Check out the Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc – our 2014/15 Bike of the Year was a taste of things to come

With the road.cc awards season in full swing, we decided that now would be an opportune time to look back at our Bike of the Year from 10 years ago, the Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc – a fabulous bike that was in many ways a taste of things to come.

In our 2024/25 awards, we’ve so far revealed our Accessories of the Year, Clothing of the Year and Components of the Year and, of course, there’s plenty more to come over the next couple of weeks.

> The road.cc Recommends awards 2024/25: we’ll reveal the very best bikes, components and accessories, plus our overall Bike of the Year 

But we’re getting sidetracked. Back to 2014/15 and the Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc…

Why do we say that this bike was a taste of things to come? Well, as a road bike with disc brakes, 28mm tyres and a huge focus on comfort, it sounds a lot like any number of today’s bikes. We’re not saying that any of those features was radical a decade ago – not by a long shot – but they weren’t as mainstream as they are today.

Disc brakes on road bikes have been around for years, of course, but they only started to dominate the market once the UCI allowed them in racing. Trials of that began in late 2015 – and there were various ups and downs to keep us amused for a while – but disc brakes were only fully permitted from 2018.

How come Cannondale was speccing disc brakes on the 2015 Synapse, a bike that we reviewed in 2014? Well, that time saw the rapid growth of disc brakes on endurance road bikes that weren’t intended for racing.

The SuperSix has been Cannondale’s high-end road race platform since 2008, with the SystemSix added as an aero option from 2019. The Synapse, in its various forms, has been around for longer than either of them, having been added to the range as long ago as 2006, although it was only available with rim brakes back then.

For 2015, though, seven models in the Synapse range were equipped with disc brakes. We had Shimano RS685 hydraulic disc brakes on our review bike, and said that you got “fantastic power from the 140mm front and rear rotors and all the modulation you need to make full use of the available power in all situations”. 

“The lever feel is firm and is always the same, no matter the conditions, speed or steepness of the descent,” we said. That was news to a lot of roadies a decade ago.

“Disc brakes are increasingly widespread on endurance and sportive bikes like the Synapse simply because they are free of the UCI’s rules, and because the manufacturers reckon the type of people buying and riding these bikes will appreciate disc brakes for real-world riding and the variety of conditions such a bike will be used in,” we said.

How times change! We wouldn’t feel the need to explain all that these days.

Back then we described the 28mm tyres fitted to the Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc as “plush”. These days, 28mm is just… normal. In fact, today's Synapse bikes come fitted with 30mm tyres and have space for 35mm. It wasn’t as if Cannondale was doing anything unique in adding these features – other brands were doing similar things – but narrower tyres and rim brakes still ruled at the time.

The 2015 Synapse was also designed to offer plenty of comfort courtesy of an endurance geometry. The 56cm model we reviewed had a 18.6cm head tube, for example and 72.5° (head) and 73.5° (seat) tube angles, along with a fairly lengthy wheelbase (100.5cm) for plenty of stability.

Cannondale said that the geometry struck “the ideal balance between pure race positioning and upright comfort; perfect for long days in the saddle and confident handling on all road surfaces.” We pretty much agreed.

Beyond that, the Synapse offered what Cannondale called its SAVE PLUS Micro-suspension system with a carbon layup designed to dissipate road buzz, chainstays and seatstays intended to track over imperfections in the road surface, a scalloped seat tube and a seatpost that was an unusually narrow 25.4mm in diameter. Along with a collarless seat clamp, this was designed to flex to provide more comfort.

Of course, bike comfort has always been a major consideration, but Cannondale was taking things really, really seriously here.

“Constructed with the flex to give and the snap to go, Synapse lets you rule any road, anywhere,” it said in its marketing literature. “The ideal blend of compliance, rigidity and weight makes for a dream bike that redefines endurance.”

We might not have used quite the same terms, but we agreed with this bike's quality.

“The combination of different frame features makes for a bike that is wonderfully smooth and compliant and leaves you feeling a lot fresher after a hard ride on hard roads than a comparable race bike,” we said.

“Where the Synapse really succeeds is in balancing the frame and fork stiffness demanded by those who like to ride everywhere as fast as possible and stomp up hills, with the comfort and compliance that ensures it will satisfy those wanting a comfortable bike for any adventure.”

Don’t get us wrong, the Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc was certainly of its time in many ways. The disc brakes were post mount (Shimano introduced Flat Mount in 2015), for example, and the wheels were held in place by QR skewers rather than the thru axles you’ll see in today’s Synapse range, the mainly Shimano Ultegra groupset was 11-speed and the shifting was mechanical… The list goes on.

Oh, we’ve just got to tell you quickly about one other unusual feature: who remembers the Power Pyramid? Essentially, Cannondale split the bottom of the seat tube in two, the idea being to increase stiffness at the bottom bracket without the weight penalty of a larger diameter tube. We suspect it was also motivated by the desire to be a bit different and create a talking point… and here we are mentioning it 10 years later, so it looks like it worked in that respect. The Power Pyramid design left the Cannondale range a long time ago, so you can draw your own conclusions there.

Still, the 2015 Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra Disc was a great bike. We’d have liked to see mudguard mounts, but we’ll let that one go (today’s Synapses do have hidden mounts).

“The Cannondale Synapse Ultegra Disc retains the same classic ride performance and handling of last year's bike but adds the superb braking ability of Shimano's hydraulic disc brakes coupled to an 11-speed mechanical transmission. It's a brilliant combination and makes the Synapse more fun to ride and more appealing for year-round riding,” we said

The design has changed a lot since then. Our most recent Cannondale Synapse review was the £4,000 2 RL back in 2022, if you’d like to see how it compares.

The road.cc 2024/25 awards continue over the next couple of weeks. We’ll count down the top road bikes we’ve reviewed over the past 12 months on Thursday, 16th January, and reveal our overall top 10 the following day. Click here for the full schedule. 

Check out loads more Bikes at Bedtime here.