Cyclist
All-road bike test: FiftyOne Sika vs Enve Fray vs Giant Defy
What is the definition of an all-road bike? We can all agree that an all-road bike isn’t a gravel bike. Nor is it a traditional endurance bike. Nor just a road bike with fat tyres. Although, hang about, all-road bikes will cope with bridleways and fire-roads, they love long distances and they are light and stiff with curly handlebars. It’s all a bit confusing.
To solve this conundrum, Cyclist sent three intrepid journalists for a day in the New Forest near the south coast of England, where we rode three different all-road bikes on a mixture of tarmac and gravel, then convened at a suitable cafe to eat pastries and compare notes on what makes a good all-road bike, and whether these bikes fit the definition.
So, on the Enve Fray we have Cyclist editor Pete Muir, on the FiftyOne Sika is tech editor Sam Challis, and on the Giant Defy is deputy editor James Spender.
Let the discussion commence.
FiftyOne Sika
Light and racy, for turning all roads into fast roads
The spec
Model FiftyOne Sika
Price £8,350
Weight 7.3kg (large)
Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels Enve Foundation 45
Finishing kit FiftyOne Sika bar/stem, FiftyOne Sika seatpost, Bontrager Verse Pro saddle, Continental GP5000 S TR 32mm tyres
Contact fiftyonebikes.com
Enve Fray
Refined, capable and desirable, but eye-wateringly expensive
The spec
Model Envy Fray
Price £11,855
Weight 7.6kg (58cm)
Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels Enve SES 3.4
Finishing kit Enve SES AR In-Route bar/stem, Enve Aero seatpost, Enve X Selle Italia Boost SLR saddle, Enve SES Road 35mm tyres
Contact saddleback.co.uk
Giant Defy
The bike that wrote the book on all-road
The spec
Model Giant Defy Advanced SL 1
Price £8,499
Weight 7.8kg (ML)
Groupset Sram Force AXS
Wheels Giant SLR 1 36
Finishing kit Giant Contact SLR D-Fuse bars, SLR AeroLight stem and D-Fuse SLR seatpost, Giant Fleet SLR saddle, Cadex Classics tubeless 32mm tyres
Contact giant-bicycles.com
Let’s start with tyres…
Sam: You can’t just put a wide tyre into a road bike and call it an all-road bike. Even though lots of road bikes now fit 33mm tyres, their geometry is optimised for narrower widths, and if you slot in a wider tyre you mess that up – the centre of gravity increases as the tyres raise the bike further off the ground. The trail increases too, so in theory too-wide tyres in a road bike will make it less stable and will undermine its handling. I know my Sika only has 32mm Contis, but it fits 40mm, and the other two take 38mm max, or actually 40mm for the Fray if you set it up 1x.
Pete: I think it’s interesting that even though the Enve will fit 40mm tyres, Enve says it is optimised for 31-35mm tyres. Which begs the question, what size constitutes an all-road tyre?
Sam: I feel like 34, 35mm is probably the sweet spot right now. For me, the Contis are too skinny but I can see why FiftyOne put them on as it’s a bike that comes more from the road side, whereas the Fray is like a pared down gravel bike. James, you tested the Sika with 34mm Vittorias [FiftyOne offers such spec choices] that you said measured up to 36mm on some wider rims.
James: I did, and I really felt – which echoes you guys saying 35mm – that it was the Sika at its best. Makes you wonder why anyone makes a 40mm clearance frame, especially when hardly anyone makes 40mm road tyres.
Sam: Pirelli does, with the 40mm Race TLRs I tested a while ago…
Pete: …and they weighed 460g, so who’s running them? Much too heavy for a road bike. I think the reason manufacturers build around 40mm clearances is really to compensate for different wheel-tyre combinations as you get into really wide tyre territory.
James: Case in point, Giant sells the Defy with its 32mm Cadex Classics, but the website says they measure 33.5mm on the Defy’s 22.4mm wide wheels, so imagine what 40mm tyres would do to your stays.
I’ve got to say I really liked the Defy’s tyres – they felt supple but also robust. That’s if tyres can feel robust and I’m not just talking crap. But you have to run them low-pressure, otherwise there’s no point in wide tyres. I’m also impressed Giant sent the Defy set up tubeless. Not very many brands do.
Pete: I’m also a big fan of Enve’s tyres, which it says are designed to interface with its rims to help keep things as aero as possible. Can’t tell you if that makes any difference, but considering this was a 35mm tyre it felt much faster than I thought it would.
The claimed weight is 290g though, which is really light for a wide tyre, so that definitely helps.
Moving on to geometry and comfort…
Pete: Admittedly I haven’t jumped on many pure road bikes and gone, ‘Bloody hell, I can’t cope with this incredibly aggressive geometry,’ but I do find on some road bikes, especially aero bikes, that every time you hit the slightest ripple in the road it sort of jolts through you. But the Fray was super-smooth. It had none of that.
Looking at the numbers it’s not exactly un-racy, but the stack is much taller than I’d expect on a pure road bike, and the reach a touch shorter. So it’s more upright and more stable. But it wasn’t sluggish like it could be, and when you look at the trail and the chainstays – which are pretty short at 415mm – you see a much racier bike, which I think showed.
James: So in conclusion it’s a more comfortable road bike, which is the all-road bike’s MO?
Pete: Precisely. Though if you look at that bar-to-saddle drop… I had a bit of a panic when I saw it, but the Fray was really comfortable, and that comes from a man with a bad back. I’d put more spacers in under the stem if I owned one though.
