- 6 hours ago
Not all road bikes are created equal! If you're in the market for a new road bike should you choose an endurance road bike, a road race bike or an aero bike?
As Van Rysel have released the 2026 Van Rysel EDR CF Ultra Endurance bike we thought we'd see how it compares to the RCR-R road race bike and RCR-F road race bike to see which one suits which kind of rider best.
We also chat to a bike fitting expert to see the riding benefits of an endurance bike vs road bike.
As Van Rysel have released the 2026 Van Rysel EDR CF Ultra Endurance bike we thought we'd see how it compares to the RCR-R road race bike and RCR-F road race bike to see which one suits which kind of rider best.
We also chat to a bike fitting expert to see the riding benefits of an endurance bike vs road bike.
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00:00This is the brand new Van Riesel road bike. But unlike when the RCRR launched or the RCRF,
00:07this one's flown a little bit more under the radar.
00:13Why is that? Well, probably because it's an endurance road bike,
00:17and in the past they haven't been seen as an overly sexy choice.
00:21But in 2025, is all that about to change? What is the best bike for you and your riding?
00:28Is it a road race bike? Is it an endurance road bike? Or is it an aero road bike?
00:34Well, you're in the right place to find out. This is Cycling Weekly. Let's get into it.
00:42Buying any new bike represents a sizeable investment. But what exactly does the term
00:46road bike mean in 2025? It seems to be an umbrella term that refers to everything from
00:53what the pros are riding to all road bikes. They're a story for another day.
00:58It doesn't help that with every new release of a bike, there seems to be a load of marketing talk
01:03to say X bike is the best one for you. Y bike will make you 15 seconds quicker. Z bike is 3 million
01:11percent stiffer. Well, today, with the help of Van Riesel's recently updated range,
01:15we're going to try to cut through the marketing jargon and help you get on the right bike for your
01:20riding. We're even going to talk to a bike fitting expert to see whether that bike should be a road race
01:25bike, an endurance road bike, or an aero road bike, and what the main differences are between them.
01:34Let's start here. This is the new Van Riesel EDRCF Ultra, an endurance bike. But what does that
01:41actually mean? How does it differ from these two bikes next to it? Now, one of the most obvious
01:45differences between this and let's say the RCRF aero bike is the tube profile. So this has got
01:52quite round profile tubes, whereas these are really deep bladed ones that are designed to cut through
01:59the wind with as little resistance as possible. Now, aerodynamics in cycling are very important.
02:05At over 20 kilometers an hour, wind resistance is going to be the biggest force that you have to overcome.
02:11But did you know that about 80% of your drag comes from your body and not your bike? These bladed profiles
02:19profiles on the RCRF are absolutely excellent at cutting through the wind, but they do come with
02:24a few caveats. For example, compared to the tube profiles on this, they're going to be heavier,
02:29they're going to be stiffer, and they're going to be less good at soaking up some of those road
02:33vibrations. Now, you will quickly realize that there's going to be a theme developing here, where the
02:38RCRR kind of takes a middle ground. It's got some bladed profiles, for example, this down tube, and then
02:45it's got some thinner profile tubes, for example, the seat stays and chain stays for that comfort at
02:51the rear end. Moving on to another spec choice before we dive into the wonderful world of geometry,
02:59is going to be wheel depth, because you'll have noticed that this EDI endurance bike has much
03:04shallower wheels, and that is fairly typical for a bike of this genre. An endurance bike is typically
03:11designed for lower speeds, and hence it ships with these 35mm deep wheels. In comparison, the RCRR has
03:1945mm wheels fitted to it, and this RCRF aero bike has 62mm wheels fitted to it. And basically, what this
03:28gives you is a pretty good idea of what each bike is tailored towards, and what type of riding it's
03:34going to be best for. So, with the aero bike with its super deep wheels, that's going to be really good
03:39for if you want to go on fast-paced group rides, if you want to race criteriums, or really fast flat
03:45road races. Those 62mm wheels, yes, they might get bucketed by the wind slightly more than a shallower
03:51wheel set, but they're going to give you that maximum aerodynamic advantage. Then, once again,
03:57taking the middle ground, we've got the RCRR with its 45mm deep wheels. Now, these are going to be a
04:03really nice compromise between aerodynamics and handling characteristics for anyone that's looking
04:09to ride at, let's say, 25 to 35km per hour. You'll find that this mid-depth wheelset is a bit more
04:16manageable if you want to ride year-round and in some pretty gusty conditions. Then, we've got the
04:23shallowest wheels fitted to the endurance road bike, and this is basically because it's designed for if
04:29you're travelling at slightly lower speeds. So, you won't have quite the same aerodynamic advantage
04:35as a set of 62mm wheels, like on the RCRF, but you get the advantage of a shallower wheel set that is
04:42a bit lighter, so it feels more quick to accelerate. And then also, because more of the wheel is spoke
04:49rather than rim, it can soak up more of those road vibrations. Again, helping this bike to be as
04:55comfortable as possible. Also contributing to comfort is tyre size, and as is generally the
05:04case with endurance road bikes, this one can fit much wider tyres than a road race bike or an aero
05:10road bike. So, in fact, this EDRCF Ultra has space for up to 38mm tyres, whereas the other two
05:17can fit up to 33mm tyres. What this means is the endurance road bike is quite a lot more versatile.
