- 2 days 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.
00:12Why is that? Well, probably because it's an endurance road bike,
00:16and 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?
00:27Is 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.
00:57It 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
01:09is 3 million
01:11percent stiffer. Well today, with the help of Van Riesel's recently updated range, we're going to try
01:16to cut through the marketing jargon and help you get on the right bike for your riding. We're even going
01:21to
01:22talk to a bike fitting expert to see whether that bike should be a road race bike, an endurance road
01:27bike, 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 the
01:59wind with as little resistance as possible. Now aerodynamics in cycling are very important. At
02:05over 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
02:18bladed
02:18profiles on the RCRF are absolutely excellent at cutting through the wind, but they do come with a few
02:24caveats. For example, compared to the tube profiles on this, they're going to be
02:28heavier, they're going to be stiffer, and they're going to be less good at soaking up some of those
02:33road vibrations. Now you will quickly realize that there's going to be a theme developing here,
02:38where the RCRR kind of takes a middle ground. It's got some bladed profiles, for example this down
02:44tube, and then it's got some thinner profile tubes, for example the seat stays and chain stays,
02:50for that comfort at the rear end. Moving on to another spec choice before we dive into the
02:56wonderful world of geometry, is going to be wheel depth. Because you'll have noticed
03:01that this EDR endurance bike has much shallower wheels, and that is fairly typical for a bike of
03:08this genre. An endurance bike is typically designed for lower speeds, and hence it ships with these 35mm
03:16deep wheels. In comparison, the RCRR has 45mm wheels fitted to it, and this RCRF aero bike has 62mm wheels
03:25fitted to it. Basically what this gives you is a pretty good idea of what each bike is tailored
03:32towards, and what type of riding it's going to be best for. So with the aero bike with its super
03:37deep
03:37wheels, that's going to be really good for if you want to go on fast-paced group rides, if you
03:42want to
03:42race criteriums, or really fast flat road races. Those 62mm wheels, yes they might get bucketed by the wind
03:50slightly more than a shallower wheel set, but they're going to give you that maximum aerodynamic
03:55advantage. Then once again taking the middle ground, we've got the RCRR with its 45mm deep wheels.
04:01Now these are going to be a really nice compromise between aerodynamics and handling characteristics
04:08for anyone that's looking to ride at let's say 25 to 35 kilometers per hour. You'll find that this
04:15mid-depth wheel set is a bit more manageable if you want to ride year-round and in some pretty
04:21gusty
04:21conditions. Then we've got the shallowest wheels fitted to the endurance road bike, and this is
04:27basically because it's designed for if you're traveling at slightly lower speeds. So you won't
04:32have quite the same aerodynamic advantage as a set of 62mm wheels like on the RCRF, but you get the
04:39advantage of a shallower wheel set that is a bit lighter so it feels more quick to accelerate.
04:46And then also because more of the wheel is spoke rather than rim, it can soak up more of those
04:51road
04:52vibrations, again helping this bike to be as comfortable as possible.
05:00Also contributing to comfort is tyre size, and as is generally the case with endurance road bikes,
05:06this one can fit much wider tyres than a road race bike or an aero road bike. So in fact
05:12this EDRCF
05:13Ultra has space for up to 38mm tyres, whereas the other two can fit up to 33mm tyres. What this
05:20means
05:20is the endurance road bike is quite a lot more versatile. You can maybe even take it on some light
05:26gravel if that's of interest to you. The general rule is that the faster you go, the narrower you want
05:32your tyre to be. And if you're a world tour sprinter riding a bike like the Van Riesel RCRF, then
05:38you'll
05:39probably go for a 28mm tyre, maybe 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 more
05:57and
05:58more 35mm tyres on local club runs and back lanes in the UK. Another advantage of having really wide tyre
06:07clearances is that you can fit mudguards and still fit that nice plush rubber. So even if you don't
06:13want to fit 38mm rubber, it's still a good idea to have that clearance, because then using the mounts
06:19you can fit a set of mudguards and still run some nice wide comfortable tyres. Another feature that you
06:26often find on endurance road bikes is some extra mounting points, and as you'll see on the down
06:31tube of this EDR, it's got space for an extra bottle, a little bit of storage for if you're going
06:38long.
