2017 Cannondale Evo eTap

[Dan Gerous]

Post season update:

- Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon SL UST (from OEM Cannondale Hollowgrams)
- Mavic Yksion UST 700x25 (from Continental GP4000SII with mid-weight butyl tubes)
- Mavic skewers (from KCNC Ti)
- Shimano Dura-Ace PD-R9100 pedals (from Speedplay Zero Ti)
- Syncros RR1.0 integrated bar-stem (from OEM Cannondale)
- SRAM Red 50/34 chainrings (from stock 52/36)

Apart from the bars that I had laying around for an aborted bike project, changes are to spend less time doing maintenance, an important aspect when you spend your summer being a cycling guide in the mountains.

I had to rebuild the OEM rear hub almost every month this summer, I'm guessing sloppy manufacturing tolerance from Formula meant the bearings were way too tight in the hub shell so bearings, no matter the brand and quality, exploded after every few weeks (I was doing 500-800km weeks this summer) and were such a PITA to replace, very hard to take out the outer races and to press new bearings back in... The stock rims weren't bad at all though, braking was surprisingly good for carbon rims from unknown source, the rim well was very shallow though so tires were hard to put on and off. But in my experience, Mavic wheels are pretty bombproof (and the Instant Drive 360 freehub requires a lot less maintenance than the old FTS-L freehubs) and I like their feel.

I heard great things about these new tires from Mavic, the 11storm compound is apparently a night and day improvement in all aspects compared to past Mavic/Hutchinson tires, better grip especially in the wet, more suppleness, comfort and better rolling resistance and durability. Add tubeless to that and it should improve even more and I should also spend less time changing tubes after punctures. They are about a hair over 26mm wide at 80psi on the UST Cosmics that have grown to 19mm internally with the UST update (clincher Cosmics were 17mm). I only installed them, didn't experimented with pressure yet.

I had to clean and re-tighten the KCNC skewers almost after each ride so I binned them and replaced with Mavic skewers that were laying around after a while this summer, so I kept the new ones that came with the new wheels, not the lightest but they're working great.

I also got tired of awkwardly regreasing Speedplays after a couple of rainy days so I'll try Dura-Ace pedals...

I didn't like the width of the stock bars so I'm trying these, they're 3cm narrower and the reach is a tad longer. As I had my bars rolled back more before, I added a few mm of headset spacers under the stem. The setup feels nice, stiffer than stock setup too... and it looks slick!

I downsized the chainrings because I spent the summer in the Pyrénées, I also used a 11-30 cassette most of the time, it makes life much easier to be climbing a lot everyday, especially if you have to ride with slower climbers or for those odd monster rides.

I don't have a proper scale so I don't have individual and total weight (I know I know, shame on me!), but it's a fair guess that it's now a bit heavier than 6.1kg. Wheels feel similar in weight overall but the bars, pedals and skewers add some weight, a small price to pay for the reliability IMO.

[gotgame]

clean bike. looks classy in red !


yes, mavic wheels are reliable and widening the rim is a nice upgrade. UST really works, even without sealant.

[Dan Gerous]

clean bike. looks classy in red !


yes, mavic wheels are reliable and widening the rim is a nice upgrade. UST really works, even without sealant.

Thanks.

These tires are 'Tubeless Ready' though, they have the UST beads but not the fully sealed, butyl lined carcass of full 'Tubeless' so they need sealant unless you plan to do very short rides. I first mounted them without and they just lost air too quickly. Tubeless Ready makes sense though as most people use sealant to avoid flats anyway so a fully sealed Tubeless tire is heavier and possibly less supple than Tubeless Ready.

[m66]

...I didn't like the width of the stock bars so...

What did you do with stock bars? Selling by chance?

[Dan Gerous]

What did you do with stock bars? Selling by chance?

Sorry no, I put them on another bike.

[5DII]

Hows the performance/ride quality of the mavics compared to the cannondale wheels and enves you have ridden in the past? also not sure if you have ridden the previous mavic cosmic carbone 40 but if you have, any difference?

