FASTER FURTHER SMOOTHER
WE TEST 2020’S BEST SPORTIVE BIKES
Endurance bikes may not have the glamour of a racer but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been laboured on by designers
Endurance bikes are more often than not overlooked. They may not have the glamour of an aero road bike or a weight weenie racer but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been laboured on and developed as much by designers and engineers as their glamorous stablemates. Each of the five bikes on test here has been worked on by the aerodynamic fairies. Take the Giant Defy with its noise reducing D-Fuse components and integrated aero approach: it’s every bit as ‘advanced’ as the Giant TCR or Propel.
Cannondale’s Synapse has evolved into a light sports machine with tube-shape manipulation working in conjunction with carbon layup to make the ride as smooth as possible.
Simplon, with the Kiaro, has kept up its ground-breaking lightweight carbon with its comfort-concept, design-flattening tube shapes and elongating carbon weaves to enhance comfort-giving flex.
Specialized, with the Roubaix, has taken carbon manipulation and compliance to another level at the rear: radically shaping tubes and configuration for maximum comfort while designing specific components, too, and that’s not even the big story here. That comes at the front end with its revolutionary Future Shock systems, which offers sprung suspension with damping details only usually found on mountain bikes.
Trek, with its Domane SL7, offers a similarly tech-based approach with its pivot-like ‘decouplers’ at the head tube and on the seat tube junction, which gives active vibration damping at both the front and rear.