Cannondale Synapse vs Trek Domane

The Cannondale Synapse and the Trek Domane have long been the pinnacles of the road bike endurance

category. The question that we've been left with is how do these two new kids on the block really

stack up against each other and which one should you really choose? So we're going to compare both

bikes against ride quality, aesthetics, their features and of course the whole range option

and the value in which they provide. So first off let's start with the features of the bike and

You've got a pretty headline-worthy feature. Tell us what it is. Yeah, so, I mean, there are two main things to unpack for the Synapse

And one is the bike itself and the other is the SmartSense. And that's really the headline feature of the Synapse, I would say, this time

Let me just read how Cannondale described it. It's integrated lights and radar designed to provide enhanced awareness

while also creating heightened visibility so the rider can more effectively see and be seen

I mean the theory and the idea is a pretty rock solid one but in terms of execution and you know

we're looking at this now from over a year on from when the bike was released yeah yeah how do

you think it's played out for them I think the problem with SmartSense is that you can't choose

your lights you're stuck with the ones that are there which are made by Lezyne they're decent lights you know I thought they were good but yeah you know you just don't have the choice you're

stuck with those lights and there's the battery on the down tube as well I mean you could take it

off but it's going to leave the sort of cradle so you you can't opt out of the smart sense system

unless you go with the bottom of the range which is the four which doesn't have smart sense but is

smart sense compatible so you could retrofit it if you wanted to does the synapse have any other

really key features worth mentioning i mean there's there's the endurance geometry which

mostly consists of a taller front end um the size 56 which i rode has a almost a 60 centimeter stack

height if you want comfort then it's all about that high front end so tell me about the damani

so iso speed decoupler yeah so that you've absolutely nailed it that is kind of the big

feature of the Domane is that iso speed functionality however there's a big difference

between the gen 3 and the gen 4 version of the bike so previously you had two iso speed points

one in the head tube and one at the seat cluster and the one at the seat cluster was adjustable

however it is no longer adjustable they've also stripped out obviously the one at the head tube

so you're left with one iso speed decoupler and it is non-adjustable. Now the reason why they got

rid of that adjustability is because they found that riders weren't actually ever adjusting it

Now this has had kind of two really key benefits. One is simplicity and looks. It's just a lot

cleaner and a lot smoother but also by making it non-adjustable and inching the front end iso speed

so much lighter. I think they managed to drop around about 800 grams out of the frame alone

just by getting rid of and changing up their ISO speed system. So that's the key headline feature

for this bike. The second one which is slightly less exciting and it is something that came across

from the Gen 3, it's nothing new but I still really like it, is actually the internal frame storage

You've got a little access port down on the downtube where you can open up a door and then

pull out the Bontrager tool roll that you can fill with all your spares and then pop it back in the

frame which just means that you might not need to use a saddle bag or have a load of tools you know

pulling down on your jersey pockets which is always nice so yeah those are the kind of the two key features from the Domane. So Simon tell me about the Cannondale Synapse's ride quality

So I think that probably when I rode the original Synapse and we're talking about 16 years ago now

it felt really really comfortable but that's probably because the race bikes at the time

were so harsh, the tyres were very narrow, the clearance was very tight, so it felt really

comfortable. But now I think that the new Synapse is not really all that different from race bikes

and mostly this is because of the tyres. Race bikes now come with really wide tyres

and so does the Synapse. The difference really is not that great between the Synapse and a race

bike. I think with the Synapse, where the difference really is is in the position, the rider position. You've got a very tall front end. The 56 that I rode, the stack height was

nearly 60 centimetres so it puts you in a very tall position where you're kind of you know you're

looking over the roofs of cars which is great if you're using it to commute on if you if you're

struggling a bit with a bad back it means you can see more upright and you're more comfortable so all of the comfort really is in the position rather than the bike itself although having said that Cannondale built in these flex zones into the rear triangle adds a bit more compliance But I didn really feel those I think the comfort was all in the tyre pressures for me and the rider position

OK, so then how did that translate towards how the bike was like to ride in terms of a, if you wanted to show it a bit of aggression, what did it feel like in those moments

Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably it's more performance orientated, I would say

and like I was saying there's not really all that much difference between the kind of ride feel of

the Synapse and I've been riding the Cervelo S5 at the moment and you know it sounds crazy because

the S5 is a pure race bike but really that there's not that much difference in the ride quality it is

a fast bike it's responsive you know it has the same sort of angles and classic sort of geometry

as a race bike so if you want to ride it fast and you know if you want an exciting ride then it can

it can give that okay that's really interesting because I'd say that's in pretty stark contrast

to what the Domane has been feeling like to ride I would say that actually it kind of wants me just

to stay in the saddle when I do get out the saddle and try and you know throw it up a climb or get a

little bit more aggressive it always makes me feel like it wants me to calm down and just sit in the

saddle and just turn the pedals turn the watts out and it's something that kind of makes the bike

feel a little bit lazy so it sounds like between the Damane and the Synapse actually the Synapse

may lend itself slightly more towards those that do want to kind of be a little bit more aggressive

rather than doing pure endurance miles. Why do you think it is that the Damane doesn't want you to

push it really? It's a really good question actually I think there's probably a couple of

things in that not only do you have the ISO speed technology so obviously that in itself does make

the ride itself quite comfortable but I think it's also the geometry of the bike so you've got

pretty decently long wheelbase it's over 100 centimetres from sizes 52 and up and then you've

got a pretty slack head angle as well because that's around about 71 degrees across the size

range and obviously that does differ from size to size but it's all generally around 71 to 72

