2024 has been another strong year for the all-road bike. Seemingly every brand has (or soon will) a new school, do-it-all road bike in their range that isn’t an out-and-out aero race bike but equally isn’t a gravel bike. These bikes are perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between the two extremes of the drop bar spectrum, offering an attractive halfway house for most people. The ‘all-road’ bike takes an existing platform – the endurance bike – and updates it into what has become a trending and inviting option, one endurance bikes of old could never achieve.
The question the new generation of all-road bikes begs is, what does this mean for the outright road bike? In a world where versatility is staking its claim as king, road bikes are looking like increasingly specialised tools. Granted, most modern road bikes can accept a 32 mm tyre, but the aggressive positions, twitchy handling, and lack of optimal compliance make them a one-trick pony compared to all-road and gravel bikes.
Before I continue, I will caveat my opinion on this matter. My stance comes based on my location. As someone in the southwest of England, not far from the Welsh border, the all-road bike is exactly the right tool that most riders here would benefit from being on. Unlike across the pond, the UK is not known for its web of adventurous gravel roads and mountain passes. Instead, UK gravel riding typically involves linking bridleways, cycle paths and forested fire roads with swathes of tarmac. Some areas cater to gravel more than others however these are fairly concentrated. In the UK at least the rise of the all-road bike seems like a better jack of all trades than an outright gravel bike. I know there will be plenty of people that disagree with me but based on the terrain I have access to I am doubling down on my stance.
Also, I do not think the road bike’s days are numbered. There are enough people out there who want to go as fast as possible on asphalt for this to be an area of the market that always deserves plenty of attention. However, what I do think could happen is that the all-road bike makes the outright race bike more of the specific niche it should always have been.
Haven’t we been here before?
Rewind a decade or so, and you might be forgiven for thinking that the all-road bike was already a thing. Relaxed rider position, compact gearing and clearance for 35 mm tyres, all sound like the image brands are currently painting around all-road bikes. The difference is that back in 2014 this was given the title of gravel, an emerging trend that has become the now flourishing discipline.
At this time heading off-road on a drop-bar bike was largely resigned to cyclocross with most roadies firm in their belief that a ride should contain 100% paved surfaces. Hybrid rides and heading onto gravel paths and fire roads weren’t on many people’s radars. Over the subsequent years as gravel became more mainstream this idea grew in popularity at an uncontrollable rate partially fuelled by a feeling of escapism and getting away from ever busier roads. Races like Strade Bianche and Unbound also threw fuel onto the fire, increasing the discipline’s appeal.
Now that gravel bikes have found their feet and are heading further and further away from their starting position. Gearing, geometry and tyre choice have all become very ‘gravel-specific.’ For those genuinely looking to ride gravel routes this is perfect and bikes now cater to your needs better than ever before.
With gravel garnering a lot of the cycling world’s attention the humble endurance bike fell further and further away from riders’ radars. Even as recently as 2018, a lot of brand’s endurance offerings could at most accommodate a 32 mm tyre. As much as this made road riding more comfortable it didn’t really allow exploration beyond pavement. With gravel bikes going a step further it seemed for a number of years that most people were deciding between a race bike and a gravel bike, with the endurance bike not quite hitting the right notes.
The result has been a growing gap between the latest long/low/aggressive-position road race bikes and the more capable gravel bikes. Endurance road bikes have been sitting on the sidelines unable to successfully fill this gap – not necessarily because they couldn’t but because they have been poorly marketed and misunderstood by consumers as a result.
With aero race bikes and gravel bikes taking the overwhelming majority of brand’s marketing budget, endurance bikes were on their knees with the consumer unsure as to why they were still a thing. Gravel bikes were repeatedly shown as the best do-it-all bike, but the reality is this isn’t necessarily true. For riders who don’t have endless gravel roads, an endurance road bike could have been a better fit all along.
So what actually is an all-road bike?
A definitive answer looks to be in the eye of the questioner but as a general rule, I think the most important characteristic of an all-road bike is that it is still a road bike first and foremost. It should be built around road bike components: Shimano 105, Ultegra or Dura-Ace over GRX. This does become less clear-cut with 2x GRX, however the soon-to-be-announced 1x version simply doesn’t offer small-enough steps between gears for use across multiple surfaces without a noticeable compromise. SRAM is harder to define being in the unique position where its road groupsets can also make use of the brand’s XPLR range which nicely works for a whole range of applications, or Classified’s shifting hub can also add some confusion, but for the most part all-road bikes should remain 2x.
As far as tyre clearance goes, for an all-road bike to truly be worthy of its title it should be at a minimum able to accommodate at least 35 mm tyres. The reality is with tyre clearance increasing across the board, 38 mm is a stronger option. The likes of Trek’s Domane, Specialized Roubaix, BMC’s Roadmachine and FiftyOne’s Sika now accept 40 mm tyres and Giant’s Defy and Ribble’s Allroad are not far behind with room for 38 mm rubber.