[WR74]

Still drooling over that colour! Looking forward to feed back on the wheels

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[Johnny Rad]

Still drooling over that colour!

Agreed. This is simple elegance without overkill branding.

I particularly dig the top half of the top tube in black.

As a complete pkg, this looks fast and "right." Chapeau!

[Dan Gerous]

Thanks WR74 and Johnny.

Sorry for the lack of feedback on the wheels, I've barely tried them, only an easy short test as I was also tuning the cleats on my shoes (angle is much more critical on SPD-SLs than Speedplays). I've been sick, worked a lot, and it's been sub 0°C lately here... Hopefully winter doesn't set in just yet so I can do a real ride before I go into hibernation!

Initial impressions are good though, very good, and some things pop out immediatly. If you've tried the previous non-tubeless Cosmic Pro Carbon SL, the hubs and braking should feel exactly the same, which is pretty good IMO. Stiffness of the non-UST Cosmics was pretty nice, Mavic are building the UST wheels with higher tension than they did with their non-UST clinchers though but they say it's to cope with the lower pressure they will be ridden, not sure how much of a difference can be felt or not, I don't have much experience with the non-UST Cosmics...

My Enve 3.4 Disc (I still have them on another bike, they are first generation, not the new tubeless compatible ones) are a tad stiffer I'd say but being disc specific, they have more spokes laced 3X... and I wouldn't say it's a good thing, they mostly feel harsher, not that the Cosmics feel flexier. Sideways they feel similar (well, with the minimal mileage I have so far), radially the Mavic feel more comfortable... but it's very hard to judge with such different tire setups, but even with big tires at low pressures (I currently have 700x32s mounted on my Enve), I've always felt the Enve were a bit harsh, you feel the road imperfections quite a bit. The Cosmics with the 700x25 UST tires are veeerrrry smooth, yet don't feel like they drag at all like when you ride clinchers at low pressures.

Comparing the wheels to the Cannondale wheels, the Mavic hubs roll better, a looooooot better but that's a given with the terrible luck I had with the rear hub of the stock wheels. I didn't feel the Hollowgrams were flexy per se but the Mavics feel more 'solid'... better built with higher, more even tension maybe?

The Cannondales with Black Prince pads braked pretty well in the dry but the Mavics are a bit better, I'm expecting much better in the wet though but, unknown to me for now. I haven't tried the latest Zipps and Enves with the brake tracks with little grooves, but both the Cannondales and the Mavics had much better braking than Zipps and Enve with the older smooth brake tracks, even in the wet, the Hollowgrams (and I expect Mavics) braked better than the Zipps with either Zipp or Black Prince pads (didn't tried rim brakes on Enves in the wet).

So going tubeless and the tires are the big news here, I haven't pushed the Yksion UST nowhere near their limit and being my first experience with road tubeless, I need to play with different pressures to find the sweetspot. At my initial 80/85 psi front/rear, they immediatly felt like they rolled quite fast, hard to say if it's because they are tubeless or if the new improved rubber is indeed as good as claimed, probably a bit of both, but it's really promising, I'd like to say they roll better than any clinchers I have ever tried but it might be 'new gear excitement' talking, I'll reserve that for when I have more experience on them, after finding the perfect pressure and once I push them closer to their limit... Oh regarding tires, my comparison points are GP4000sII, Schwalbe Ones, various Ultremos, Vittoria Corsa G+ and older ones, various Mavic clincher generations and other, cheaper tires... but I never use latex tubes, I have always stuck with lightish butyl tubes...

5DII: I never tried the Cosmic 40 so I can't compare the stiffness and feel. These were heavier even though they were a lot narrower. The rim shape was very old school too, very sharp V, very narrow, so on paper, the new ones should be more aero in most situations and easier to handle in cross winds, although 40mm tall rims are never too bad unless you are quite light. The newer Instant Drive 360 freehub has more engagement points but on the road, it's not as critical as in MTB I find... and built similarly as a DT Swiss star ratchet hub, it might prove as durable. FTS-L freehub pawls sometimes broke, yellow bushings eventually wore out, they needed to be cleaned and relubed more often than most...

