Thoney77

Hi All,

I am getting back into road/gravel biking and have an order in for a 2020 Cannondale Topstone Carbon 105 that is available now. It appears that Cannondale will soon be releasing its 2021 Cannondale Topstone line up, and the main difference that I can see is that they will come with the GRX group set. I'm not sure when they will arrive, but I would imagine sometime this fall. Pricing isn't available yet.

I expect to ride 60% road, 40% gravel/offroad, mainly flats, and am inclined to pull the trigger on the 105 that is available now, since most of my riding will probably be on road anyway. Are there any strong reasons to wait for the GRX versions to come out?

Steve B.

The C-Dale website for the US still shows the '20 specifications, thus hard to tell if the '21 will have the 10 spd. GRX or 11 spd. Likely the 10 spd. if they intend to keep it at under $2,000. GRX 11 spd. as a group is in line with Ultegra, price wise,

The '20, in my opinion and after 1000 miles on one, is it's a very well specified bike. The weakest link might be the FSA crank, but cranks just do what they need to, nothing special with them and the FSA 46/30 is a good crank at this price. Only other issues is the WTB wheels are heavy and there's been complaints from folks on the Topstone FB page about the WTB Riddler tires not being very durable. I have not see this problem and tires are cheap enough to swap, which if mostly road I'd be putting on road tires anyway.

What I did with mine is I purchased a 2nd set of wheels, added a road 12-25 cassette, threw on 28mm tires and use that wheelset on the road, swapping to the gravel wheels when needed. It's almost 2 bikes in one. I do find that my carbon road bike, being about 5 lbs lighter, rides quicker, but I could be perfectly happy with the Topstone as my only drop bar bike.

msu2001la

Isn't Cannondale doing away with model years?

I have a 2020 SuperX with GRX 1x and it's great. That said, there isn't a huge difference between GRX600 and 105. I think it basically comes down to the clutched rear derailleur, and the textured hoods/grippy finish on the levers.
I ride with the clutch turned off most of the time, but it does work well to reduce chain slap and prevent 1x chain drops over bouncy sections.

Steve B.

Cranks are different. 105 is a road 50/34 ring setup, GRX are 1x or 2x and I think 31/46 or so. A lot of manufacturers wanting the 46/30 ‘ish crank setup didn’t use the 105 crank, often an FSA Omega 46/30.

msu2001la

Good point on the ring sizes, though I would be surprised if Cannondale used any Shimano crankset. (Do they even work with BB30?)
The current Topstone 105 Carbon has a gravel-appropriate 46/30 Cannondale 1 crankset with FSA chainrings. The alloy model has the FSA Omega 46/30.

MySuperX GRX has the Hollowgram SI crankset with a single 40T. .

Steve B.

It would help of course if my reading comprehension was better and I had noticed the “Carbon” in the title.

Apologies to the OP.