Cannondale Topstone Carbon Lefty

The one-sided gravel bike with a well-rounded personality

- Words Pete Muir Photography Geoff Waugh

Hey, why has your bike only got one leg?' It's a question I was asked on more than one occasion while testing the Topstone Carbon Lefty, usually while standing at traffic lights. The time I had while waiting for the light to turn green was always insufficient to explain how Cannondale had developed a way of including the spring and damping oil in a single unit while using needle bearings instead of bushings in a very precise way to ensure a smooth movement of the suspension without twisting under load, so I usually just said something facetious like, 'I lost the other leg in an accident, but it seems to work fine.'

At other times, when I could sense the lights were about to change, I'd resort to the more prosaic, 'I don't know.' Which was actually a much more accurate answer.

When I quizzed Cannondale about its Lefty Oliver single-sided fork, I was regaled with details about how innovative and technically complex it is, how it is optimised for gravel with virtually no sag, and how stable and precise it is in steering. But all that could surely be true of a two-legged fork.

There doesn't seem to be any obvious weight advantage, and the single-sided system does have its drawbacks. It requires a unique front hub, limiting the options for swapping to different wheels. Plus it makes removing the front wheel more complex because, without a thru-axle, the brake calliper needs to be taken off to free the wheel (although Cannondale has made this simple with a lever-locking system). I was still not entirely clear why Cannondale decided to go one-legged.

As Greg Jakubek, Cannondale's suspension and components product manager, told me, 'No one else in the industry is doing it. Frankly, it's really expensive and really hard to do. You know, the single-sided element is just a packaging thing. It's easier to put a damper on one side and a spring on the other, but with our unique technology we were able to put it all inside one leg.'