Are all road bikes all-road bikes?
Is the bike industry trying to sell you the same bike twice?
It used to be oh so simple, just road bikes and mountain bikes. In the road category, we were limited to two faithful options: a winter bike and a race bike. Cyclo-cross existed too, in a muddy no-man’s land, but there was little mixing of the on- and off-road riding genres.
Then came endurance and aero bikes, then gravel. The latter has been a buzzword for the last half-decade, and for good reason. Emphasis on more casual riding, enjoying the outdoors and getting away from traffic resonates with the masses. It’s fair to say that the gravel genre has sculpted the landscape of the cycling industry in recent years.
Walk into a bike shop today, and you will be bombarded with myriad options – road race bikes, road endurance bikes, all-road bikes and gravel exploration bikes to name just a few. Yet the lines are becoming increasingly blurred. After all, most share much of the same DNA – two-wheeled, humanpowered machines equipped with disc brakes and wide(r) tyres.
With many of the best race bikes on the market, such as the Specialized Tarmac SL8, now supporting up to 35mm rubber – that’s 2mm wider than competition cyclo-cross tyres – cynics will claim that the new all-road bikes category is just an industry ploy to sell you more bikes. But is that the case?
The cobbled Classics represents a pretty good definition of ‘all-road’ riding. In the past, the intense demands of the pavé have led to teams using innovative adaptations – sometimes different frames – to make the racing more bearable. However, as we found out at this year’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, conventional bikes are increasingly well-equipped to endure and smooth out this battering.
“Technology is so far away from where it was five years ago,” said Bruno Maltar, mechanic at Dsm-firmenich Postnl, “it means we don’t really have to change anything for the Classics.”
Speaking with Ineos Grenadiers mechanic Nick Van Cauter, it was a similar story for Tom Pidcock:
“The only thing we are doing differently for the Classics is running 32mm tyres front and back.”
Specificity still matters
Certainly, there’s a sense in the pro peloton that race bikes have become much more versatile. Today’s carbon layups enable frame manufacturers to increase vertical compliance while maintaining stiffness where it matters, and advances in the world of aerodynamics have led to faster wheels, even with wider 30mm tyres. So, should everyone should buy a modern-day race bike? Nope.
We spoke to Tim Allen, bike-fit expert at Soigneur, who explained how two bikes with the same riding position can possess handling characteristics that are poles apart.
“Not a lot of people appreciate this,” he says, “but you could
“We don’t really have to change anything for the Classics ”
put identical bike-fit measurements on to two different bikes and they would handle completely differently.
“For example, with the right stems and seatposts you could easily put the handlebars and saddle in the same place relative to the bottom bracket on both road and gravel framesets. But because the chainstay length, wheelbase and fork trail are likely to be different, the two bikes wouldn’t handle the same.”
So the concept of ‘one bike to do everything’ doesn’t hold water – at least not without compromise.
“It depends what that ‘everything’ is to the individual,” Allen continues. “There are bikes out there with chainstays around 412-415mm that work great for recreational club riding as well as lighter gravel. However, if you are a dedicated crit racer or gravel racer, you’re going to want a bike with shorter or longer stays respectively, one that’s more discipline-focused.”
So, the devil is in the detail. Today’s bikes are becoming aesthetically more and more alike, with only their spec sheets revealing the whole truth. Look beyond the crude similarities, though, and you’ll discover a broad spectrum of bikes where once there were only a few rigidly defined categories. And that’s got to be a good thing.