Specialized S-Works Allez - A Bike For Life? | Cycling Weekly
As cycling journalists, especially those of us who spend our days testing and writing about the latest and great tech, we can be spoiled for choice in what we have available to us. However, video manager Sam Gupta and many of his colleagues all have their own collection of bikes and some of those bikes are ones which they've had for a very long time. This video shows of Sam's dream Specialized S-Works Allez build and he also tells us why this is the one bike he will never ever sell. What do you think of his road bike and the way he has built it up?
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00:00 Like any kid working in a bike shop, being surrounded by all the latest bling meant that
00:04 the desire to upgrade my own bike occupied more of my mind than arguably it should have done.
00:10 Sadly, the amount of money you can earn when you're working in a bike shop
00:13 doesn't really lend itself to being able to buy all the shiny things that surround you
00:18 every single day. However, that was never going to discourage me. After plenty of waiting
00:24 and hunting around for the right bike, a specialised S-Works Alley came up for sale in my size
00:30 on Facebook Marketplace. It was being sold by a local lad, a local racer actually,
00:35 and he was wanting to move it on to make space for next season's rig. To me, this was absolutely
00:41 ideal. Buying a second-hand aluminium bike did not worry me at all, and the ability to buy into
00:46 the S-Works moniker for a discount price, well, it was a done deal. After a meet-up at the local
00:53 Sunday circuit race and an envelope of 50s handed over later, my new bike was grabbed out the back
00:59 of their team van. Of course, the bike went straight to the shop where I was working
01:03 to allow the modifications to begin. Little did I know at the time that this bike would go on to
01:09 join me for countless adventures and become the one bike that I have vowed to never, ever sell.
01:15 The frame set is what made me fall in love. The satin finish on the paint was the perfect
01:29 balance between gloss and matte, and the satin chrome decals set it off incredibly well. And
01:36 the virtually invisible welds tricked the eye into thinking that it could be carbon fibre.
01:41 Specialized fitted an S-Works level fork which utilised their top-level carbon at the time,
01:47 and the aluminium was hydroformed, meaning that they could replicate the shape of the tarmac again
01:54 at the time. But it also meant the weight was kept down to a minimum. The overall weight of
01:59 the frame by itself hovers around that 1000g mark, which actually is pretty good.
02:06 The bike predominantly plays host to an Ultegra 6800 groupset, as this is what the bike came with
02:12 when I bought it. However, in my eyes, the Dura-Ace 9000 groupset is probably
02:16 the prettiest groupset ever made. So I decided to take the plunge and buy the chain set and the rear
02:24 mech. Since these components are arguably the most visible parts of a groupset, I think they
02:28 do a really good job of increasing the bike's kerb appeal. And quite frankly, the chrome details on
02:33 the components paired with the frame itself, it's just a match made in heaven. When I did change the
02:40 chain set, it did also provide the opportunity to revise the gear ratios. The bike came with a 53/39,
02:46 however, I was finding that my little chicken legs were struggling, so I opted for a 52/38.
02:53 Now, it may not seem like a huge change, and granted, it's not, but out on the road,
02:58 I found that turning the cranks just felt so much better. And when I paired that with an 11/28
03:04 cassette, the ratios, for me, they just fell into place. The Roval CLX40s that the bike came with
03:11 are sadly no longer with me. After six months of use, I decided to sell them before the value
03:17 either dropped out of them because road disc brake bikes were finally coming onto the market,
03:22 but I was also wary of the fact that if I kept using them, I was going to wear through that
03:26 brake track, and again, they would end up essentially valueless. As a young lad in a bike
03:32 shop, I wasn't really in the position to lose that kind of money over an extra couple of watts, so I
03:38 hunted down on the web a set of just cheap Chinese carbon wheels for about 300 quid. And say what you
03:45 will about them, but actually, these Chinese knockoffs have actually been pretty decent.