05:24You can maybe even take it on some light gravel, if that's of interest to you.
05:28The general rule is that the faster you go, the narrower you want your tyre to be, and if you're a
05:34world tour sprinter riding a bike like the Van Riesel RCRF, then you'll probably go for a 28mm tyre,
05:40maybe even one with some trip poles on it like that one.
05:47On solo rides though, you're probably better off with something that's 30mm or wider, and it's worth
05:52remembering that tyre sizes seem to only be going one way, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see
05:57more and more 35mm tyres on local club runs and back lanes in the UK. Another advantage of having
06:06really wide tyre clearances is that you can fit mudguards and still fit that nice plush rubber.
06:12So even if you don't want to fit 38mm rubber, it's still a good idea to have that clearance,
06:17because then, using the mounts, you can fit a set of mudguards and still run some nice, wide,
06:23comfortable tyres. Another feature that you often find on endurance road bikes is some extra mounting
06:29points. And as you'll see on the down tube of this EDR, it's got space for an extra bottle,
06:35a little bit of storage for if you're going long.
06:37Moving down the bike, and you'll find another big difference between endurance bikes and road race
06:46bikes, and that is gearing. Now this is something that I think Van Riesel does really well, and that's
06:50tailor the chainset sizes to the bike's intended purpose. So we've got the RCR and the RCR-F, and
06:57they both ship with 52 36 tooth chainsets. Now don't worry if that doesn't mean a lot to you, what it means
07:06is that basically on the road race bikes, it's got more big gears, so you can go faster at a comfortable
07:12cadence. Moving on to the EDR endurance bike, and you'll find a compact chainset, which is fairly
07:18typical for a bike of this design. So that's a 50 tooth big ring and a 34 tooth little ring, and that
07:25gives you more options when things get steep, when you're climbing. Moving towards the back, and we've
07:32got another difference. So the endurance bike has an 11 36 tooth cassette fitted to it, and the road race
07:38bikes, well Shimano road race bikes typically come with 11 34 tooth cassettes. What that means is that the
07:46aero bike and the road race bike, if you're riding in a group where you don't really get to dictate your
07:51pace, there's smaller gaps in between the gears, and that means that when traveling nice and fast, you're more
07:58likely to be able to find a gear that you can fine tune your cadence in. Whereas on the endurance bike,
08:04you do have slightly bigger gaps, but the trade-off is that you've got more range. So when things get
08:11really steep, or you're commuting, or you're carrying more stuff, you're on a really long ride, you don't
08:16want to dig deep up a climb. You've got those options of some bailout gears.
08:21And then there is what I think is the biggest difference between an endurance road bike,
08:29a road race bike, and an aero bike, and that is geometry. So what we're going to do now is pop
08:35up on the screen the geometry charts of these three bikes in a size medium. And I know geometry can
08:42sometimes seem a bit dry, but it does make a massive difference in how a bike rides. So I'm going to point
08:47out some of the more interesting bits. As you can see, this endurance bike has a shorter top tube
08:54and reach figure. That means that the bars will be slightly closer to you as you ride along. What
09:00you'll also find is that the head tube is slightly slacker, putting the front wheel further in front
09:05of you. And that is excellent for control and stability. It also has a longer wheelbase, which does
09:12much the same thing. And then also a taller head tube. So this bit here, which is going to put you
09:18in a slightly more upright position. Now, this could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what
09:25you're looking for. Lower is often considered faster, but if your back can't take it, then it can't take it.
