Is The Specialized S-Works Allez A Bike For Life?
As cycling journalists, especially those of us who spend our days testing and writing about the latest and great tech, we can be spoiled for choice in what we have available to us. However, video manager Sam Gupta and many of his colleagues all have their own collection of bikes and some of those bikes are ones which they've had for a very long time. This video shows of Sam's dream Specialized S-Works Allez build and he also tells us why this is the one bike he will never ever sell. What do you think of his road bike and the way he has built it up?
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00:00Like any kid working in a bike shop, being surrounded by all the latest bling meant that the desire to upgrade my own bike
00:06occupied more of my mind than arguably it should have done.
00:10Sadly, the amount of money you can earn when you're working in a bike shop
00:14doesn't really lend itself to being able to buy all the shiny things that surround you every single day.
00:20However, that was never going to discourage me. After plenty of waiting and hunting around for the right bike, a
00:26Specialized S-Works Alley came up for sale in my size on Facebook Marketplace.
00:32It was being sold by a local lad, a local racer actually, and he was wanting to move it on to make space for
00:38next season's rig. To me,
00:40this was absolutely ideal.
00:42Buying a second-hand aluminium bike did not worry me at all, and the ability to buy into the S-Works moniker for a discount price,
00:49well, it was a done deal.
00:51After a meet-up at the local Sunday circuit race and an envelope of 50s handed over later,
00:57my new bike was grabbed out the back of their team van. Of course,
01:01the bike went straight to the shop where I was working to allow the modifications to begin.
01:06Little did I know at the time that this bike would go on to join me for countless
01:10adventures and become the one bike that I have vowed to never, ever sell.
01:22The
01:24frameset is what made me fall in love. The satin finish on the paint was the perfect balance between gloss and matte, and the
01:32satin chrome decals set it off
01:35incredibly well. And the virtually invisible welds tricked the eye into thinking that it could be carbon fibre.
01:42Specialized fitted an S-Works level fork which utilised their top-level carbon at the time, and the aluminium,
01:48well, that was hydroformed, meaning that they could replicate the shape of the tarmac again at the time.
01:55But it also meant the weight was kept down to a minimum. The overall weight of the frame by itself
02:00hovers around that thousand gram mark, which actually is pretty good.
02:06The bike predominantly plays host to an Ultegra 6800 groupset, as this is what the bike came with when I bought it.
02:13However, in my eyes, the Dura-Ace 9000 groupset is probably the prettiest groupset ever made.
02:19So I decided to take the plunge and buy the chainset and the rear mech.
02:24Since these components are arguably the most visible parts of a groupset,
02:28I think they do a really good job of increasing the bike's kerb appeal. And quite frankly, the chrome details on the components paired with
02:35the frame itself, it's just a match made in heaven. When I did change the chainset,
02:40it did also provide the opportunity to revise the gear ratios. The bike came with a 53-39.
02:47However, I was finding that my little chicken legs were struggling, so I opted for a 52-38.
02:53Now, it may not seem like a huge change, and granted, it's not. But out on the road,
02:58I found that turning the cranks just felt so much better.
03:02And when I paired that with an 11-28 cassette, the ratios, for me, they just fell into place.
03:08The Roval CLX 40s that the bike came with are sadly no longer with me. After six months of use,
03:15I decided to sell them before the value either dropped out of them because, you know,
03:19road disc brake bikes were finally coming onto the market.
03:22But I was also wary of the fact that if I kept using them, I was going to wear through that brake track and again,
03:27they would end up essentially
03:29valueless. As a young lad in a bike shop,
03:32I wasn't really in the position to lose that kind of money over an extra couple of watts.
03:38So I hunted down on the web a set of just cheap Chinese carbon wheels for about 300 quid.
03:44And say what you will about them, but actually, these Chinese knockoffs have actually been pretty decent.
03:51They're easy to service with their sealed cartridge bearings.
