Nonetheless received it!

I’m undecided what which means, however I believe a Slatepitch is a mannequin of Cannondale garvel biek that slots in just under the Topstone:

All the time with the skidding in these movies:

I additionally had no thought what “Kingpin” means (within the context of the Topstone, that’s) so I regarded it up:

There’s some heady stuff in right here:

Kingpin was impressed by the very nature of gravel driving itself; the contrasts, the distinctive calls for, and the wide-open sense of chance it brings.

Wait, are we nonetheless speaking about bikes?

Gravel is primarily a road-riding expertise, so that you need that quick, snappy, mile-munching effectivity of a pure highway bike. However you additionally need the rugged functionality to have the ability to search out journey removed from the confines of normal roads. We knew that to take gravel to the following stage, suspension was the apparent subsequent step.

Was it, Cannondale? Was it actually?

Then once more, you may’t accuse Cannondale of merely copying all their rivals who’re doing the identical factor, as a result of they have been pushing the concept means of gratuitous suspension lengthy earlier than it was modern:

And it wasn’t simply cyclocross, both; Cannondale had suspension highway bikes, suspension hybrid bikes, suspension touring bikes, and even suspension triathlon bikes!

If I used to be searching for vibration-damping consolation I’d begin by placing on some pants however that’s simply me.

Anyway, I think the explanation for that is that by the mid-’90s Cannondale had develop into synonymous for harsh-riding bikes, and though by that time they’d refined them significantly they in all probability had no different selection however to place a visual suspension on them.

Talking of the road-riding expertise, I not too long ago performed an off-the-cuff fashionable/retro metal friction shifter bike shootout. First I rode this bike:

And the very subsequent day I rode this bike:

Unsurprisingly, the shifting and braking on the Milwaukee is means, far more refined than it’s on the Cervino–and that’s braking, not “breaking,” because the New York Occasions spells it:

[Via a reader.]

Mainly it’s just like the distinction in really feel between typing on a typewriter and typing on a laptop computer.

On the identical time, shifting and braking apart, the Cervino feels extra plush and opulent than the Milwaukee, and whereas I nonetheless don’t know if it’s the tubulars, or the body tubing, or the straightforward indisputable fact that it’s somewhat larger and so the bars are somewhat greater, or the psychological impact of driving one thing classic, it’s now gained me over utterly.

And it doesn’t even have suspension, go determine.