What is an all-road bike?
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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
02:33Xenium, which is the brand's endurance offering. The key thing with this new Venom is that Vetus do offer
02:39the bike in a couple of different builds. We have the road going 105 Di2 build and we also have a 1x SRAM
02:46Force build. Another example is the Ridley Griffin. Now, the Belgian brand says that the Griffin can be
02:53used as a road and as a gravel bike, with the geometry sitting between the road going Fenix and the gravel
02:59going Kanso 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 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.
03:45Dropper posts 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.
03:57So, 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
04:31of everything, including some gravel, with the severity of what you can tackle being dependent
04:37on the 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 mugguards and racks that you could ever want,
04:55they really are very well suited to taking on a pretty harsh winter.
05:01From everything I've said so far, the term jack of all trades comes to mind, but as the full saying goes,
05:06a jack of all trades is a master of none, but often better than a master of one. So,
05:12if you're after pure versatility, then a bike which does attach itself to the all-road category
05:17may be what you're after. If a bike like this allows you to consolidate and run just a one-bike garage,
05:24then maybe that would enable you to get something with a higher specification and also create a little
05:29space at the same time. What does this mean for the long-standing trusty endurance bike though?
05:40Well, I believe that we'll see brands go a number of different ways. First being that they continue to
05:46make endurance bikes with more claims about compliance and reductions on rider fatigue. We
05:52could see pure endurance bikes continue to open up tyre clearances, although I don't think it'll get
05:57much wider than 35mm. There's also a very strong possibility that endurance bikes will now start
06:03to come in more all-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,
06:37leaving exclusively paved surfaces behind them. All-road bikes are here to stay and that is no
06:44bad thing. They offer incredible versatility and given how many bikes seemingly fall into the category
06:51and the breadth 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 all-road
07:20bike in the form of a modern-day endurance bike, which is just waiting for a change of tyres and gear ratios.
07:27Perhaps in this modern-day world of cycling, we no longer have hard boundaries on what category
07:33a bike really falls into. Maybe we need to think about drop bar bikes as a spectrum rather than three
07:39or four hard categories. At one end, you'd have aero bikes, followed by do-it-all race bikes, followed by
07:45climbing 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 barbed bikes.
07:57The nice thing is that no matter what type of cycling you enjoy doing most, in theory, it means there will be
08:03a bike out there which exactly fits your requirements. The flip side of that though is that it may take some
08:09time 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, then please do drop it a like,
08:21subscribe to the channel for more content, and I will see you again very soon.