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
00:48a bit
00:48of a tough question, but you could sum them up as 80% road and 20% everything else. It's
00:55a 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 two by GRX groupset and 30 mil
01:47wide
01:48tyres. So, is an all road bike just a different specification? And the answer to that is, in some
01:54cases, yes. Some may define an all road bike as just being for terrible roads, like gravel, or perhaps
02:02they're just the perfect winter bike. I think one thing is clear, this newfangled all road category
02:08can to some extent be left to the consumer to categorise themselves. It could be an endurance
02:14bike with slightly more forgiving gear ratios and tyres which take advantage of modern day
02:19clearances, which when you look at the Synapse is up to a claim 35 millimetres. It could also be a
02:25dedicated all road build, much like this brand new Vetus Venom that you can see behind me, which does
02:31have a slightly altered geometry compared to the Xenium, which is the brand's endurance offering.
02:36The key thing with this new Venom is that Vetus do offer the bike in a couple of different builds.
02:41We have the road-going 105 Di2 build and we also have a 1x SRAM Force build.
02:47Another example is the Ridley Griffin. Now, the Belgian brand says that the Griffin can be used
02:53as a road and as a gravel bike, with the geometry sitting between the road-going Fenix and the gravel
02:59-going
02:59Kanso fast. When you look at it, all that really needs to change is the tyres to truly optimise
03:06how the bike feels on the surfaces you want to take it on.
03:15With something that is so vague and lacking in definitions, sometimes it's easier to look at
03:20what something certainly isn't. So, in this case, an all-road bike would likely never have suspension,
03:27dropper 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 posts
03:45and 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
04:15bike for. It could be anything from velvet-like tarmac to fairly loose gravel.
04:21My recommendation would be that these bikes are reserved for either longer days in the saddle,
04:26roads of a poor quality, or for riders who genuinely love to mix it up and do a little bit
04:31of everything, including some gravel, with the severity of what you can tackle being dependent on
04:37the tyres that you're running. You also cannot ignore that an all-road bike would make for a pretty
04:43wicked winter bike. With big, comfy, confidence-inspiring tyres, big gear ratios for the ultimate
04:50zone 2 rides, and mounting points galore for all the mugnards and racks that you could ever want,
04:55they really are very well suited to taking on a pretty harsh winter.
05:00From everything I've said so far, the term jack-of-all-trades comes to mind, but as the full saying
05:06goes,
05:06a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, but often better than a master of one. So, if
05:12you're after
05:12pure versatility, then a bike which does attach itself to the all-road category may be what you're
05:18after. If a bike like this allows you to consolidate and run just a one-bike garage, then maybe that
05:25would
05:25enable you to get something with a higher specification, and also create a little space at the same time.
05:36What 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.
05:59There'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.
06:09When I look at Pinarello that recently released its X-Series range of bikes, it was very quick to say
06:15that the new range is certainly not an all-road bike and that it is a performance endurance bike.
06:22So, it's likely that some brands will continue to stay true to what an endurance bike is at its very
06:28core without any dilution. Secondly, I think we could see some bikes which have historically been
06:34endurance bikes morph into all-road bikes, leaving exclusively paved surfaces behind them.
06:41All-road bikes are here to stay, and that is no bad thing. They offer incredible versatility,
06:47and given how many bikes seemingly fall into the category, and the breadth of ability they cover,
06:53with some more tailored for the road and others for off it, there really will be something for everyone.
06:59As a consumer, when looking to purchase a bike in this space, we just have to consider what terrain we
07:05want to ride on. And from there, you'll be able to find a bike that fits your requirements.
07:10Since an all-road bike can just be a change of an endurance bike specification,
07:15they really aren't a world apart from what we already have. You may even already own an all-road bike
07:21in the form of a modern-day endurance bike, which is just waiting for a change of tyres and gear
07:26ratios.
07:27Perhaps in this modern-day world of cycling, we no longer have hard boundaries on what category
07:32a bike really falls into. Maybe we need to think about drop-bar bikes as a spectrum,
07:38rather than three or four hard categories. At one end, you'd have aero bikes, followed by do-it-all race
07:44bikes, followed by climbing bikes, then endurance bikes, then all-road bikes, then racy gravel bikes,
07:50and then adventure gravel bikes, which is probably when you'd then move towards hybrids and other
07:55straight-bar bikes. The nice thing is that no matter what type of cycling you enjoy doing most,
08:01in theory, it means there will be a bike out there which exactly fits your requirements. The flip side to
08:07that though is that it may take some time to track it down given the vast selection of options.
08:13What are your thoughts on all-road bikes? If you have any questions about them,
08:17then please do drop them down below. If you enjoyed the video,
08:20then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I will see you again
08:24very soon.
Comments