Sam: Like I said earlier, I see the Sika as coming more from the road side of things, and it’s similar to what you just described, Pete. More upright than a pure road bike but still handling like one. It was nippy. It’s hard to pull out any one specific characteristic that defines the ride, but I think that’s a good thing. We rode all day and I just had a nice time: nothing hurt, nothing ticked, nothing rattled. It was just a really lovely bike that disappeared underneath me and allowed me to enjoy the ride.
James: In a way, that’s the best praise you can give a bike when you’re riding over lots of broken surfaces. I know there were no out-and-out trails on our ride, but we hit loads of hardpack gravel with braking bumps and holes, not to mention the state of some of the actual roads.
I’d say similar to you guys about the Giant. I tested the Giant TCR recently and the Defy does feel less racy – less nimble in corners and slower to accelerate, but it’s not a huge difference. But it’s a different story with comfort, as the Defy is way more comfy. The little cut-out in the Defy’s seatpost is supposed to provide a bit of give, but it’s the tyres that make the difference – it has to be. That TCR came with 28mm, with a maximum clearance of 33mm. Little more than a track bike in comparison.
What about in-frame storage?
James: Here’s where I think we really disagree… integrated or in-bike storage? Discuss.
Sam: Love it, even road bikes should have it.
Pete: I have to say I tend to agree, even though when I saw the Fray’s storage hatch I thought, hmm, how’s that going to hold up? It’s got the water bottle attached to it, which weighs about 600g full. But it feels so well made and sturdy. You also get a neat little neoprene bag with a loop at the end, so you can fill it with tools and slide it down the down tube, like a pencil case.
Sam: Exactly. I think integrated storage should be an all-road bike’s USP. Gravel gets loads of mounts, road gets nothing, all-road gets a place you can keep a rat and pull it out by its tail.
James: So you’re not bitter the Sika doesn’t have any storage? The Giant doesn’t either but that’s OK. I think it’s dumb. Adds complexity and weight.
Sam: But James, why am I spending all this money on a sleek looking bike then ruining it with a seat bag? Horrible.
James: But Sam, your Sika frame weighs 690g partly because it is just a frame, making it the lightest here by a country mile. I’d choose that over a storage hatch. I’m happy with my Defy, just a regular bike doing its thing, ready to be spoiled by a feckless idiot Velcroing a posterior man satchel under its saddle. Seriously, though, the bike is fine without storage, as road bikes have been fine since the dawn of time. Pete, I don’t care how well made the Fray’s storage is, if there’s an Achilles heel in the design, it’s there.
Sam: You’re wrong. But anyway. It’s not storage but I’ve got to say I love the Fray’s little detail of a braided cover over the Di2 wire to the rear mech, keeping it out of harm’s way. I also like the bottle cage-type mounts on the top tube and under the down tube. All-road bikes are built for distance, after all.
Finally, let’s talk components and conclusions
Sam: I think it’s interesting that all these bikes came with 2x setups, whereas if I was building from the ground up – which you can with the Sika and Fray but not the Defy – I’d choose 1x. There are no meaningful compromises with 1x. You get the range – I defy anyone to spin out on the big gear, and the low gear will get you up a wall – and it’s just cleaner and potentially lighter. Front derailleurs are a menace so getting rid of them is only a good thing.
Pete: I would agree with that. There’s a bit of me that then goes, ‘But it looks less like a road bike now,’ but then I think that’s probably why a lot of all-road bikes stick with 2x, because it just looks more like a road bike.
James: I thought it was interesting to see that all these bikes have Sram’s UDH – universal derailleur hanger – which makes me feel it really is the future. I totally get that it makes finding a replacement hanger anywhere in the world a breeze, so there’s nobility in that, but you have to hand it to whoever came up with it at Sram – they must be raking it in now that everyone has to license the design off them.
Sam: It also lends itself to fitting Sram’s full-mount rear mechs from gravel and mountain bikes, which opens up more 13-speed, 1x options.
Pete: I think less useful in the versatility stakes are the one-piece bars and internal routing on the Fray and Sika. The Defy’s a bit different as the hoses are in a recess under the stem and the bars and stem are traditional two-piece, but the Fray and Sika feel like they undermine the practicality I want from an all-road bike.
James: But it’s clean looking, which I feel is important even on a ‘practical’ bike – it’s got to look good for nearly £12,000 in your case, Pete. And it’s surely faster, right? Plus it fits with all of our bikes’ aero-ness. My Defy has trickle-down aero tech from the wind-tunnelled Giant Propel; the Sika has known aero truncated tube shapes and Enve says the Fray is specifically CFD-designed and wind-tunnel-tested.
Pete: That is a good point – I think we’d all describe these bikes as fast. Not aero bike fast but as fast as most road bikes feel.
James: I’d change my wheels out though. These are 36mm deep but I don’t see why something deeper wouldn’t be more beneficial – as strong, nearly as light, just faster.
Sam: I’d change my cockpit. There’s not enough adjustability for me in one-piece bars. I’d change the Sika’s wheels too. The Enve Foundations, I feel, are kind of obsolete – the inner width is 21mm, which is dated, and they’re just over 1,500g. For the money [£1,800] you can buy better wheels, and if I could afford them [£3,350] I’d choose the Enves in the Fray.
James: So which bike would we all choose? I’ll go first – money no object, the Fray. For long distance comfort, it’s the Defy. But for the fact my idea of all-road is – shoot me – that it is a bit like a fat tyre race bike, I’d go Sika. It’s the lightest here and I reckon the most agile.
Pete: I’d take the Fray, plus an extra pack of headset spacers. I’d also quite like a magnetic allen key lever that sat in my thru-axles for wheel removal. Is that too much to ask for 12 grand?
Sam: I’d take the Fray. But then you’d hope I would say that given the price. But for pure versatility and the fact you can get much cheaper builds, it’s the Defy.
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