Geometry-wise, all-road bikes are positioned between road race bikes and adventure gravel bikes with gravel race bikes now almost as aggressive as pure road bikes. Part of the issue with many road bikes these days is that the default position each size puts the intended rider in is simply too aggressive to be comfortable for most cyclists, especially on longer rides.
It is for this reason that all-road bikes actually look to be better designed for the average weekend warrior than the latest range of thoroughbred race bikes. A look around at most road riders’ bike fits these days reveals a generous stack of stem spacers. That’s fine for fit purposes, but, it does mean that the average rider is sitting closer to the limits of what the stock fork steerer can accommodate. A taller front end would mean that more riders could dial in their perfect position with very few unable to get low enough for their needs.
Looking at BMC’s range, the Roadmachine in 54 cm has a 22 mm taller stack than the Teammachine road bike, 20 mm taller stack than the Kaius gravel race bike and a 1 mm taller stack than a medium URS adventure gravel bike.
This is where I think the appeal of the all-road bike really stands out. Whether for road or gravel, race bikes are designed to be aggressive, putting the rider in an aerodynamic position. For the pro riders they are designed for this is ideal; however, the reality is that most people riding these bikes are not pro riders, do not spend hours every day on the bike and most likely do not have the flexibility that allows them to ride the bike without a stack of spacers lifting up the front end.
Reach-wise with the stock stem length factored in, the Roadmachine comes in at 483 mm. That compares with 487 mm for the Teammachine, 491 mm for the Kaius and 485 mm for the URS. In this respect, the Roadmachine has the most relaxed position out of all of these bikes. The taller stack and shorter reach put the rider in a more upright position that is more comfortable for the majority of riders allowing for long hours in the saddle without ride-ruining discomfort.
The same story is told by Ribble’s range, with the recently released Allroad both shorter and taller than both the Ultra aero road bike and the CGR gravel bike. Although gravel bikes are more relaxed than an out-and-out race bike, the all-road bike looks to take things a step further.
Once more if we compare Canyon’s Aeroad, Grizl (the more adventurous of the brand’s gravel offerings), and the Endurace we find the same thing. Out of all three models, the Endurace has the longest head tube, shortest reach and a slacker head angle.
Are all-road bikes the quiver killer?
It is an inarguable fact that cycling is an expensive pastime. One way that riders make the cost of riding more palatable is through versatility, the more range a product has the better it is for the consumer.
This is where gravel bikes have won a lot of people over from traditional road bikes. The fact that a gravel bike is 90% as effective on the road as a dedicated road bike but opens up this whole other side of riding makes it a good choice for those not competitively minded.
The issue is that as a do-it-all bike, for where I live at least, the gravel bike swings too far away from the road bike. Most gravel bikes have not been aerodynamically optimised nor are the components optimised for use on the road. The gearing on a gravel bike either leaves you with massive leaps between gear ratios that can make it difficult to have a pleasant riding experience or you find yourself quickly running out of gears as the speed heads over 40 km/h.
If we take most drop-bar riders as an example, they likely have a dedicated road bike and an accompanying gravel bike. This is of course a luxurious place to be and for riders looking to meet a diverse set of needs, it means that their potential cycling budget is split between two bikes. It is important to factor in that this cost extends beyond the purchase price and incorporates maintenance and consumable parts. The all-road bike can consolidate two bikes into one. With this approach, riders can save a chunk of money to take their shiny new bike to amazing riding locations or get a higher-spec bike.
Ultimately how a bike makes you feel should not be overlooked when making any purchasing decisions. A two-bike quiver might mean that your budget would stretch to mechanical groupsets and alloy wheels. Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this and will be some riders’ preference, but for others consolidating your budget on a single all-road bike could allow electronic groupsets, carbon wheels and premium frames to enter the mix. For some riders having a flashy bike makes the whole cycling experience more pleasurable, which is never a bad thing. If this is the case it might be hard to justify a two-bike approach especially if one bike meets 95% of the needs of the two bikes.
For example, let me return to BMC’s latest Roadmachine all-road frameset that fits 40 mm tyres. This might be considered slim by modern gravel standards but it wasn’t that long ago that this would have been a perfectly acceptable width for heading away from the tarmac. Naturally, if you want to win Unbound, rocking up with 40 mm tyres squeezed into the frame is unlikely to net you a victory. But for most riders who enjoy gravel, pinning any numbers on, let alone entering Unbound, is out of the picture.