When you do get out the saddle and you do stand up I find the the slackness of the head angle does

just put me back down again. That's how it's felt like to me. That's pretty interesting because the

Cannondale actually has, in the size 56 which I tested, the wheelbase is just under 100 centimetres

So it's still got the kind of short responsiveness but that's not to say it's not stable as well

probably due to the front end. The one thing that I didn't mention just then was that the Cannondale is actually quite heavy. It's 9.5 kilos for that size 56. How does that compare with the

Damani's weight? Well so the bike that I've been riding actually is in a specification that isn't

available to buy so we don't have a direct comparison for the bike that you were riding

and the bike that i was riding however if we look towards both durace models of the bike

there's a very big difference here so the damane in the slr version of the bike which uses their

800 series carbon that bike comes in at 7.25 kilos well and i believe the synapse in its durace

configuration comes in at 8.3 kilos. That's right yeah. Now there's a couple of caveats to this

obviously the SLR version of the Domane will have that 800 series carbon and the Synapse

does have SmartSense as well which is potentially going to add around 500 grams according to

Cannondale. So that's where you're going to have a pretty big difference in terms of weight but even

if you strip away that 500 grams from SmartSense you've essentially still got this 500 gram

difference which can either be pegged towards the carbon that's used on the frame or perhaps

the components that are used down to kind of wheels and tyre choices. Yeah like you say Trek uses the

800 series carbon for the top bikes whereas the Synapse just gets one carbon frame for all the

models for all the Synapse carbons. Yeah absolutely. So one thing that does make a big difference to

how a bike feels is of course the tyres. What was your Synapse running? Well unfortunately it comes

with quite low end tyres, the Vittorio Rubino Pros in a 30mm size. So they're quite big tyres

and if they're cheap, which they are, it means they're going to be a bit heavier. They're going to add quite a lot of rolling weight. Yes, absolutely. So I guess it's not only the

rolling weights that's going to kind of bring it down, but it's also the suppleness of the tyre as

well because those Rubinos are actually quite harsh and they don kind of offer much So you can look at that either way Obviously most people do tend to change their tyres over time but it means that you know there potentially quite a big gain to be had if you were to upgrade your tyres

Say, for example, to some of the GP5000, either in a 30 or 32 seat size, you would actually potentially feel quite a vast improvement in the ride quality

Absolutely. And I think the other thing about the Synapse, or in that build that I had, which is the Ultegra Mechanical build, is that you get these quite cheap, heavy wheels

which are Fulcrum Rapid Red 900. So I think they're just an OEM wheel. And if you change

the wheels as well, upgraded the wheels, then you'd lose some weight and get a better ride

quality with those as well. We'll move on to aesthetics now. And that is, of course

something that's quite subjective but what do you really think of the synapse's look? Well okay so

it's got an angular kind of look I mean it's it's all straight tubes and I like that I like the

straight angular tubes a very compact main triangle very heavily sloping top tube and drop seat stays

underneath that so the synapse frame is all about responsiveness and comfort because you've got the

long seat tube and seat post. Do I like the look of it? I mean I think it's it's not particularly

striking I have to say but I think what is striking about the model I tested is the beetle green

colorway you know you see a sort of an ordinary looking frame with with the straight tubes and

you think oh that's just another bike but but the beetle green colorway it's it looks sort of green

but in the sunlight it turns into this coppery bronze color so it's a really nice little twist

and something that you don't really expect I quite like the way Cannondale has kept the logo small so

you've just got you know it's not sort of huge branding all over it so so yeah I mean I have to

say I like the look of it it's not the most exciting looking bike ever but the paint is

quite exciting. No that's really interesting for me looking at the Domane I'd say in some ways it's

it's a bit of a weird thing to say but it's a very bike looking bike you know there's nothing

really offensive about it but at the same time there's nothing really super inspirational about

it. I think it looks quite elegant I like the it's it's a little bit curvier than the Silaps

I think it looks to me like quite an elegant bike. Absolutely I mean I'm a really big fan of

a classic bike frame shape. I do love it when a bike doesn't have drop seat stays and I do like

the sculpture on the head tube as well. It's something that you do see across a lot of the Trek models so it's nice seeing that kind of design language you know being consistent across

them. And then one other thing that I will mention is that on some of the other Trek models like the

Madone and the Amonda you do get a really big Trek decal logo on the down tube whereas on the

