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
00:30bike? What is an all-road bike for? And what does this mean for the future of the beloved endurance
00:36bike? I think a good place to start is, what is an all-road bike? Well annoyingly, that in itself
00:48is a bit of a tough question, but you could sum them up as 80% road and 20% everything else. It's
00:55a very hard category to define and this lack of a clear definition has resulted in a mishmash of
01:01wishy-washy bikes that are also trying to figure themselves out. Brands that do have dedicated
01:07all-road bikes will usually claim that they embody a few different characteristics, those being a
01:13slightly more relaxed geometry over and above their endurance counterparts, more tyre clearance
01:19and potentially more mounting points. Not forgetting of course more forgiving gear ratios and
01:25wider tyres. Now while those seem like a set of pretty clear and understandable criteria,
01:31things get slightly more muddled when you go a little deeper. For example, the Cannondale
01:36Synapse LTD is offered in an all-road build, so what we have here is clearly an endurance bike,
01:43but one which has been decked out with a 2x GRX groupset and 30mm wide tyres. So,
01:49is 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
02:02just the perfect winter bike. I think one thing is clear, this newfangled all-road category can
02:09to 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 claimed 35mm. It could also be a dedicated
02:26all-road build, much like this brand new Vitus Venom that you can see behind me, which does have
02:31a slightly altered geometry compared to the Xenium, which is the brand's endurance offering.
02:36The key thing with this new Venom is that Vitus 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.
02:48Another 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
02:58gravel-going Kanso Fast. When you look at it, all that really needs to change is the tyres to truly
03:05optimise 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
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
03:38a future shock in the same way that the Diverge and the Roubaix does, but that is just pure
03:43speculation. Dropper posts and 650b wheels will be reserved for gravel bikes and other off-road
03:50bikes. Now, that's not to say that you can't fit them retrospectively,
03:54it just wouldn't make too much sense to do so.
03:56So, 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
04:19to fairly loose gravel. My recommendation would be that these bikes are reserved for either longer
04:25days in the saddle, roads of a poor quality, or for riders who genuinely love to mix it up
04:30and do a little bit of everything, including some gravel, with the severity of what you can tackle
04:36being dependent on the tyres that you're running. You also cannot ignore that an all-road bike
04:42would make for a pretty wicked winter bike, with big, comfy, confidence-inspiring tyres,
04:48big gear ratios for the ultimate Zone 2 rides, and mounting points galore for all the mudguards and
04:54racks that you could ever want. They 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
05:05full saying goes, a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, but often better than a master of one.
05:11So, if 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
05:23garage, then maybe that would enable you to get something with a higher specification,
05:28and 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
05:53bikes continue to open up tyre clearances, although I don't think it'll get much wider
05:58than 35mm. There's also a very strong possibility that endurance bikes will now start to come in
06:04more 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
06:50category and the breadth of ability they cover, with some more tailored for the road and others
06:55for off it, there really will be something for everyone. As a consumer, when looking to purchase
07:01a bike in this space, we just have to consider what terrain we want to ride on, and from there,
07:07you'll be able to find a bike that fits your requirements. Since an all-road bike can just
07:12be a change of an endurance bike specification, they really aren't a world apart from what we
07:17already have. You may even already own an all-road bike in the form of a modern-day endurance bike,
07:23which 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
07:33falls into. Maybe we need to think about drop bar bikes as a spectrum rather than three or
07:39four hard categories. At one end, you'd have aero bikes, followed by do-it-all race bikes,
07:45followed 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
07:55and other straight bar bikes. The nice thing is that no matter what type of cycling you enjoy
08:00doing most, in theory, it means there will be a bike out there which exactly fits your
08:05requirements. The flip side to 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?
08:15If you have any questions about them, then 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.