So I guess the short review is, I'm excited with the wheels and looking forward to put more time on them... Damn winter.

[passionebici]

Great bike - bought the same in blue. Now I wanted to upgrade with the ee brakes, but Dealer (who has one front and rear brake on stock) claims that he cannot mount them successful. Any quick idea why this should not work well? I have the 2017 supersix evo etap in blue - many thanks in advance for your quick response

[Dan Gerous]

Great bike - bought the same in blue. Now I wanted to upgrade with the ee brakes, but Dealer (who has one front and rear brake on stock) claims that he cannot mount them successful. Any quick idea why this should not work well? I have the 2017 supersix evo etap in blue - many thanks in advance for your quick response

Odd, I didn't have any problems mounting mine. I could see the rear one being less than ideal on smaller sized frames (smaller than my 54 but not the smaller ones where the housing exits further forward, out of the top tube) with standard very stiff brake housing, but even that should be doable. I used Nokon for the rear part so the sharper bend wouldn't be an issue.

[passionebici]

Ok i picked up the bike today from dealer (did the service there) and the mechanics guy told me (with the standard Sram cable/housing), that when the handlebar is turned the brakes do brake. Meaning that they move around (in his opinion), due to that fact he decided to not mount them. I would get them for a really good price there, therefore I am thinking about buying them and do let them to be mount somewhere else (specially when I know now - thx for your reply - that it is possible without any issues). Anything else I need to consider to mount them successfully? (Beside to get a good bike store/mechanic). What kind of Nokon did u use? And how long have u been using these brakes? Are u happy with them overall? THANKS again for your information!

[Dan Gerous]

It sounds more like they didn't size the cable housing correctly. Too long and it pushes the caliper to one side, too short and it pulls it the other side, you just have to take a bit more care with the housing length than with SRAM or Shimano calipers.

I have been riding these all season, including 3 months of riding around 30+ hours per week in the Pyrénées this past summer so a lot of climbing but a lot of descending where good braking is important, I have nothing but good things to say about the performance of these brakes. They're super light but they're not just weight weenie brakes that don't compare to brakes from the big three companies... They perform very well. Good power, good modulation, I find the spring tension maybe a bit too light for my tastes but not by much.

I've had one issue where the rear brake's centering rod became a tad loose, it rattled and was loosing it's adjustment over time but I was told the thread of the rod probably didn't get enough threadlocker applied from the factory or it wore out so a drop or two of blue Loctite and it was solved. Other than that, the pivots/bushings can get a little sticky if you ride a lot in bad weather but just wiping them clean once in a while will prevent this and if it does get sticky, a good whipe followed by a drop of dry lube at the pivots and they're good to go.

[passionebici]

It sounds more like they didn't size the cable housing correctly. Too long and it pushes the caliper to one side, too short and it pulls it the other side, you just have to take a bit more care with the housing length than with SRAM or Shimano calipers.

I have been riding these all season, including 3 months of riding around 30+ hours per week in the Pyrénées this past summer so a lot of climbing but a lot of descending where good braking is important, I have nothing but good things to say about the performance of these brakes. They're super light but they're not just weight weenie brakes that don't compare to brakes from the big three companies... They perform very well. Good power, good modulation, I find the spring tension maybe a bit too light for my tastes but not by much.

I've had one issue where the rear brake's centering rod became a tad loose, it rattled and was loosing it's adjustment over time but I was told the thread of the rod probably didn't get enough threadlocker applied from the factory or it wore out so a drop or two of blue Loctite and it was solved. Other than that, the pivots/bushings can get a little sticky if you ride a lot in bad weather but just wiping them clean once in a while will prevent this and if it does get sticky, a good whipe followed by a drop of dry lube at the pivots and they're good to go.

Again a real big thanks again to you for all the details - Amazing.

Ok i will Check and see with another bike store in order to get this issue fixed. Do you have maybe one, two pictures of how the cables issue were solved from your side?(maybe closeup pictures, so i can show these to a mechanic to show how it should look like?)