For more recreational riders that simply see gravel as a way to explore the road less paved 40 mm tyres have been enough since the advent of gravel, at least in my corner of the world. Very quickly if you need more than 40 mm tyres you are finding yourself in mountain bike territory with very little ‘rough gravel’ straddling the hard pack gravel and mountain bike trails that would warrant a 45 or 50 mm tyre.
On the gearing front, gravel bikes have, in more recent times, become predominantly a 1x affair with 2x options now looking increasingly like the exception to the rule. A 2x option is the better choice for all-road. With a sub-compact chainset like SRAM’s 46/33 paired to a 10-33 or 10-36 tooth cassette, you get a range that accommodates the needs of most road rides and a good amount of dirt roads for good measure, and with tighter gear-to-gear jumps. That matters because it is likely that for riders who don’t live in a hotbed of gravel riding, the amount of road riding even on more adventurous rides is going to be a disproportionate majority. The same can be said for the 2x version of Shimano’s GRX as this has a comparable gear range to SRAM’s compact road offering.
The argument for a 2x drivetrain can also be seen when descending. With a 38 mm tyre fitted at a cadence of 100 rpm, a 46×10 gear would carry you to a speed of 60.5 km/h – perfectly adequate for almost all riders almost all of the time. Equally at a cadence of 80 rpm in a gear of 33×36, this translates to a speed of 9.6 km/h which would see you climbing all but technical or super-steep gravel sections. If we take a typical 1x gravel gear ratio of a 40-tooth chainring and a 10-44 cassette, these same cadences yield an identical lowest climbing speed, but a top pedalling speed of just 52.6 km/h.
Where the all-road bike potentially strikes a chord with the general cyclist is that it’s simply more aligned with their needs. This is of course, only if riders are honest with themselves about what actually matters to them. For a long time, aerodynamics and weight have been the governing factors that dictate the appeal of a bike. Is it lighter or more aerodynamic than its competition? For riders who do not compete, comfort, feel, overall rider experience and functionality greatly outweigh weight and aerodynamics alone. The fact that a bike saves 10 watts at 45 km/h is unrelatable to almost all riders outside a peloton. If the trade-off is a slightly heavier and slower bike that meets every other aspect of a rider’s needs and opens up a wider range of riding then in my eyes this is worth every gram and second lost.
Also, zoom out away from all of the hype around aero and think about your riding. If you are drawn to a bike because it is 15 watts faster than an all-road bike but as soon as you take delivery of it you plan on sticking a bar bag front and centre then I have to point out that this will greatly exceed the benefits of a slightly more aero frame.
What could the all-road bike mean for the race bike?
I think the advent of the all-road bike could also be great for the race bike. With the needs of the general rider better catered to by all-road bikes, we could see race bikes become more specialist and tailored exclusively to the demands of road racing. With relaxed riding positions the reserve of the all-road bike the race bike could be stocked with narrow cockpits, race-specific gearing and tailored frame properties that prioritise efficiency and speed at the potential cost of some comfort.
At the moment brands are fully aware that most of the consumer market buying road race bikes are not road racers and are recreational riders who are more likely to do a Gran Fondo than a local crit. The result is race bikes that are compromised for those they are genuinely intended for.
Take the Specialized Tarmac SL8, by all accounts a top-tier road race bike as seen at the hands of Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic. The bike is marketed as an all-around road race bike, optimised for use in the peloton. Even so, for the consumer, all SRAM-equipped models come with a 48/35 crankset and Shimano options with a 52/36 crankset. For a bike intended to spend its life at the pointy end of races the choice to spec the bike with a semi-compact or even sub-compact chainset contrasts the bike’s claimed intentions.
Of course, for the time being at least most people buying a Tarmac are unlikely to put it anywhere near a peloton, so the choice to spec it with more recreationally friendly gears makes perfect sense. However, this does mean that the rider buying the Tarmac to use as the brand markets the bike will want to swap out the chainset for a racier option.
Continuing with the analysis of the Tarmac range, bikes above 49 cm come with a cockpit that is relatively wide for a modern race bike. Handlebars are 400 mm wide for the 52 and 54 cm models before jumping to 420 mm on the 56 and 58 cm models and a dizzyingly wide 440 mm on the 61 cm model. The aero-conscious racer will want to size down the cockpit, depending on where you buy the bike and the aftermarket support this could be a costly alteration. This is also not an issue isolated to Specialized, most brand’s race bikes are stocked with recreational fit finishing kits.
Once again, this is because the majority of riders buying Tarmacs would undoubtedly be better suited to an all-road bike. For Specialized this would be the Roubaix SL8 as it perfectly fits this new ‘all-road’ classification with 40 mm tyres even if the Future Shock suspension does split opinions.
The clear reason that more riders aren’t currently on all-road bikes comes back to marketing. Using Specialized as the example again, the Tarmac SL8 is easy to market to the masses. It has two WorldTour teams winning some of the biggest races on the calendar aboard it. Buying a Tarmac SL8 puts you on the same bike as some of the biggest names in cycling.
