Cannondale  Topstone Carbon 4 Bike

I’ve had my Topstone 4 for a couple of weeks now and absolutely love it. I’ve taken it on road rides and singletrack and it performed beautifully on both. The stock wheelset is a little heavier than I like so I just upgraded to a carbon wheelset and also carbon bars and that lightened it up quite a bit. I’ll update my review after taking it back in my local singletrack. I took it on some very steep, technical trails that I had been riding on my FS mountain bike for years and loved it! For the price of this bike bone stock this is a Great bike that will definitely put a smile on your face. I’ve ridden road specific bikes for over 20 years and this made cycling fun again :)

Over all the bike is great, its fun to ride, light weight and fast.. But the paint job is so cheaply done, its literally flacking off the bike. its so maddening!!! At first I thought I got it caught up in something but I keep finding more and more spots that are flacking off. I'll be returning the bike.

The good: The bike itself is great, rides smooth and is confidence inspiring on dirt/gravel. Now for the bad: I want to preface that I know buying the cheapest carbon option won’t have top spec components but, the FSA crankset and bottom bracket that Cannondale slapped on this bike are complete garbage. It worked great for almost 100 miles, then the crank broke apart and fell off my bike mid-ride. I had read online about people having issues with this crank and the bottom bracket but I thought, at the price point of this bike, it can’t be all that bad. Boy was I wrong. Replacing the crank with Shimano GRX as Cannondale should have put on the bike from the start. From my understanding I could get a warranty repair but it’s not worth it to be out a bike for a month just to get new trash FSA parts put back on. The bike still gets 3 stars as I still really like everything else about this bike.

Overall this is a great gravel bike and not too bad of a value. As others have mentioned some of the components leave a little to be desired (the saddle and bar tape came off immediately) but I haven’t had too much trouble all things considered. I also think some of the frame finishes are a little low quality. The holes where the cables enter the frame have some dirty edges, and the bar tape near the stem looked like a third grader taped it. I love that Cannondale has ditched most of their proprietary/weird stuff in favor of simple solutions: round seatpost with external clamp, threaded BB, non-dished wheels. There’s almost nothing I can’t do on this bike at home. The groupset is great for the price, the brakes are strong and the shifting is great. I’ve got no issues with the riddlers that came on it either. They went up tubeless so easy and with some orange seal I haven’t seen a single drop of sealant weeping through the sidewalls. As my title says, the price I paid is great (got it on sale for like $2200), but the standard price of $2800 is a little steep in my opinion. If you can get it on sale it’s a ton of bike for the money.

Awesome bike for the money! small complaints wish it came with and entire shimano group set. The cassette, chain would help it shift better, but that's just me being picky. I also upgraded to carbon wheel set, which i would highly recommend. Overall I'm telling everyone to buy one!

This bike has been great on packed dirt bike trails. Suspension and handle bar design work well. Lighter weight a big plus. No quick release wheels (at this bike level). So, bring proper Alan wrenches along with your kit for any flats (I have not had any; robust stock tires are great). Highly recommend this model.