Ok despite this issue using loctite, any regrets on these compared to the red calipers that were on the bike before? What is your opinion when u compare these two calipers? At least the ee brakes were used now from your side e a lot, or at least long enough to review them accordingly.

[rmr40]

Thanks WR74 and Johnny.

Sorry for the lack of feedback on the wheels, I've barely tried them, only an easy short test as I was also tuning the cleats on my shoes (angle is much more critical on SPD-SLs than Speedplays). I've been sick, worked a lot, and it's been sub 0°C lately here... Hopefully winter doesn't set in just yet so I can do a real ride before I go into hibernation!

Initial impressions are good though, very good, and some things pop out immediatly. If you've tried the previous non-tubeless Cosmic Pro Carbon SL, the hubs and braking should feel exactly the same, which is pretty good IMO. Stiffness of the non-UST Cosmics was pretty nice, Mavic are building the UST wheels with higher tension than they did with their non-UST clinchers though but they say it's to cope with the lower pressure they will be ridden, not sure how much of a difference can be felt or not, I don't have much experience with the non-UST Cosmics...

My Enve 3.4 Disc (I still have them on another bike, they are first generation, not the new tubeless compatible ones) are a tad stiffer I'd say but being disc specific, they have more spokes laced 3X... and I wouldn't say it's a good thing, they mostly feel harsher, not that the Cosmics feel flexier. Sideways they feel similar (well, with the minimal mileage I have so far), radially the Mavic feel more comfortable... but it's very hard to judge with such different tire setups, but even with big tires at low pressures (I currently have 700x32s mounted on my Enve), I've always felt the Enve were a bit harsh, you feel the road imperfections quite a bit. The Cosmics with the 700x25 UST tires are veeerrrry smooth, yet don't feel like they drag at all like when you ride clinchers at low pressures.

Comparing the wheels to the Cannondale wheels, the Mavic hubs roll better, a looooooot better but that's a given with the terrible luck I had with the rear hub of the stock wheels. I didn't feel the Hollowgrams were flexy per se but the Mavics feel more 'solid'... better built with higher, more even tension maybe?

The Cannondales with Black Prince pads braked pretty well in the dry but the Mavics are a bit better, I'm expecting much better in the wet though but, unknown to me for now. I haven't tried the latest Zipps and Enves with the brake tracks with little grooves, but both the Cannondales and the Mavics had much better braking than Zipps and Enve with the older smooth brake tracks, even in the wet, the Hollowgrams (and I expect Mavics) braked better than the Zipps with either Zipp or Black Prince pads (didn't tried rim brakes on Enves in the wet).

So going tubeless and the tires are the big news here, I haven't pushed the Yksion UST nowhere near their limit and being my first experience with road tubeless, I need to play with different pressures to find the sweetspot. At my initial 80/85 psi front/rear, they immediatly felt like they rolled quite fast, hard to say if it's because they are tubeless or if the new improved rubber is indeed as good as claimed, probably a bit of both, but it's really promising, I'd like to say they roll better than any clinchers I have ever tried but it might be 'new gear excitement' talking, I'll reserve that for when I have more experience on them, after finding the perfect pressure and once I push them closer to their limit... Oh regarding tires, my comparison points are GP4000sII, Schwalbe Ones, various Ultremos, Vittoria Corsa G+ and older ones, various Mavic clincher generations and other, cheaper tires... but I never use latex tubes, I have always stuck with lightish butyl tubes...

5DII: I never tried the Cosmic 40 so I can't compare the stiffness and feel. These were heavier even though they were a lot narrower. The rim shape was very old school too, very sharp V, very narrow, so on paper, the new ones should be more aero in most situations and easier to handle in cross winds, although 40mm tall rims are never too bad unless you are quite light. The newer Instant Drive 360 freehub has more engagement points but on the road, it's not as critical as in MTB I find... and built similarly as a DT Swiss star ratchet hub, it might prove as durable. FTS-L freehub pawls sometimes broke, yellow bushings eventually wore out, they needed to be cleaned and relubed more often than most...

So I guess the short review is, I'm excited with the wheels and looking forward to put more time on them... Damn winter.

Any further ride reports on the wheels?


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