Upgrading Gear Train, Brakes, Tires — Cannondale Topstone 4

Question

I just purchased a Cannondale Topstone 4. To be honest, the bike fits me better than any bike I have ever purchased and I feel good riding it. I do, however, have a few issues for which I would like suggestions:

1. I do not like the mechanical disc brakes. It is possible (advisable) to upgrade to hydraulic disc brakes?
2. The setup is a 1 by 10 on the gear train. Is is advisable to upgrade to something that gives more gears (1 by 12x 2 by 11)?
3. The bike seems to be creaky. I notice the creaking from the seat post, but it may be coming from elsewhere. Any thoughts on what might be causing the creaking and what can be done about it.
4. Tires: I was told that Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass 700 by 35 is a good choice if riding a lot on roads. Thoughts?

^{From https://www.cannondale.com/en-eu/bikes/road/gravel/topstone-alloy/topstone-4}

Answer 1

1. Switching to hydraulics requires change of the shifters and those are rather expensive. After your current pads break in, they will bite better than on the first rides! But if you later decide to proceed with replacing them I would advise to also replace the front disc to a 180mm.

2. Even more expensive.

3. This is a concern. All normal bike shops provide one free service of the bicycle several weeks after purchase. This is because those creeks, chain rubbing and whatnot problem occur after one rides a brand new bike a bit.

4. Product recommendations are generally not on-topic on this site_{(though I do not necessarily agree)}. Do ride for a month and if You observe some problems with the current tires or yearning for new ones do ask another question.

PS: beautiful bike!

Answer 2

Question 1&2, they are actually linked as switching to hydraulics (1) will require to change the brifters, which will make the switch to (2) not so expensive (if you consider the price of 12-speed related to the mandatory change to 11-speed to have hydraulic): the gravel market is what it now, and you got a groupset with an excellent price quality/ratio, if not the best ratio. In the current state of the market, I don't think it's worth upgrading it, unless you are ready to spend the price of the bike. The groupset is not perfect for sure, but you need to go very high in the range to get one that is better in every way.

Gravel groupsets are kind of a paradox to me, gravel bikes are sold as versatile bikes, but this is not reflected in the range of the transmission. Currently, most hydraulic gravel groupsets (all Shimano single chainring, SRAM Apex) have in common a 11-speed 11/42 cassette (you have 10-speed 11/48). Which means a lower range than what you have now: you'll have more "intermediate speeds" to optimise your cadence — which is a must for performance oriented road bikes, but it will be harder uphill. To have more range, you'll need either to upgrade to the most expensive 1x ranges (Campagnolo Ekar, SRAM EXPLR) or Shimano 2x (that also have narrow ranges for 2x transmissions, if your bike allows it, which is not certain from the pictures). The first option will cost about 1300€ (in parts), the second option between 700€ and 1000€ (the price of the Topstone 4 is 1500€ here, for comparison). So quite an expensive operation, for something that could come with a regression, if you value range.

So put it simply, you have a good bike now, enjoy it, and upgrade when components are getting worn. And this point in time, hopefully you'll get better transmissions that the ones available on the market now. The turning point will probably be when Shimano will upgrade their gravel transmissions (that are for future reference GRX400/600/800). As long as they don't do it, the others won't have any incentive to improve their offerings at lower price points.

For question (3), going to a shop to a simple maintenance is advisable — most shop actually offer a first check for free, as it is known that some screw got loose on new bike. Ask them at the same time to adjust the brakes, maybe they are not adjusted properly.

Unrelated to your questions, two opinions:

• the best understated upgrades you can do are a carbon seatpost (that will improve your comfort significantly), and going tubeless — your bike already has quality tires, so no need to upgrade them.
• if you consider going slick - your question (4), you'll compromise the ability of the bike to go offroad, which is the point of gravel bikes. Changing tires is not an expensive operation, and reversible, so you shouldn't hesitate doing it. And if you realise that you don't miss the offroad abilities, selling your gravel and buying a road bike will probably be a better operation than upgrading a gravel so that it "doesn't suck" as road bike.

Answer 3

I will expand a bit on some of the points made.

Creaking happens when something fits loosely on the bike. Cannondale has had an unfortunate reputation for having their press fit bottom brackets creak. Press fit BBs in general require tight tolerances to avoid creaking. Some manufacturers don’t hit those tolerances. Cannondale is thought to be one of them. However, creaks can sound like they’re from the BB but actually originate elsewhere. If it were the seatpost, a bike store would check that all the bolts are torqued correctly. I would advise a new cyclist to have them check that.

As to point 4, the Compass (their current brand name) Bon Jon Pass is a slick 35mm tire. The Topstone is classified as a gravel bike, but many people might buy them and mainly ride on pavement, or only occasionally on light off-road surfaces like dirt roads or crushed limestone trails. For this type of riding, including the light off-road surfaces I described, 32mm or wider slick tires are more than sufficient. For that matter, many people on road bikes would be OK on such surfaces. Knobs, which are meant to dig into dirt, will tend to slow you down a bit on the road. However, big slick tires don’t actually slide out on light gravel, unless the surface is muddy - and it takes quite a bit of rain to get a lot of gravel roads muddy enough.

As to upgrading, it is not cost effective to upgrade the drivetrain on an entry-level bike. It would have been more cost effective to get the bike you want from the start. You’re probably better off selling the bike to someone who wants an entry level bike down the road. As to the mechanical disc brakes, this is definitely an issue. You can upgrade the brake housing to a good compressionless housing, but this takes labor to route the housing through the frame and fork. You could also upgrade to cable-actuated hydraulic mechanical disc calipers, which are generally better than mechanical discs, but this is now borderline in terms of cost effectiveness.

My understanding is that it’s possible but difficult to hit something like the Topstone 4’s price point with hydraulic discs. This is one of the downsides of disc brakes. If this were a rim brake bike, just a brake pad upgrade usually improves the braking measurably. We are gradually losing the ability to pay less and get just a bit less. However, the industry as a whole is moving away from rim brakes.