First ride: 2014 S-Works Allez

This past Wednesday, I looked into a tent full of 2014 Specialized road bikes. Next year’s Venges, Tarmacs and Roubaixs, carbon-fibre gee-machines, were there for me to try. But the bike I was the interested in riding didn’t have a frame made of composite material. No, it was an Allez with its frame made of a material that hasn’t been cutting edge since the ‘90s: aluminum.

Specialized has given cycling’s second-tier material top-level attention. Chris D’Aluisio, who’s part of Specialized’s research and development team, came up with a new process, dubbed Smartweld, for shaping and joining aluminum frame parts. The head, top and down tubes of an Allez are created through a hydroforming process. The resulting tubes have thicker, rounded ends, almost as if the ends of the tubes had been folded over. These thick ends add stiffness where the tubes need it the most and allow for thinner tubes overall, which keeps the weight down. The top-end Allez frame, whose standards are high enough to earn Specialized’s S-Works designation, is said to weigh a mere 1,060 g (in Size 56).

The model I rode in the Colorado near the town of Frisco was in fact the S-Works edition. The machine’s name was anodized onto the frame, which not only looked sharp, but is supposed to save a few grams. The gruppo that handled shifting and braking was Shimano’s Dura-Ace 9000. At the front, the Roval Rapide CLX 40 wheel attached to the same carbon-fibre fork found on Specialized’s carbon-fibre racer, the Tarmac.

As I rode the bike up long climbs and down screaming descents, I felt like I was getting away with something. This was aluminum? The ride quality was nothing like my old aluminum ‘cross bike, which is not pleasant on the road, or my commuter, whose single-minded rigidity is managed with balloon-like 35c tires.The Allez was smooth even when I took it up a gravel road more suited to its siblings the Roubaix or Crux. According to Chuck Teixeira, director of advanced research and development at Specialized, the compliance in the frame comes mainly from the chain- and seatstays, as well as the seat tube. In fact, the seat tubes of the Allez’s different frame sizes differ in thickness so that the frame feel scales accordingly. But when it came time to mash on the pedals, the rig had all the necessary stiffness for prime power transfer.

At the moment, the Canadian price for this model isn’t available, but sources put it in the range of mid-level carbon-fibre bikes. For some, that is a bit steep for an alloy. As you move out of S-Works territory to other Allez models, such as the Expert, Race or Comp, you lose the anodized lettering, and gain a few grams and lower-level gruppos. However, these bikes are built using the same techniques as the S-Works edition. That well-tuned aluminum is sure to please a budding racer. Even the club rider will get a machine that will perform as well, possibly better, than the composites in the weekend ride.