a road bike isn't just a road bike not anymore anyway there are now three broad categories aerrow bike endurance bike and what used to be normal but is now called a lightweight bike we regular get asked here at gcn about what type of bike you should buy so here is my perspective on it as an XPR Rider and not as someone who works in the bike industry and yes these three are all top of the range examples but their characteristics run true right the way down to lower price points as well firstly what are the
differences between them then well let's start with an aero bike now as well as designed to be aerodynamic there are other things that set this apart from our Benchmark lightweight bike so for example to help make you more aerodynamic as well as the actual bike itself these tend to have the lowest front ends out there meaning that if you've got the flexibility in your hamstrings and your glutes then you'll be able to adopt a super aerodynamic position however this means that not actually going to be suitable for every type of Rider many people are going
to struggle to find a comfortable position on them one criticism that was often leveled at the first generation of aerob bikes is that they could be a little bit harsh now so much work have gone into creating stiff but aerodynamic chebe profiles that actually Comfort had been sacrificed now generation two of aerob bikes pretty much across all manufacturers have actually gone a long way to sorting that problem out but I would just say that if you fit a wider TI on your bike you can pretty much offset any kind of harshness that you might feel
anyway plus a 28 now can roll significantly faster than a 25 seat Tire added into the fact that they can still be really aerodynamic on modern wide rims and actually there's no disadvantage to sticking fat tires on your bike so you might be asking the question then what is the disadvantage of an aerob bike if one can actually fit you and that is a really good point now sometimes aerob bikes will use specially designed brakes that might not be quite as effective as a standard SRAM Shimano or campolo brake and then the other thing is
the look some people absolutely love it other people prefer the lines of a more traditional lightweight bike and that's absolutely fine but you can't escape the fact that unless you ride in really hilly or mountainous terrain that in Pure Performance terms this type of bike is the fastest type of bike that you can buy so what about endurance bikes then well this is a much broader category generally speaking though they're road bikes that give you a more upright and comfortable position that's cuz they've got taller front ends and the reach from the handlebars to the
saddle is also a little bit shorter they tend to be a little bit more stable out on the road so the handlebars feel a little bit less Twitchy in the hands of inexperienced Riders now Comfort is also Paramount here so they tend to have clearance for bigger tires so there's 28c tires we just talked about potentially even larger still the frames as well have built-in vertical compliance little bit more than a normal road bikes they're also more comfortable over larger bumps as well as these bikes tend not to be designed with racing in mind it
means they've led the way when it comes to disc brakes now although this particular one doesn't have them endurance bikes are where discs have found their first home on the road and it makes complete sense you get more predictable braking the frames can be designed to be more comfortable and you also get greater Tire clearance as well so what are the disadvantages then to endurance bikes well if you're used to a more racing machine and you might actually struggle to even get your correct position on these bikes you can get round it perhaps by going
a size smaller so having a bike with a shorter head tube and then putting a longer stem on but it's not exactly going to speed up the handling there tends to be a weight penalty over the lightweight Breen although that can actually just be due to the more robust component choices than the actual composition of the frame itself then again for those of us used to a more racy feeling bike the handling might not really light your fire but then if I can be the voice of reason again here I often find that I can
just get used to a bike after one or two rides so what was a stable bike just becomes a normal bike and it's certainly not going to make you go around corners any slower that's for sure okay then onto our industry standard the lightweight road bike now while the other two types might have a characteristic geometry what you find on knes can vary significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer so you might be as low and as stretched out as on an Arrow bike or even verging on as comfortable and as upright as an endurance bike now
they also tend to be really stiff but also comfortable at the same time because the tubes that have to be compromised to be able to cut through the wind and because of that as well then they also are of course lightweight in fact the lightest aerob bike is probably still about 250 g heavier than these potentially even more if you take a look at the type of bikes ridden by Pro cyclists then you'll still see the majority of riders astride this type of bike and bear in mind that those are the guys that would indisputably
benefit from riding an aerodynamic bike so that tells you something about the way that these ride there must be something about them perhaps something that can't actually be Quantified so what type of bike should you buy then well if you don't feel comfortable stretching out on a road bike and speed isn't always your first priority then an endurance bike is the Clear Choice it's nice and simple it's not going to hold you back if you decide that you do want to race on it but it really comes into its own on longer and steadier bike
rides however it's the arrow and lightweight divide that is much harder and to be fair this is where most of you seem to be struggling with your decision so let's try and drill down chy if you want to go faster buy an aerrow bike although they give away half a kilo at least to a lightweight option they are going to be faster in pretty much any situation unless you're just riding Alpine climbs all day but as we've seen with our pro riders there is still something about a lightweight bike that is hard to resist whether
it's the Aesthetics whether it's the ride quality whether it's the history they are still really really great bikes so I guess if you want to go faster by an aerrow bike otherwise You' got to listen to your heart or in fact you could just watch this GCM video where we actually test out the effect effect of weight on an Alpine climb and you can get through to that video just by clicking up there or to see a fourth type of bike that haven't covered here because it's kind of not really a road bike then why
don't not to check out our road bike versus gravel bike video that we shot in the wilderness of Wales get through to that just down there otherwise subscribe to gcn do that by clicking on the box that says subscribe in the middle there
