Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Cannondale Synapse 2 RLE road bike.
Endurance bikes strike a balance between comfort and performance by utilizing less
aggressive geometry and compliant setups to soak up the harshness on the road.
Cannondale's popular Synapse lineup of bikes offer carbon fiber and aluminum options for
new or experienced cyclists looking for comfort and speed. In this review we're specifically
looking at the Cannondale Synapse Carbon 2 RLE which combines a carbon fiber frame with
their innovative SmartSense system. In terms of specs this is $5500 and
you get their Synapse carbon frame which has discrete flex zones built directly into the frame.
You also get the SmartSense system which is that RLE part of the model that gives
you a rear radar, front headlight and a tail light that all interconnected and then driven
through a central battery. You get Ultegra Di2 R8000 drivetrain which includes hydraulic disc
brakes so you get really fast shifting with the high performance that Shimano is known for.
You also get a really premium components with this bike you get the Fulcrum Rapid Red
500 alloy wheel set with 700x30 Victoria tires as well as a Fizik Argo saddle. The bike also
has compliance all the way up to 35 millimeter tires if you want to go wider. We have the 58
centimeter frame here and the cool mint color and our scales it comes out to 19.8 pounds which
is pretty good for an endurance bike with a full carbon frame. You can obviously drop some pounds if
you upgrade some of the components like the wheel set but as is it's great for climbing or sprinting.
This is a mid-tier bike within the lineup so to give you a little more context on that Cannondale
has the endurance bikes which is known as the Synapse, alloy road racing bike which
is the CAAD 13 then they have their carbon fiber road racing and aero bikes which are the Super Six.
Within the Synapse lineup you have a ton of options from the $1800 tiagra setup all
the way up to the $9000 Carbon 1 RLE which has Dura Ace Di2. As you go downward you have
the $7000 LTD rle which is GRX 800. The other version we have here the $5500 Carbon 2 RLE.
For $4500 you can get a Carbon 2 LE which drops the radar and goes
down to 105 Di2. If you're more budget contest and go down to a Carbon 3 L version which just
has the front light and that is 3300 with 105 mechanical drivetrain. They even have
more budget oriented ones like the Tiagra setup with the Carbon 4 and the AL
2 version which is only eighteen hundred dollars so quite a few options here and with the carbon
ones you get the same frame throughout. All aluminum ones are much more budget friendly.
As you can see the bike has a classic endurance style geometry we have the 58 centimeter frame
here but you can see the bottom brackets lower and then you have a tall head tube with a flat
angle so it puts it more upright and comfortable position. The frame is full carbon fiber so no
welding here you have very smooth curves and a nice bevel along the inner triangle.
You can see the cables run down the down tube and you have simple branding with Cannondale
and a water bottle cage on the top. The top tube actually tapers down and is sloping downward a bit,
the down tube has a square profile with that beveling and then the battery at the bottom and
the water bottle cages. You had an FSA drop bar with the dual lever Ultegra Di2 setup so really
easy to modulate and you get a K-Edge aluminum out front mount with a Lezyn headlight pre-installed
onto it and then the top Garmin mount for your computer. This is a electronic setup so you just have
a cable for the front and rear disc brakes and a power cable for the SmartSense system. You can see
there's plenty of space on the fork as you have disc brakes and up to 35 millimeter compatibility
standard seat post mount and then you can see the offset seat stays so they're actually not
at the same level of the top tube and that gives you more compliance more aerodynamic and allows
Cannondale to tune each frame. You get a really nice saddle, it's a Fizik Argo and then you
can see you have the rear Garmin radar and Lezyn taillight attached to a saddle rail
mount. If you want to install a saddle bag you have to get an extender to push that out to fit
the straps. You can see the hidden fender mounts on the insides of the fork and then
the tread on the 700x30 Victoria tires it's a nice balance between performance and comfort.
The battery here is fully integrated but removable and a nice little toggle and then you just simply lock
it in place. You have four LED indicator on top and a USB type-c port the cables that run to the
lights are fully integrated within the frame but the battery sits on top so it doesn't mess with
the geometry. Its a 11x28 cassette on the rear so nice smooth shifting then a compact 50x34
crank set so a really great combination. It gives you a wide range of gearing and then you can see
the seat stays from the rear. Plenty of clearance again they have a removable bridge that we don't
have installed but you can see the seat stays flare out so you have a nice sleek profile. [Music]
Now let's take a look at some riding footage with the Cannondale Synapse. Overall really impressed
with the bike especially in the cool mint color we got a lot of compliments with it you have a nice
matte green on the front and then the metallic green on the inner triangles and the rear triangle.