On the brand’s website, it says “Nothing is faster than the Tarmac SL8 thanks to a combination of aerodynamics, lightweight, and ride quality previously thought impossible. After eight generations and over two decades of development, it’s more than the fastest Tarmac ever – it’s the world’s fastest race bike. Your legs up for it?”
Meanwhile, note that none of Specialized’s pro team partners race the Roubaix anymore, even in its namesake event. For that bike, the top line description on the website reads, “We created the endurance road category two decades ago proving that high ergonomics means high performance. Today, the new Roubaix SL8 with Future Shock 3.0 is lighter, faster, and smoother than any road bike ever made, unleashing unmatched confidence. The road may be hell below, but on Roubaix, it’s always heaven above.”
For most people, the language used for the Tarmac is more compelling and motivational. The idea of owning the world’s fastest race bike is far more enticing than having the world’s most comfortable road bike. I strongly believe that most people would have a more enjoyable time on the Roubaix but until Specialized markets the bike in a way that appeals to its intended audience it is always going to struggle against the Tarmac that is naturally marketed through racing alone.
This is not isolated to Specialized at all; I could have picked any other brand with a race bike and an all-road bike and it would falter at this same hurdle. I encourage you to go and look at any brand’s website and compare the language used around their flagship race bike and their all-road/endurance offering.
There is an argument that the endurance bike has been here all along trying to fill this gap for ‘everyday riders,’ however they have never been desirable in the mass market. Marketing is partly to blame for this with brands painting a picture of their race bikes as the fastest and best bike that are used by the pro riders you see on the TV. This has always meant that marketing endurance bikes has been a difficult task. This was made tougher given that the initial collection of ‘endurance bikes’ were heavy, slow, and left a lot to be desired in terms of ride feel. These connotations followed the endurace bike for the best part of a decade before it was able to shake them.
Essentially the honest representation of a modern endurance bike is that it is a more comfortable, more relaxed and better-fitting bike for the average recreational cyclist. These bikes now finally have received the technical input required to make them more inspiring to ride with high quality wide tyres and appropriately wide wheels largely to thank.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that this narrative isn’t exactly inspirational to get people to reach into their pockets. The reality of accepting you are slower, less flexible and need more comfort than a young 20-something professional rider isn’t something anyone wants to hear.
This is where all-road bikes might be unlocking a new marketing avenue that relies heavily on versatility. No longer is an endurance bike simply a slower, more relaxed offering for those who are not best suited to a road race bike. Instead, the all-road bike is a multi-terrain weapon that is almost as fast as a race bike on the road and almost as capable on at least light gravel as a dedicated gravel bike. The geometry is as relaxed as it has ever been but now in this context, the idea of comfort for long adventurous days in the saddle is less about a rider’s flexibility levels and more about supporting the all-day epics that the bike is designed for.
Over the past decade, the endurance bike has steadily evolved into the all-road bike mainly with the increase in tyre clearance being the biggest change. The real thing that is new is the images conjured up around the bikes themselves. What the industry really needs at this point is for the brands themselves to make all-road bikes as desirable as possible and eliminate the connotations of endurance bikes of old.
Is the future all-road?
As much as I think the all-road bike genre is the right choice for many riders, the bottom line is it depends on the type of rider you are and what you value. In the US midwest, an all-road bike probably makes little sense, as dedicated gravel bikes are far more versatile relative to the terrain. If, however, the ability to explore beyond tarmac is appealing but even on a ‘gravel ride’ you find yourself on the road for more than 50% of the time, an all-road bike could be the Swiss army bike that caters to your needs.
It’s fair to say that as roads become busier, more congested, and fall further into a state of disrepair, the ability to switch up your riding to incorporate unpaved terrain is steadily growing in its appeal. In the UK at least the full value of a gravel bike can quickly be lost with the all-road bike the answer to the question that gravel has been trying to solve.
I certainly think the latest generation of all-road bikes like Trek’s Domane, Ribble’s Allroad, BMC’s Roadmachine and Giant’s Defy have done a great job of shaking the uncool connotations of endurance bikes of old. The versatility of them better aligns with the genuine needs of the everyday rider.
Will the future be all-road? This comes down to consumer marketing in my eyes and how this genre is received. When brands push their race bikes to the masses it is hard to go against the grain even if the race bike is not the right choice for many consumers. Wholeheartedly I think that the future should be all-road and a lot of riders would have a more enjoyable experience hopping from a road race bike to an all-road bike. It’s an age-old problem, and as long as brands continue to pump their marketing budgets into race bikes rather the all-road bikes, it’s likely many cyclists will continue to choose the less comfortable, less enjoyable, and less versatile option.
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