06:41Moving 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 they
06:58both ship with 52 36 tooth chainsets. Now don't worry if that doesn't mean a lot to you, what it
07:05means
07:06is that basically on the road race bikes it's got more big gears so you can go faster at a
07:12comfortable
07:12cadence. Moving on to the EDR endurance bike and you'll find a compact chainset which is fairly typical
07:18for a bike of this design. So that's a 50 tooth big ring and a 34 tooth little ring and
07:25that gives you
07:25more options when things get steep, when you're climbing. Moving towards the back and we've got
07:32another difference, so the endurance bike has an 11 36 tooth cassette fitted to it and the road race bikes,
07:39well Shimano road race bikes typically come with 11 34 tooth cassettes. What that means is that the
07:45aero bike and the road race bike if you're riding in a group where you don't really get to dictate
07:51your
07:51pace there's smaller gaps in between the gears and that means that when traveling nice and fast you're
07:58more likely to be able to find a gear that you can fine tune your cadence in. Whereas on the
08:04endurance 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
08:11steep or you're commuting or you're carrying more stuff you're on a really long ride you don't want
08:17to dig deep up a climb you've got those options of some bailout gears. And then there is what I
08:25think
08:26is the biggest difference between an endurance road bike a road race bike and an aero bike and that is
08:32geometry. So what we're going to do now is pop up on the screen the geometry charts of these three
08:38bikes
08:39in a size medium and I know geometry can sometimes seem a bit dry but it does make a massive
08:45difference
08:45in how a bike rides so I'm going to point out some of the more interesting bits. As you can
08:51see this
08:51endurance bike has a shorter top tube and reach figure that means that the bars will be slightly
08:58closer to you as you ride along. What you'll also find is that the head tube is slightly slacker putting
09:03the front wheel further in front of you and that is excellent for control and stability. It also has
09:10a longer wheelbase which does much the same thing and then also a taller head tube so this bit here
09:17which is going to put you in a slightly more upright position. Now this could be a good thing or
09:23a bad
09:23thing depending on what you're looking for. Lower is often considered faster but if your back can't take it
09:31then it can't take it. And my personal opinion is a comfortable bike is more likely to be faster
09:38than an uncomfortable lower one. With that in mind I thought it'd be good to chat through this
09:43with someone who fits these bikes for 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?
10:01So the first steps that we take we ask you what sort of riding you're going to be doing
10:05so whether you're crit racing whether you're just looking to raz it around the sort of lanes around
10:11around your area or if you're looking to do a little bit of longer longer distance riding
10:17and then from there we also sort of ask price point so we look at what sort of budget you're
10:24looking at
10:24and then from there we we sort of look between between the bikes and which one would suit you best.
10:29I've just seen that you've got the new EDRCF Ultra Output Fest, an endurance bike,
10:34but endurance bikes are slow right? I would disagree. So the bike that you are most comfortable riding
10:42is the fastest bike for you. So there's the saying the most aerodynamic position is the
10:48aerodynamic position you can hold the longest. Okay yeah. So yes you could have an RCRF but only be
10:56able to ride it for 30k until your back gives out whereas you could ride the EDR for hours and
11:03hours
11:03and still have the same average speed. So we know that the geometry is pretty different between the EDR
11:08and the RCRF and the RCRF but what else makes it different to ride? So you've got the carbon layup
11:17of the bike, the tube shapes as well and the geometry of the bike. So with the RCRF it's a
11:23lot more race
11:24focused so 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 45-50k an hour
11:37average on their on their rides or races so they need that aero advantage. Whereas with the EDR you're
11:43looking at a sort of more traditional tube shaping you're looking at also a more comfortable carbon
11:52layup as well. So even though the RCRF and the EDR use the same carbon layup they do ride completely
12:00differently and just due to how the carbon is laid up in the frame. Now this is a big question
12:05and it might be hard to answer I know you're not keeping a tally of every rider that comes in
12:09here
12:10but out of all the people that you've fitted onto bikes what rough percentage do you think should be
12:16on an endurance bike, what percentage on a road race bike and on an aero bike? So I would say
12:22the
12:22percentage of endurance bike riders that should be that aren't necessarily on the right bike is around
12:2980 to 90 percent of riders which is obviously not what you see in the real world. No, not at
12:35all. So what you
12:37see is riders on an aero bike when they can't ride that type of bike for a sustained period of
12:44time or at
12:44least not in comfort. Aero bikes are very pretty though aren't they and we all do like to emulate the
12:51pros so if you could choose between three what one are you choosing? For me and for the riding that
12:57I do
12:58I've actually chosen the EDR so I ride one myself. You do actually practice what you preach? I do indeed.
13:05Very 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
13:15that you do
13:16and your goals. If you want to race local criteriums and flat road races of one to two hours in
13:23length
13:24then the RCR-F is the obvious choice. If you want to win your local group ride then again those
13:31aerodynamic 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
13:51will be more suitable, more comfortable for if you want to race and then potentially go on a
13:56six hour group ride at the weekend. Then there's the endurance road bike. Bikes like this EDR CF
14:03Ultra prove that you can have your cake and eat it. It's much more versatile than the other bikes with
14:09increased tyre clearance, it's got mudguard mounts and it's not just a bike for people who want to sit
14:15bolt upright and go slowly. You don't need to be considering multi-day adventures to consider buying
14:21one of these over the other two either. In fact most of us would probably be more comfortable
14:26on an endurance road bike and unless speed is your number one priority then I think this is probably
14:33the one to go for. Let me know in the comments section below whether you would go for a road
14:38race
14:38bike, an 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, subscribe to the
14:49channel and we'll see you next time.
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