Domane it is just a little bit smaller which is nice. It's still large especially comparatively to

the Cannondale but I think they've gone for a really nice set of colour schemes just really

bold colours with a pretty unoffensive looking logo and the frames just generally look pretty clean

So Simon is it fair to assume that we're in agreement that we both prefer the look of the

Domane? Yeah I think in terms of looks it has to be the Domane for me. Yeah me too

finally we are going to discuss the build options and the value that those represent and actually i

think they make for a really interesting comparison because the domane is available in so many more

builds and that's because you can buy the domane with a sram group set whereas at the moment you

can't do that on cannondale so run us through simon what do you think about the synapses build

options and the value that they provide. Okay, so first of all, I've just got to say that the one

that I reviewed, which was the Altegra Equip 2RL, is £900 more expensive than the outgoing Synapse

And that sounds like quite a lot of money. And I'm guessing that that is probably to recoup the costs

of the R&D, the SmartSense and the new bike. You know, that's mostly where the costs are going to

be. But actually, if you look further down the range, it starts with the AL, the aluminium versions

and those bottom three are actually looking like quite good value for money, I would say

You've got versions with Sora Tiagra and Mechanical 105, and they come without SmartSense, but they're still SmartSense compatible

Then there's one Synapse Carbon that comes without SmartSense, and that's the only one, as we mentioned earlier

Sounds crazy to say, but the higher up the range you go, the better value it looks

Which is genuinely mad to say, but this is the thing. When you do compare it against the Domane

which at the moment is what we're using as the point of comparison, the gaps become even bigger

So at the bottom for the Sora aluminium version of the bike you got a difference of here in the UK However when you get to the top end and you look at the Dura carbon models

you've then got a difference of £3,500. Yeah. That's absolutely huge. Why do you think that is

It's hard to fathom it, actually, because I think for any bike, the flagship model with Dura-Ace Di2 is normally going to be more than £9,000

pounds this day and age yeah which i mean in itself is another point of discussion but like you say to

get the range topping bike for you know four figures i mean it's not amazing but comparatively

it's much better than the domane it is but but actually i wonder if that's because as we said

earlier um there's just one carbon frame across all the sign lapse models they're not using a sort

of super high modulus kind of very super light thing yeah maybe that's i think that could be to

As we know, we have seen Lab71 bikes coming out of Cannondale very recently

It was launched with the Super 6. There's now the Topstone. It's pretty clear that they're using moulds that they already have

So, you know, either maybe towards the end of the year or next, it would not be a surprise to see a Lab71 Synapse

So then it brings it up to the expected flagship price of 14 grand. Yes, exactly

Well, and actually, since the very top end Super 6 is £12,500

pounds once you've mated that spec to a lab 71 bike it would then be potentially matching the

demane exactly pound for pound as i mentioned at the start the demane does come in far more build

options and i think you know we've discussed the top end it far exceeds the cost of the top end

synapse however down at the other end with the aluminium builds the demane does come in a claris

version whereas the Synapse only starts at the Sora level. However there is again a caveat to

this because the difference between the Domane Clarisse and the Synapse Sora is only a difference

of £50. So actually you could spend an extra £50 and then get yourself up by a whole group set

level which is actually quite enticing. So I'd say those two bottom levels they're very similar

money in terms of allowing yourself to get onto that platform but working up through the range

with the Domane it is really nice that you've got smaller jumps and you can really fine-tune

exactly how much you want to spend. If you have a budget there's a very good chance you're going

to be able to find a Domane that suits that budget. So summing up what can we conclude from everything

we've talked about so far about these two bikes? Do we like them? Do you like the Domane? Well I do

like the Domane and I think as an endurance bike it is a fantastic tool for that job. If you do want

to do some really comfortable, really relaxed miles, you know, go and crush your first 100 mile

sportive, this is a brilliant bike to go and do that on. I love the fact that there's a huge range

and essentially everyone can find a bike that suits their budget. I think that's brilliant

As we've already mentioned, we both really like the looks of the Domane. It's just a very clean

unoffensive nice looking bike you really can't get around that I think the only thing for me is that

as someone who does prefer a more performance orientated ride feel that's the only area in

which I would say the Synapse clinches it but what about you Simon what what do you think between the

two bikes like you said the performance aspect is something that's quite important if you're after a

sort of a racier bike if you like a racy ride feel if you like a fast bike then I think the Synapse

has it but for me I would like to I would like it to be a bit lighter so I think I would have to do

some upgrades on it it would need lighter wheels and lighter tires and I would go for a size down

I would choose a smaller size the 54 and put a longer stem on it so that I had a more aggressive

position instead of being so high at the front end but the ride feel is great it is fast as a

riding bike it's I do like it yeah. So I think we're pretty much agreed then in terms of what

the bike's actually like to ride and what it feels like we'd both opt for the synapse but in terms of

aesthetics, features, and then just the sheer range that's available, the Domane kind of wins

in those areas. So it's a tough one. It depends what's important to you. Let us know down in the

comments, which bike would you go for? I'd be really interested to hear all of your thoughts

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