03:54They've never needed truing. And actually, when you pair them with a set of Swiss stock Black Prince carbon pads, when you pull on the levers,
04:01you will definitely stop. I've always run the same tires on this bike, a set of 28c S-Works Turbo tires.
04:08For me, they provide a great balance between comfort, grip, and just downright speed.
04:14The qualities of the S-Works Turbos are also helped by the fact that I've been running the Turbo tubes,
04:19which are a lightweight butyl inner tube, but they're also pre-tout,
04:23meaning that that helps them lower their rolling resistance ever so slightly.
04:28The other thing that I really like about those tubes, and it is a bit of a bike nerdy weight weenie thing,
04:32but they're also about 40 grams lighter compared to a standard butyl inner tube.
04:36So when you do that over both wheels, you're saving nearly 80 grams, which I'll take.
04:41The finishing kit was actually the first things that I did change on the bike.
04:45And that's because I wanted to get the fit dialed in.
04:48I nabbed some 38 centimeter Pro-Vibe alloy bars, and I paired it with a 100 millimeter S-Works stem.
04:55Now, while I was tempted by an integrated carbon setup,
04:59my typically stingy self was never really going to stretch that far. And quite frankly,
05:04I love how easy this bike is to recable.
05:07The seat post is actually one of the few things that has stayed original throughout my entire tenure with the bike, but the saddle,
05:14well, that has changed. I started off with a specialized S-Works tube saddle, which I had for nearly a decade.
05:20But after those near 10 years, well, it was looking a little worse for wear.
05:25So I have recently actually upgraded and embraced some modern technology in the shape of the Fizik Vento Argo Double Zero saddle.
05:33Now, while this saddle is ever so slightly lighter, the real gain is the incredibly grippy surface and the increased comfort,
05:42no thanks to the super wide wings that it's got. Sadly, the bike isn't without its faults, or
05:48should I say quirks? One thing that I wish Specialized had done with this bike was to give it a thread in bottom bracket.
05:55Sadly, though, this bike came out when BB30s were in their heyday.
06:00The months and years that I have spent trying to make this bike be creak free,
06:04well, quite frankly, it's just not worth thinking about. Luckily, though, I have now found a solution that does work pretty well,
06:11but it does include putting some Loctite on the outer race of the bearings, but you've got to do what you've got to do.
06:18Also, some of the bottle cage bolts now spin within the frame, meaning that they can't be undone.
06:24Now, before you all start telling me that I can have this fixed, quite frankly,
06:28I don't care. One bottle is fine for me and the rides that I show this bike.
06:33And really, I don't want to risk losing the oh-so-cool S-Works bolts. Quite frankly,
06:38they're worth the pizzazz.
06:40I do also have to be fairly careful with the red paint on this bike.
06:45It comes off incredibly easily due to not having a protective clear coat to encapsulate it.
06:51But nearly after eight years of ownership, I think it's held up pretty well considering.
06:57As I mentioned previously, I'm never going to sell this bike. So,
07:01what does the future hold for it? Well, being aluminium, I have no doubt that this bike will outlast me,
07:08so long as we don't get acquainted with the underside of a lorry.
07:12One thing I've always wanted to upgrade, though, are the brake calipers. Switching over to some matching Dura-Ace
07:189000 calipers would be brilliant, and it would just add that extra little bit of bling to the setup.
07:23Once worn down, I will then also be replacing the tyres for the latest S-Works turbos that got released at the back end of last year.
07:32And lastly, I'd also like to fit a new S-Works seat post.
07:35The current one has been pretty beaten up over winter rides, and when I've been attaching a rear light to the saddle,
07:42it's been chewing up the lacquer, so it's just looking a little bit tired. But overall,
07:47I don't really see this bike changing too much more. To me,
07:51it's pretty close to being perfect for what I want from this bike.
07:56That's my dream road bike and how it came to be, and also
08:00why I am never, ever going to sell it. Let me know down in the comments, though.
08:05Tell me about the bikes that you are never going to sell and why. I'd be really interested to hear about them.
08:12If you enjoyed the video, then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I'll see you again very soon.