Cannondale brings smart tech to road cycling

The first road bike with integrated lights & radar. Simon Smythe hails the emergence of game-changing technology

- Simon Smythe

The future of SmartSense

The Synapse Carbon is the first Cannondale bike to be designed for the SmartSense ecosystem, but it won’t be the last. Cannondale says the Topstone Carbon will be next to be SmartSense equipped, with most road models expected to include some form of SmartSense compatibility in the future.

At the moment it’s something of a shame that Shimano Di2 and Cannondale SmartSense run off separate batteries – how cool would it be if you had one powerpack for your gears, lights and radar? Cannondale says it approached Shimano to discuss this, but Di2 is a totally closed platform and at the moment the Japanese firm is unwilling to commit to the project despite being “quite interested”.

Cannondale says it knows that this level of full integration is what consumers want, so will keep pushing – and says to stay tuned.

A Synapse is, according to the Oxford dictionary, a gap between two nerve cells across which electrical impulses are conducted.

The first Cannondale Synapse was launched 15 years ago, but it’s only with the launch of this latest SmartSense-equipped version that it is literally living up to its name, connecting formerly discrete electronics into a single ecosystem.

We’ve seen ‘smart’ integration built into e-bikes and concept bikes, but this is the first time a major road bike brand has fully committed to introducing it into one of its big-selling models.