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 extent

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

02:15forgiving gear ratios and tyres which take advantage of modern day clearances, which when you look at

02:20the Synapse is up to a claim 35mm. It could also be a dedicated all road build, much like this brand

02:28new Vetus Venom that you can see behind me, which does have a slightly altered geometry compared to the

02:33Zennium, which is the brand's endurance offering. The key thing with this new Venom is that Vetus do

02:39offer the bike in a couple of different builds. We have the road going 105 Di2 build and we also have

02:45a 1x SRAM Force build. Another example is the Ridley Griffin. Now, the Belgian brand says that the

02:52Griffin can be used as a road and as a gravel bike, with the geometry sitting between the road going Fenix

02:58and the gravel going Kanso fast. When you look at it, all that really needs to change is the tyres

03:05to truly optimise how 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 what

03:20something 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

03:38shock in 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,

03:51that's not to say that 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,

04:08but going a little deeper once more, it's again clear that we, as the consumers,

04:14can dictate what we want the bike for. It could be anything from velvet like tarmac to fairly loose

04:20gravel. My 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 of everything,

04:32including some gravel, with the severity of what you can tackle being dependent on the tires that you're

04:38running. You also cannot ignore that an all-road bike would make for a pretty wicked winter bike.

04:45With big, comfy, confidence-inspiring tires, big gear ratios for the ultimate zone 2 rides,

04:51and mounting points galore for all the mugnards and racks that you could ever want, they really are

04:56very well suited to 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

05:08none, but 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 with a

05:26higher specification and also create a little space at the same time. What does this mean for

05:37the long-standing trusty endurance bike though? Well, I believe that we'll see brands go a number

05:43of different ways. First being that they continue to make endurance bikes with more claims about

05:48compliance and reductions on rider fatigue. We could see pure endurance bikes continue to open up tire

05:54clearances, although I don't think it'll get much wider than 35 millimeters. There's also a very

06:00strong possibility that endurance bikes will now start to come in more all-road build specifications,

06:06much like the LTD version of the Synapse. When I look at Pinarello that recently released its X-Series

06:13range of bikes, it was very quick to say that the new range is certainly not an all-road bike and that

06:19it is a performance endurance bike. So it's likely that some brands will continue to stay true to what

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

06:33which have historically been endurance bikes morph into all-road bikes, leaving exclusively paved surfaces

06:40behind them. All-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

06:58everyone. As a consumer, when looking to purchase a bike in this space, we just have to consider what

07:04terrain we want 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, they really aren't a world

07:16apart from what we already have. You may even already own an all-road bike in the form of a modern day

07:22endurance bike which is just waiting for a change of tyres and gear ratios. Perhaps in this modern day

07:29world of cycling we no longer have hard boundaries on what category a bike really falls into. Maybe we

07:35need to think about drop bar bikes as a spectrum rather than three or four hard categories. At one end

07:42you'd have aero bikes, followed by do-it-all race bikes, followed by climbing bikes, then endurance

07:47bikes, then all-road bikes, then racy gravel bikes and then adventure gravel bikes which is probably

07:53when you'd then move towards hybrid and other straight bar bikes. The nice thing is that no matter

07:59what type of cycling you enjoy doing most, in theory it means there will be a bike out there which

08:04exactly fits your requirements. The flip side of that though is that it may take some time to track it down

08:10given the vast selection of options. What are your thoughts on all-road bikes? If you have any

08:16questions about them then please do drop them down below. If you enjoyed the video then please do

08:21drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content and I will see you again very soon.

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