So really nice feature and really sets off the bike compared to the standard one in
black variations on the market. Even though this endurance bike is still very agile and
fun to ride and you have that premium look that you expect with a road racing bike so they've
struck a nice balance with it. You have a nice compliance with this bike as well so even over
rough bumps so 700x30 tires absorb a lot of the harshness and the carbon fiber frame can flex
so it's great bike overall. We do wish it had more narrow tires we'd prefer 700x28 or something a
little bit more aggressive but the 700x30 work well we don't think you nearly need to update
much on this bike once you buy it the saddle is really nice the handlebars so all the components
are high-end and there's no real weak link here. The shifting on here is also really excellent
even though you don't really need the Dura Ace level drivetrain. It's fast and smooth so you
don't really have to worry about it it's just fast clicks with low effort and then you have
a wide gear ratio here so you have the compact crank and then 11x28 on the rear so it's
great for climbing or doing really fast sprints. The other thing with this bike is the SmartSense
system we're not entirely sure if we're behind that system yet there's not any they don't have
any upgrade ability with that so you can't upgrade the battery or the lights what you get is what you
see. They do have an StVZO version for Germany but that's the only variation that they currently have
you can see here the tail light here does work well but it's not our favorite we still prefer
the Bontrager Flare R or some of the Magicshine options. With this fully integrated setup it's very
seamless so you just jump on the bike the lights automatically turn on and after six minutes of
no motion they automatically go into a sleep mode so it's very seamless you just jump on
the bike you don't have to worry about charging multiple devices you have a single battery. We do
wish the battery was bigger though with with the current battery we get about 10 hours of run time
so if you do a really long ride you're still gonna have to charge this at least once a week
and you can see here the tail light has a lot of integrated features as well so when it detects
a car you can see the mode switches that's a really cool feature of this. It also has the
ambient light sensor built in so automatically switch between daytime mode and whichever
previous mode you have to set up so it's a great experience overall you don't even need to really
touch the app as all the defaults work well. We didn't have any issues with connectivity
or reliability with the light setup but we do wish there were more options to upgrade it
but overall really fun bike I would probably recommend going down to one
of the mechanical drivetrain setups or a little bit more value but with this bike
it's really fun to ride and if you like an electronic drivetrain I think this is a good.
Now let's take a look at the Cannondale app with this app you can actually see all your
bike details so once you connect to it you can see the name synapse Carbon 2 RLE. You can look at your
bike detail serial number even down to the color service you can set reminders so as you do more
riding and mileage automatically remind you to do certain services. It has a full part list so the
stock setup is fully listed here which is pretty cool so if you ever need to replace something you
don't know what you have you can just double check here and make sure you buy a proper replacement.
The other really cool thing about this is you can actually control the Smart Sense system
that's one of the main features here so you can activate it
so you can hear it's waking up it shows you the battery percentage so you get a nice detailed
number. You can control different features here so the auto low power mode so it'll go
into eco mode to preserve the battery. Auto wake up which is the default it automatically turns
on when you start moving but you can turn that off and make it a manual thing. Update firmware
you can control the light mode so if you click on light you can see there's High Vis Twilight power
saver and pulsing that'll automatically switch the active mode and you can even see the animation
they also have a lot of cool features here which you can customize. By default they're all
mostly on and it makes it for a great seamless experience but you can actually turn them off.
They have an auto low light mode so I'll go to the high vis mode automatically
you have a brake alert mode which will detect breaking and then update the rear light.
You also have auto low power mode again so that'll preserve the lights by going to eco mode
you have the reaction to the radar which is kind of cool so it flashes a different pattern
and you even have this nice feature called Auto proximity flash so like a luxury car
when you approach it it'll flash so it's kind of nice so really nice setup and you can even
do full rides here. So if you go to the ride mode you can start the ride it'll show you the radar
you can actually hear the radar alerts on here and display them on there you can control your
SmartSense all very conveniently with the three display three screen display so you get everything
you get from a standard display because you actually get the smart sensor speed and then
time and distance directly so really nice setup and a thought it well thought out app. [Music]
Now let's go over the scorecard for the Cannondale Synapse Carbon 2. We're grading it
on four different categories: design, components, handling and value. For design we give it an A, you
have a sleek and functional design a very smooth endurance geometry with additional features like
the hidden mounts and then additional water bottle cages on the top tube and then on the down tube.
Components are an A, the Ultegra Di2 is smooth and fast plus you have the hydraulic
disc brakes that give you a lot of confidence to descend quickly. Handling also is given an A, with
that endurance geometry you have the more slack head angle which gives you a lot of smooth and
confidence inspired handling and then you have the more upright position which gives you more control
of the bike. For value we'd give it an A-, it's really well priced compared to other Ultegra di2
bikes we don't think it's the best value within the Synapse lineup. I'd recommend going with the
mechanical 105 as you can save a lot of money and then upgrade the wheels and other features if you
want to bring down the weight but overall really nice bike it's fun to ride and I think the SmartSense
system has a lot of potential. You have the fully integrated setup the lights on that you can
turn on you have the rear radar but I'd really love to see more upgradeability before I really
get behind the system. Thanks for watching with you don't forget to like and subscribe.
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