Specialized Allez Double

If you’re after an all-round road bike that can handle long, fast rides at the weekend and maybe hack it on the daily commute too, the Specialized Allez could be the model for you.

Specialized’s Allez range has been around for donkey’s years. Well, kind of. The name has. The bikes have changed massively, obviously, although they’ve always offered a sound ride, dependable performance and some of the best value for money out there. This incarnation lives up to those standards – it’s a dependable all-rounder without an obvious weakness. At £500 for the entry-level model, you really can’t go wrong here.

The Allez is made from Specialized’s A1 Premium Aluminium and comes with a similar distinctively bowed top tube design to the one you’ll find on the high-end carbon Tarmac bikes. It drops down steeply along its length to avoid any uncomfortable encounters if you need to get your feet down to the road in a hurry when you hit a red light.

The down tube is meaty enough to provide plenty of torsional rigidity through the centre section while the skinny seatstays come equipped with eyelets for attaching a rear rack if you want to go down the ride-to-work route. The welding is neatly done and the paintwork is good – you get a high-quality finish here. It’s not the world’s most stunning frame, perhaps, but it’s well made, solid and pretty impressive on a 500 quid bike, as is the carbon-bladed fork.

Specialized are big on rider comfort – it’s something of a brand obsession. They figure that a comfortable rider is a happy rider, and a happy rider will get on their bike more – and you can’t fault that logic. And if you ever meet the guys from Specialized, they’ll always tell you how comfort and performance are inextricably linked. So, for example, they’ll point out that Fabian Cancellara is able to ride so fast across the cobbles on one of their comfort-inspired Roubaix bikes because he’s isolated from the jarring of the road. That and the fact that the bloke’s clearly some sort of Swiss monster.

Anyway, as far as comfort and the Allez go, the chainstays provide a little give over rough road surfaces while the carbon fork legs help to dampen out vibration at the front end. The Body Geometry Rival saddle is a winner too. There’s enough flex in the hull to take the sting out of the occasional pothole while a shallow channel down the centre relieves the pressure to keep you sitting pretty even on long rides. Saddles are a personal thing – what’s right for one person isn’t necessarily right for another – but most riders we know get on fine with this design which splits the difference between squishy and firm.

The ride position isn’t too extreme either. Sure, the Allez is built to a racy geometry but the reach is reasonable and the head tube isn’t ridiculously low. On our 56cm model, for example, the head tube is 18cm tall compared to 17cm on a Tarmac race bikes and 19cm a Roubaix. You get a good, healthy stack of headset spacers below the stem too. In other words, it’s a position you can sit and pedal in comfortably as long as you’ve got half-decent mobility in your lower back, or you can whip out a couple of spacers, chop the fork’s steerer tube down a touch and go for a more aggressive setup.

Specialized have added several features that should keep you rolling without interruption. The tyres, for instance, come with Flak Jacket protection – a tough aramid belt that lives below the tread to help prevent punctures. It’s not as tough as Specialized’s Armadillo puncture protection system, but it’s lighter and does a pretty good job. The wheels – Alex S500 aluminium rims on forged aluminium hubs – are built strong with 32 spokes front and rear to spread the load. They’re not light but they’ll stand up well to everyday use and abuse without complaint.

The entry-level Shimano 2300 drivetrain runs as smoothly and reliably as far more costly setups, the double chainset (52/39T) and 8-speed cassette (12-25T) providing a spread of gears that’ll get you up most climbs without too much trouble. That said, we reckon a compact (50/34T) would be a better option, offering lower ratios on a bike that’s likely to appeal to less experienced riders – but you can’t have everything, we guess.

The only thing that really bugs us about the 2300 kit is the little thumb shifter that sits on the inside of the lever body. It’s fine to use when you’re riding on the hoods but getting at it when you’re down on the drops… no chance. It’s the same on Shimano’s next-level-up Sora too, so you have to pay a lot more for a Tiagra-equipped bike if you want a system that’s significantly better.

It’s not the biggest gripe ever, though, and it’s common to pretty much every road bike at this price. Overall, the Allez’s ride is actually really enjoyable. As we said before, it’s a comfortable bike, and that’s worth more than a whole heap of glitzy parts and fancy tube shaping. You’ll be perfectly happy as you eat up the miles on a long weekend ride. And at 9.8kg (21.6lb) it’s a decent weight too, which makes those hills just a touch more manageable. Okay, it’s nothing to shout about compared to a typical £800 bike’s weight, say, but comparing like with like, acceleration is reasonably snappy when you want to get a shift on. Plus if you wanted to you could probably drop a fair chunk of weight by replacing the wheels and still come ahead.

The Allez is also a stable, planted ride. It won’t skip about over iffy sections of Tarmac and it holds its line through quick, fast corners. Just as important, the dual pivot brakes will stop you reliably when called into action. They lose out surprisingly little to mid-range options in terms of power and modulation. Pay more and you’ll get better – that’s usually the way it goes – but these are dependable enough, giving you the assurance you need to cut loose on the descents without fear of disaster.

All in all, the Allez is a good road bike for the money. It’ll handle all sorts of road riding but it’s at its best when you hit the open road. If you want a sporty machine that’s fast, reliable and capable of helping you rack up the miles, take a good look.

Verdict

Comfortable, stable all-round road bike that's at its best getting in the big miles on the open road