Review: Cannondale CAAD10 3 Ultegra

Even though I’ve ridden many bikes made from carbon fibre, I’ve done more riding on aluminum, and not always the best aluminum. Take my cyclocross bike, for example. In the mud with tires at at low pressure, it’s great. But when I’ve pressed it into service on the road, slick tires at 120 psi, it’s as finely tuned as a sledgehammer. Of course, you can’t ascribe that ride quality to the material. We often talk about the warmth of steel and the stiffness-matched-with-compliance of carbon fibre, but ride quality is more a function of a frame’s design and construction than the characteristics of its materials. You can have frames as finely tuned as a sledgehammer made of steel and carbon fibre, too.

I was keen to try Cannondale’s CAAD10; it’s aluminum done right. The Bethel, Conn.-based company has been working with the material since 1983 with the launch of its ST-500 Sport Touring bike. The company’s goal was to make a bike lighter and stiffer (sound familiar?) than the steel tourers of the day. The ST-500’s tubes had wide diameters, which were quite novel at the time. Cannondale later used aluminum for its mountain bikes. For the 1997 model year, the company took aluminum to the road with the second and third iterations of Cannondale Advanced Aluminum Design bikes, the CAAD2 and CAAD3. Mario Cipollini famously rode with a CAAD3 on Saeco in the late ’90s.

For Super Mario, it was all about stiffness. The CAAD10, however, is a more subtle machine than its predecessors. It’s made of 6069 alloy for its strength, elasticity and workability. Cannondale uses a process it calls SmartForming when working with aluminum. “It combines techniques such as hydroforming, swaging, taper butting and 3D forging,” said Rob Boyce, marketing manager at Cannondale. These processes are used to create tubes with just the right amount of material where it’s needed. After more than 30 years of working with aluminum, Cannondale is still passionate about it. “Don’t get us wrong,” Boyce said, “carbon fibre is amazing stuff. At the pointy end of the performance spectrum, it is untouchable. But the level of performance we’re able to get out of a reasonably priced aluminum frame makes it a pretty compelling material.”

On rough city roads, the bike was strikingly smooth. The oval seatstays, which are oriented to allow for vertical flex, took care of road vibrations along with the similarly shaped chainstays. On the flats, the power transfer was excellent as I could get to a good cruising speed with a few sharp pumps to the pedals. The Mavic Aksium S wheels spun up nicely, too. In the turns, the bike cornered predictably. The development of both the CAAD10 and the SuperSix Evo, Cannondale’s carbon-fibre racer, started at the same time. The two share geometries as well, but the CAAD10 was able to show off those angles first as it debuted in 2011, a year ahead of the Evo.

The level of performance we’re able to get out of a reasonably priced aluminum frame makes it a pretty compelling material.

When I took the bike to the hills, it went up well. Still, it didn’t feel like the most agile climber. Stiffness and power transfer wasn’t an issue: the large-diameter down tube, the 1 1/8″ to 1 1/4″ tapered head tube and narrow sides of the chainstays managed torsional forces. A lighter pair of hoops would be the swap to make before doing long battles against gravity. Shimano’s 11-speed mechanical Ultegra groupset is the perfect complement to this machine. As the CAAD10’s aluminum frame is a high-performing but less-expensive option to top carbon-fibre frames, so to is the Ultegra to Dura-Ace. The gruppo added precise shifting and smooth braking to the bike.

Cannondale has used the murdered out black-on-black paint job on a few of its models. The look still turns heads out on the road. While I admit I’m a fan, those who want more colour on their bike can opt for a white frame with blue, red and black accents. Another feature I enjoyed, but is hard to pin down on any specific element of the bike, is just how fun it is to ride. I felt like I was getting away with something, going for a tear on this finely tuned machine.