Need to know
What makes an endurance road bike different to a performance road bike, and what should you consider when buying one? Here’s our five-step guide
AN ENDURANCE BIKE, at first glance, looks much like the bikes you’ll see racing through France in July, but look more closely and you’ll see there are some subtle but significant differences, which make them more suitable for the likes of you and I rather than two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar and his pro peloton pals. An endurance bike is made for day-long comfort, putting you in a more upright position that puts less strain on your lower back, for example.
01 Geometry for big rides
It really is all about ride position. While a performance race bike has a longer, lower riding position, using stack and reach (see Bike Tech Explained box) to maximise aero gains, an endurance bike ups the comfort, with a shorter reach and taller stack. Though the riding position is still sportier than you’ll find on a gravel bike or tourer.
02 Year-round use
An endurance bike should also be better for year-round use, with increased tyre clearances so you can fit larger, more weatherproof tyres come winter and its more treacherous riding conditions. They may also have useful details such as mudguard mounts.
03 Sporty but not just for sport
Plenty of endurance bikes are designed for both racing and recreation of course: Trek’s Domane and Specialized’s Roubaix were designed for the cobbled classics, for instance. Bikes like this manage to match the handling speed of a race bike while boosting the comfort. That said, unlike previous versions of Cannondale’s Synapse, one of which propelled Peter Sagan to victory, our test model hasn’t been ratified for racing by the UCI.
04 Compliance matters
Where a pro race bike is all about lightness and stiffness, a great endurance bike will have more compliance in the frame to absorb the vibrations from road surfaces that can cause fatigue on long rides. This can make endurance bikes a little heavier, but bikes such as Giant’s Defy are still impressively light. The compliance and low-weight combo is often achieved by using carbon in the frameset, such as Bianchi’s CV material or Cannondale’s SAVE carbon. Sometimes even pseudo suspension systems are used, such as Trek’s IsoSpeed or Specialized’s Future Shock, which incorporates 20mm of suspension in the head tube.
05 How we tested
Firstly, each bike was set up and checked over by our mechanic Will. Then I did a high-tempo, two-and-a-half-hour ride to see how the bikes felt and whether any adjustments were needed. For the main part of the test, I used the same route through Wiltshire, which is just over 82 miles (132km). Each bike had at least two outings on the route; once in the reverse direction. And for good measure, I even took in some of Salisbury Plain’s wide gravel roads.