There’s yet another category of bike (don’t bike makers love to define yet another genre?), the all-road bike, that also looks to straddle the endurance/gravel gulf and which overlaps with both, being designed for light gravel alongside road riding. Some bike brands will offer gravel and endurance specs of the same bike, like the Wilier Rave SLR, just altering tyre tread patterns and gearing between the two.Īn endurance bike with wide tyre clearance and low gear ratios can easily be set up with gravel tyres for more grip, allowing you to head off tarmac and explore the less gnarly tracks and trails you find.Ĭonversely, some gravel-light bikes like the aforementioned Wilier Rave SLR or the BMC Kaius are equally at home on the road. Although they started off as different bike categories, there are now plenty of bikes that blur the boundary. What’s the difference between an endurance road bike and a gravel bike? It may increase the distance that you feel confident riding or allow you to take on more difficult terrain. The extra mass may not affect handling or ride feel on the flat, but the motor provides a get-out on the hills. The best electric road bikes are not much heavier than a normal endurance bike. Often you’ll be riding at over the 25kmh at which assistance cuts out (in Europe), so the motor is only there for when things get harder. It’s a useful option if you want to go long and value the extra assistance of a motor to help with climbs or if you get fatigued. Many brands now offer e-bike versions of their endurance bikes. Many road bike designs, even performance race models, now allow you to add an integral rear light to your seatpost. Cannondale’s SmartSense system uses a central battery to power front and rear lights. While still a bit of a novelty, it’s increasingly common to see lights built into endurance bikes. We’d say proper mudguard mounts are essential if you plan on riding through winter. If you’re going to be out on long rides in all weathers you want to be kept a bit drier wheel spray wetting your seat pad is never comfortable. Mudguard fixing points used to be a rarity on any bike, but they’re pretty much standard on modern endurance bikes. In other cases, vibration damping comes from the design and layup of carbon handlebars and fork blades. Generally they involve adding an additional material to the frame to dissipate vibration, like Bianchi’s Countervail, designing the rear triangle with flex zones or extra compliance, as in the Cannondale Synapse or the Lapierre Xelius or built-in flex features as in the Trek Domane and the Wilier Granturismo SLR.įront end comfort may be catered for by features to add extra vertical travel like the Future Shock 2.0 found in the latest generation of the Specialized Roubaix or the pivoting stem found in the BMC Roadmachine X AMP (okay, that one’s an electric bike). There have been many solutions to vibration damping over the years – some more gimmicky than others. Fancy seatpostsĪ slim and flexible 27.2mm seatpost is typical for road bikes and carbon seatposts are the most common material even on lower priced endurance bikes, for their increased vibration damping.īeyond that, endurance bikes will often have seatposts with extra features to make your saddle time more enjoyable, like the Canyon/Ergon VCLS split shaft seatpost and BMC and Giant’s D-shaped posts. They are also pivotal in allowing those bigger tyre clearances. They bring improved braking in all weathers while coming with only a minor weight penalty. Disc brakesĭisc brakes are the norm for bike manufacturers these days, with hydraulic braking rather than cable-operated on mid-range models and up. That gives a similar top ratio to a conventional groupset that has an 11-tooth smallest sprocket, but a very low bottom gear. SRAM’s 12-speed eTap AXS groupsets give you even wider gear ratios, with the option of a 10-36t cassette paired with either a 46/33 or 48/35 crankset. With the latest groupsets shifting to 12-speed cassettes, the wide range is often achieved with smallish differences between gear ratios mid-cassette, where the bulk of your riding is likely to be. Modern road groupsets will let you pair that with a cassette providing range up to 11-36, so you get some really low ratios. It’s typical for endurance bikes to be fitted with a 50/34-tooth compact crankset. To take steep climbs with ease and reduce fatigue on long, hilly rides, low gearing will let you spin up rather than engage in out-of-saddle grinding. Tyres ( and rims) are still getting wider, but increased tyre clearance has been common on endurance bikes for years as an easy way to increase comfort and grip by increasing the volume of air under the rider, allowing lower tyre pressures.Ģ8mm tyres are the minimum, but expect clearance to fit tyres up to 40mm on some models. Longer chainstays also increase tyre clearance.
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