Comfort, not speed

Road bikes don’t have to be designed for racing. Simon Withers tests long-distance all-rounders from Spa Cycles and Cannondale

There’s more than one way to design a comfortable road bike for year-round riding, club runs, sportive or audax events, and commuting. The two test bikes both have 28mm tyres, a carbon fork, rack and mudguard mounts, and geometry that’s designed for long days out rather than racing. But the similarities pretty much end there.

Spa Cycles’ Steel Audax 105 is a traditional take on the endurance road bike, with skinny steel tubes, rim brakes, and a name that underscores what it’s for. Cannondale’s Synapse Sora typifies modern trends, featuring much larger diameter aluminium tubes and disc brakes. While there is a difference in price, both bikes look to be good value. Spa’s bikes always are, and Cannondale’s Synapse is only £150 more than in 2018 – a nice surprise in these inflation-ravaged days.

Frame & fork

Spa’s Steel Audax has a TIG-welded Reynolds 725 chromoly frame, though all sizes except the 50cm model have a carbon-bladed fork with a straight

1 1/8in aluminium steerer. The test bike’s fork steerer had been left long, which results in a lower-back-friendly ride that’s good for urban riding and touring. It’s excellent for seeing and being seen but you could cut down the steerer – or run more of the spacers above the stem – for a lower and more athletic riding position. The frame’s rear triangle has separate mounts for the rack and mudguards, and the chainstay bridge is mudguard ready.

While the TIG-welding isn’t quite the neatest I’ve seen, I don’t doubt its functionality. The frame should last a lifetime as the steel is ‘ED coated’; this ‘electrophoretic deposition’ ensures a uniform thickness of paint. The finish is excellent: beautifully deep and lustrous.

There’s clearance for 28mm tyres with mudguards. Even without ’guards you’d struggle to fit tyres wider than 32mm, so it’s best suited to tarmac, smooth tracks, and lighter loads. In many ways, including the colour, it reminds me of my first ‘serious’ road bike: a 1984 Raleigh Clubman. The Spa’s components and ride are superior, however. Not everything was better back in the day!

Cannondale was a pioneer in aluminium frame building so it’s no surprise to see a neatly welded, oversize aluminium frame at the heart of the Synapse. It features a chainstay bridge drilled for a mudguard and single eyelets at the rear dropouts for a mudguard and rack to share. The rear dropouts are quick release rather than a thru-axle, presumably as a cost saving. There’s clearance front and rear for 35mm rubber.

The frame is accompanied by a fullcarbon fork that uses Cannondale’s ‘SAVE technology' – which is to say, the design and carbon layup are intended to improve comfort. The fork has a 12mm thru-axle, to make the most of the disc brake, and mudguard mounts on the inner faces of the fork blades. The steerer is tapered to maximise front-end stiffness.

Components

The price difference between the two bikes is evident to some degree in the components, though if I’d tested the next model up in the Synapse range – the £1,200 Tiagra – the disparity wouldn’t have been as striking.

Spa’s Steel Audax 105 is equipped, as you’d expect, with Shimano’s 11-speed 105 groupset. A 50-34 double chainset is paired with an 11-32 cassette, though Spa can fit a bigger cassette to give a lower bottom gear if you prefer. (It’s also available with a triple chainset.)

Shifting is light, smooth and accurate, and the brakes are easy to set up and easily good enough for the steep descents around Bath, where I live. With 11 sprockets, the gaps between gears are less obvious than on the nine-speed Cannondale.

Spa doesn’t use Shimano 105 for the brake callipers. Instead they’re Tektro R737; the deeper-drop design allows the use of 28mm tyres and mudguards. Those full-length SKS mudguards are very effective at reducing the spread of

Tech Spec CANNONDALE SYNAPSE SORA (2022)

Price: £1,000.

Sizes: 48, 51, 54, 56, 58, 61cm.

Weight: 10.36kg (54cm, no pedals).

Frame & fork:

SmartForm C2 alloy frame with fittings for flat-mount disc brake, rack and mudguard, and two bottle cages.

Full-carbon SAVE fork with tapered steerer, 12×100mm thru-axle, and fittings for flatmount disc brake and mudguard.

Wheels: 28-622

Vittoria Zaffiro tyres, RD 28h rims, stainless steel 14g spokes, Formula CRX-512 12×100 thru-axle front, alloy quickrelease rear.

Transmission: no pedals, FSA Vero alloy 50-34 chainset, FSA cartridge BB30 bottom bracket, KMC Z9 9-speed chain, Shimano HG400 11-34 cassette. Shimano Sora shifters, Shimano Sora front and rear mech. 18 ratios, 27-121in.

Brakes: Promax Decoder R cable disc, 160mm rotors. Steering & seating: Cannondale Grip bar tape w/gel 3.5mm, Cannondale 6061 compact alloy bar, Cannondale 4 6061 alloy stem (31.8mm, 7°), threadless headset. Cannondale Stage Ergo saddle, 25.4×350mm Cannondale seatpost. cannondale.com

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