And the spec and appearance of the initial three model release had been chosen: a khaki green 105 model, a grey Ultegra model, and a matte black, anodised purple-accented SRAM Force 1x model.Thats kind of the case with bike design, too, although each year the industry will claim a minor miracle in releasing a new seasons worth of bikes that are fractionally lighterfastermore aeromore capablebetter looking (circle as appropriate).Fair enough: it was the latest foray from the venerable US brand into an increasingly crowded gravel market.
And in many ways, the Topstone ticked the requisite boxes: carbon frame, generous tyre clearance, multiple accessory mounting points. But on the periphery of road cycling, there was a new category emerging. Cannondale Headshok Replacement Alternative Professional Road TeamsWhole professional road teams would go on to partially structure their seasons around gravel races. Its not an exaggeration to say it would go on to spark a seismic shift in the riding behaviours of countless riders around the world. A few of the biggest brands in cycling tentatively dipped their toes into this nebulous thing some calling it adventure, some calling it new road, some calling it gravel and waited to see what the response would be. Originally a popular French wheel size stretching back at least as far as the Second World War, it had a quiet, niche existence outside of continental Europe. A few smaller builders pushed the 650B cause forward internationally among them Tom Ritchey, in the pre-natal kicks of mountain biking but there was extremely limited access to tyres, dooming 650B in its more adventurous uses. In fact, its been suggested that the emergence of 26 wheels as the go-to size for the first mountain bikes was only as a result of the Soviet military gobbling up the entire supply inventory of Finnish company Hakkas 650B snow tyres. There was a trickle of interest in 650B in the custom market too, led in part by Kirk Pacenti, but the real groundswell happened around the start of this decade, as mountain bikes messily mutated from 26 to 29 wheels, soon after drifting into a consensus of 27.5 650B by another name. A final necessary stepping stone for the renaissance of the 650B wheel size came with the advent of road disc brakes, which opened up the possibility for significantly wider tyres than those allowed by a conventional road rim brake caliper. The smaller 650B size allowed for a fatter tyre whilst preserving Cannondales preferred ride characteristics. And it was on the Cannondale Slate that everything converged. There, he pulled a prototype out of a bike bag, sidled over, and as Johnson recalls, whispered hey, man, Ive got it. Its built. Its got totally shitty parts on it, but I think youre going to love it. I wanted a bike that was faster than my cross bike, but rowdier than my road bike, Johnson told me. Cannondale Headshok Replacement Alternative Skin CAAD10 WithThis unmarked, unbranded white bike flat top-tube, kind of like a cleanskin CAAD10 with a dual-crown Lefty and with these strangely-sized wheels was Cannondales first shot at the brief. Based on a lightbulb-moment realisation that 650Bx42mm would give effectively the same outside wheel diameter as 700x23mm but with a whole lot of added scope for fatter rubber and fun the Slate was to be a disruptive, unmistakable bike in a category of one. With Johnsons racing career drawing to a close, he brought his insight to the development of new models in the brands range among them the first disc-version of the SuperX, and soon after, the bike that would become the Slate. I wanted to ride as fast as I could, jumping everything in sight; wheelies, endos when youre doing a photo shoot and youve got a perfectly buffed-out and shiny frame and the parts are all glistening, I am the bonehead skidding into a dirt pile to make a big blow-out with the dust. And David was always thinking about, you know, this is just so perfect for someone like Tim, who likes to hit everything, all the time. The bikes horizontal top tube had been dropped, giving the Slate a more rugged stance. The production Lefty a carbon fibre-upper, adjustable-rebound 30mm travel model called the Oliver had been fine-tuned into an 1,180g fork, with a roadie-friendly lockout switch helpfully marked Push to Climb and Push to Descend.
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