how many cycles the carbon can go through before it fails?

30mm upfront on the Slate. Crayons out and now moved the 30mm to rear duties on the Topstone.

BTW I love the Slate. A proper middle finger bike.

The seat tube visibly flexes when you weight the saddle. Made the cobbles in my pic smoother than on an aluminum framed bike. Only had the briefest of rides though. It’s more on the road side of geometry than mtb. The seat post is 27.2 rather than the silly size Cannondale use on some of their bikes which is a bonus

Looks like a fun bike, dropper routing too. I wonder why they’ve switched from front suspension to rear? I’ve seen a couple of wacky full suspension drop bar bikes but I hope there’s a future in the micro suspension type designs like this and the Diverge.

How does the suspension work if there is no pivot or linkage at the bb? Is it flex in the seat stays that allows the movement in the seat tube?

Looks like a practical all round bike. Similar geo to the Synapse means it will be fast and efficient on road. I bet it’s light too. Could be a one bike quiver killer.

They use 27.2 on the slate nothing new. I’m guessing that it still has the 1.5 steerer tho?

How does the suspension work if there is no pivot or linkage at the bb? Is it flex in the seat stays that allows the movement in the seat tube?

The bearing is more of a way to focus load into the seat tube in the right way. The TT and ST section of the main frame flex against the fairly rigid rear triangle with the bearing being a sort of fulcrum between the two. So out of the saddle it should feel pretty snappy, in the saddle more comfy.

First thing I thought of when seeing it is maybe this is what’s next for the Slate. That would probably be me taking back a lot of words about suspension and drop bar bikes – passive flex rear with an active, short travel and very stiff fork could be the ideal solution.

“nothing up front” – not watched the vid’ but can see in the vid link pic a flat top carbon bar on the top of range model apparently this has some flex

like the innovation and more and more choice but don’t go thinking can stick any old wheel set in there the rear has to be dished specifically to this bike i believe