09:32And my personal opinion is a comfortable bike is more likely to be faster than an uncomfortable lower one.
09:40With that in mind, I thought it'd be good to chat through this with someone who fits these bikes
09:45for a living. Let's go and see what George has to say.
09:51Right, George. So if I'm the average customer walking into the Van Riesel store,
09:56how do you help me decide what bike I should be on? What's the first step?
10:02So the first steps that we take, we ask you what sort of riding you're going to be doing. So whether you're
10:07crit racing, whether you're just looking to raz it around the sort of lanes around your area,
10:13or if you're looking to do a little bit of longer distance riding. And then from there,
10:19we also sort of ask price point. So we look at what sort of budget you're looking at. And then from
10:24there, we sort of look between the bikes and which one would suit you best.
10:29And I've just seen that you've got the new EDR-CF Ultra Output, an endurance bike, but endurance bikes are slow, right?
10:37I would disagree. So the bike that you are most comfortable riding is the fastest bike for you.
10:45So there's the saying, the most aerodynamic position is the aerodynamic position you can hold the longest.
10:51So yes, you could have an RCR-F but only be able to ride it for 30k until your back gives out,
10:59whereas you could ride the EDR for hours and hours and still have the same average speed.
11:05So we know that the geometry is pretty different between the EDR and the RCR and the RCR-F,
11:11but what else makes it different to ride? So you've got the carbon layup of the bike,
11:18the tube shapes as well, and the geometry of the bike. So with the RCR-F, it's a lot more race focused.
11:24So it's a very, very low front end. You've got much deeper tube shapes. So aerodynamics plays a
11:29massive part because the designed rider for that is your pro athlete. So they're doing 45,
11:3650k an hour average on their rides or races. So they need that aero advantage. Whereas with the EDR,
11:43you're looking at a sort of more traditional tube shaping, you're looking at also a more comfortable
11:52carbon layup as well. So even though the RCR-R and the EDR use the same carbon layup,
11:59they do ride completely differently just due to how the carbon is laid up in the frame.
12:04Now, this is a big question. It might be hard to answer. I know you're not keeping a tally of every
12:09rider that comes in here, but out of all the people that you've fitted onto bikes,
12:13what rough percentage do you think should be on an endurance bike? What percentage on a road race bike
12:19and on an aero bike? So I would say the percentage of endurance bike riders that should be,
12:26but aren't necessarily on the right bike, is around 80 to 90 percent of riders. Okay.
12:32Which is obviously not what you see in the real world. No, not at all. So what you see is riders
12:38on an aero bike when they can't ride that type of bike for a sustained period of time, or at least
12:44not in comfort. Aero bikes are very pretty though, aren't they? And we all do like to emulate the pros.
12:52So if you could choose between three, what one are you choosing? For me and for the riding that I do,
12:58I've actually chosen the EDR, so I ride one myself. You do actually practice what you preach?
13:03I do indeed. Very nice. Cool. Well, thanks very much. No worries.
13:10So really, which type of bike is best for you is going to come down to the type of riding that you do
13:16and your goals. If you want to race local criteriums and flat road races of one to two hours in length,
13:24then the RCR-F is the obvious choice. If you want to win your local group ride, then again,
13:30those aerodynamic profiles will give you a slight advantage. For most of us though, I feel like the
13:37Man Resort RCR is potentially the more versatile choice. This won't give much up in terms of speed
13:45when it comes to racing, but most of us can't travel at the same speed as the pros. And this will be more
13:52suitable, more comfortable for if you want to race and then potentially go on a six-hour group ride
13:57at the weekend. Then there's the endurance road bike. Bikes like this EDR CF Ultra prove that you
14:04can have your cake and eat it. It's much more versatile than the other bikes with increased tyre
14:10clearance. It's got mudguard mounts, and it's not just a bike for people who want to sit bolt upright and
14:16go slowly. You don't need to be considering multi-day adventures to consider buying one of these
14:21over the other two either. In fact, most of us would probably be more comfortable on an endurance
14:27road bike. And unless speed is your number one priority, then I think this is probably the one
14:33to go for. Let me know in the comments section below whether you would go for a road race bike,
14:38an endurance bike, or an aero road bike. And we'll pop a link to all three of these bikes
14:44down in the description. If you like this kind of content, then please give it a like,
14:48subscribe to the channel, and we'll see you next time.
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