Would This Be The Only Road Bike You Need?

Cycling Weekly

What is an all-road bike?

Transcript

00:00Endurance bikes have been a staple of the road bike market for about 20 years following the

00:05release of the Specialized Roubaix back in 2004, a bike which is still very much a fan favourite

00:11even today. This corner of the market is changing though, just without the usual great big fanfare

00:18that the industry likes to create. The presence of all road bikes is certainly being felt more

00:24strongly and the term keeps on creeping up. But it's left me questioning, what is an all road bike?

00:30What is an all road bike for? And what does this mean for the future of the beloved endurance bike?

00:42I think a good place to start is, what is an all road bike? Well annoyingly, that in itself is a bit

00:49of a tough question, but you could sum them up as 80% road and 20% everything else. It's a very hard

00:55category to define and this lack of a clear definition has resulted in a mishmash of wishy-washy bikes that

01:03are also trying to figure themselves out. Brands that do have dedicated all road bikes will usually

01:09claim that they embody a few different characteristics, those being a slightly more relaxed geometry over

01:15and above their endurance counterparts, more tyre clearance and potentially more mounting points.

01:21Not forgetting of course, more forgiving gear ratios and wider tyres. Now while those seem like a set of

01:28pretty clear and understandable criteria, things get slightly more muddled when you go a little deeper.

01:34For example, the Cannondale Synapse LTD is offered in an all road build. So what we have here is

01:41clearly an endurance bike, but one which has been decked out with a 2x GRX groupset and 30mm wide tyres.

01:48So, is an all road bike just a different specification? And the answer to that is, in some cases, yes.

01:57Some may define an all road bike as just being for terrible roads, like gravel, or perhaps they're just

02:02the perfect winter bike. I think one thing is clear, this newfangled all road category can to some

02:09extent be left to the consumer to categorise themselves. It could be an endurance bike with

02:14slightly more forgiving gear ratios and tyres which take advantage of modern day clearances,

02:20which when you look at the Synapse is up to a claim 35mm. It could also be a dedicated all road

02:26build, much like this brand new Vetus Venom that you can see behind me, which does have a slightly

02:31altered geometry compared to the Xenium, which is the brand's endurance offering. The key thing with

02:37this new Venom is that Vetus do offer the bike in a couple of different builds. We have the road-going

02:42105 Di2 build and we also have a 1x SRAM Force build. Another example is the Ridley Griffin. Now,

02:50the Belgian brand says that the Griffin can be used as a road and as a gravel bike, with the geometry

02:56sitting between the road-going Fenix and the gravel-going Kanso Fast. When you look at it,

03:02all that really needs to change is the tyres to truly optimise how the bike feels on the surfaces

03:08you want to take it on.

03:15With something that is so vague and lacking in definitions, sometimes it's easier to look at what

03:20something certainly isn't. So, in this case, an all-road bike would likely never have suspension,

03:26dropper posts or 650B wheels. The former is the only one on that list that might change.

03:33If Specialized ever decided to go into the all-road space, I'm sure it would incorporate a future shock

03:39in the same way that the Diverge and the Roubaix does, but that is just pure speculation. Dropper

03:45posts and 650B wheels will be reserved for gravel bikes and other off-road bikes. Now, that's not to say

03:52that you can't fit them retrospectively. It just wouldn't make too much sense to do so.

04:02So, what is an all-road bike actually for? The obvious answer is that it's for riding, but going a

04:09little deeper once more, it's again clear that we, as the consumers, can dictate what we want the bike for.

04:16It could be anything from velvet-like tarmac to fairly loose gravel. My recommendation would be

04:23that these bikes are reserved for either longer days in the saddle, roads of a poor quality, or for

04:28riders who genuinely love to mix it up and do a little bit of everything, including some gravel,

04:34with the severity of what you can tackle being dependent on the tyres that you're running.

04:39You also cannot ignore that an all-road bike would make for a pretty wicked winter bike, with big,

04:45comfy, confidence-inspiring tyres, big gear ratios for the ultimate zone 2 rides, and mounting points

04:52galore for all the mugnards and racks that you could ever want. They really are very well suited

04:57to taking on a pretty harsh winter. From everything I've said so far, the term

05:03jack-of-all-trades comes to mind. But, as the full saying goes, a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none,

05:09but often better than a master of one. So, if you're after pure versatility, then a bike which

05:15does attach itself to the all-road category may be what you're after. If a bike like this allows you

05:21to consolidate and run just a one-bike garage, then maybe that would enable you to get something

05:26with a higher specification, and also create a little space at the same time.

05:30What does this mean for the long-standing trusty endurance bike though? Well, I believe that we'll

05:42see brands go a number of different ways. First being that they continue to make endurance bikes

05:47with more claims about compliance and reductions on rider fatigue. We could see pure endurance bikes

05:53continue to open up tyre clearances, although I don't think it'll get much wider than 35mm.

05:58There's also a very strong possibility that endurance bikes will now start to come in more

06:04all-road build specifications, much like the LTD version of the Synapse.

06:10When I look at Pinarello, that recently released its X-Series range of bikes,

06:14it was very quick to say that the new range is certainly not an all-road bike and that it is

06:20a performance endurance bike. So, it's likely that some brands will continue to stay true

06:26to what an endurance bike is at its very core without any dilution. Secondly, I think we could

06:32see some bikes which have historically been endurance bikes morph into all-road bikes, leaving

06:38exclusively paved surfaces behind them. All-road bikes are here to stay and that is no bad thing.

06:45They offer incredible versatility and given how many bikes seemingly fall into the category and the

06:51breadth of ability they cover with some more tailored for the road and others for off it,

06:56there really will be something for everyone. As a consumer, when looking to purchase a bike in this

07:02space, we just have to consider what terrain we want to ride on and from there you'll be able to find a

07:08bike that fits your requirements. Since an all-road bike can just be a change of an endurance bike

07:14specification, they really aren't a world apart from what we already have. You may even already own an

07:20all-road bike in the form of a modern-day endurance bike which is just waiting for a change of tyres

07:25and gear ratios. Perhaps in this modern-day world of cycling we no longer have hard boundaries on what

07:32category a bike really falls into. Maybe we need to think about drop bar bikes as a spectrum rather than

07:39three or four hard categories. At one end you'd have aero bikes, followed by do-it-all race bikes,

07:45followed by climbing bikes, then endurance bikes, then all-road bikes, then racy gravel bikes and then

07:50adventure gravel bikes which is probably when you'd then move towards hybrids and other straight bar bikes.

07:57The nice thing is that no matter what type of cycling you enjoy doing most, in theory it means

08:02there will be a bike out there which exactly fits your requirements. The flip side of that though is that

08:08it may take some time to track it down given the vast selection of options. What are your thoughts

08:14on all-road bikes? If you have any questions about them then please do drop them down below. If you

08:19enjoyed the video then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content and I

08:23will see you again very soon.

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