03:50 They're easy to service with their sealed cartridge bearings, they've never needed
03:55 truing, and actually, when you pair them with a set of Swiss stock Black Prince carbon pads,
03:59 when you pull on the levers, you will definitely stop. I've always run the same tires on this bike,
04:05 a set of 28C S-Works Turbo tires. For me, they provide a great balance between comfort,
04:11 grip, and just downright speed. The qualities of the S-Works Turbos are also helped by the fact
04:16 that I've been running the Turbo tubes, which are a lightweight butyl inner tube, but they're also
04:22 pre-tout, meaning that that helps them lower their rolling resistance ever so slightly.
04:27 The other thing that I really like about those tubes, and it is a bit of a bike nerdy,
04:31 weight weenie thing, but they're also about 40 grams lighter compared to a standard butyl
04:35 inner tube. When you do that over both wheels, you're saving nearly 80 grams, which I'll take.
04:40 The finishing kit was actually the first things that I did change on the bike, and that's because
04:45 I wanted to get the fit dialed in. I nabbed some 38-centimeter Pro-Vibe alloy bars, and I paired it
04:52 with a 100-millimeter S-Works stem. Now, while I was tempted by an integrated carbon setup,
04:59 my typically stingy self was never really going to stretch that far. Quite frankly,
05:03 I love how easy this bike is to recable. The seat post is actually one of the few
05:09 things that has stayed original throughout my entire tenure with the bike, but the saddle,
05:13 well, that has changed. I started off with a specialized S-Works tube saddle, which I had
05:18 for nearly a decade. After those near 10 years, well, it was looking a little worse for wear.
05:25 I have recently actually upgraded and embraced some modern technology in the shape of the Fizik
05:31 Vento Argo Double Zero saddle. Now, while this saddle is ever so slightly lighter, the real game
05:38 is the incredibly grippy surface and the increased comfort, no thanks to the super wide wings that
05:44 it's got. Sadly, the bike isn't without its faults, or should I say quirks? One thing that I wish
05:51 Specialized had done with this bike was to give it a thread in bottom bracket. Sadly, though,
05:55 this bike came out when BB30s were in their heyday. The months and years that I have spent
06:01 trying to make this bike be creak-free, well, quite frankly, it's just not worth thinking about.
06:07 Luckily, though, I have now found a solution that does work pretty well, but it does include
06:12 putting some Loctite on the outer race of the bearings, but you've got to do what you've got
06:17 to do. Also, some of the bottle cage bolts now spin within the frame, meaning that they can't
06:23 be undone. Now, before you all start telling me that I can't have this fixed, quite frankly,
06:27 I don't care. One bottle is fine for me and the rides that I show this bike. Really,
06:33 I don't want to risk losing the oh-so-cool S-Works bolts. Quite frankly, they're worth the pizzazz.
06:39 I do also have to be fairly careful with the red paint on this bike. It comes off incredibly
06:46 easily due to not having a protective clear coat to encapsulate it, but nearly after eight years
06:52 of ownership, I think it's held up pretty well considering. As I mentioned previously,
06:58 I'm never going to sell this bike, so what does the future hold for it? Well, being aluminium,
07:05 I have no doubt that this bike will outlast me, so long as we don't get acquainted with
07:10 the underside of a lorry. One thing I've always wanted to upgrade, though, are the brake calipers.
07:15 Switching over to some matching Dura-Ace 9000 calipers would be brilliant, and it would just
07:20 add that extra little bit of bling to the setup. Once worn down, I will then also be replacing
07:26 the tyres for the latest S-Works turbos that got released at the back end of last year.
07:31 Lastly, I'd also like to fit a new S-Works seat post. The current one has been pretty beaten up
07:38 over winter rides, and when I've been attaching a rear light to the saddle, it's been chewing up
07:42 the lacquer, so it's just looking a little bit tired. Overall, I don't really see this bike
07:48 changing too much more. To me, it's pretty close to being perfect for what I want from this bike.
07:56 That's my dream road bike and how it came to be, and also why I am never, ever going to sell it.
08:03 Let me know down in the comments, though. Tell me about the bikes that you are never going to sell,
08:08 and why. I'd be really interested to hear about them. If you enjoyed the video, then please do
08:13 drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I'll see you again very soon.
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