How the Allez Sprint looked on day #1. The super thin, heavy, cheap and nasty rims had to be the first thing to go!
I’m obsessed. Every day I’m watching bike videos on YouTube, trawling Reddit, Facebook Marketplace and online bicycle shops.
I’ve never owned a modern road bike. Always wanted one, but the thought of shaving my legs and wearing lycra and click clack shoes always stopped me.
I had a steel Europa road bike as a kid, loved it. Years later I bought and restored an 80’s Paino road bike, still have it and love it, but a recent ride on it just made me realise just how old school it is. The brakes just don’t work (it makes sense that modern road bikes now also use hydraulic disc brakes), the non-sis gear shifting on the downtube is just whack too (I just left it in a one gear for most of the ride!).
Steel is real and I spent weeks planning a fast modern steel road bike build, but I thought that maybe it’s time for me to drop the stubbornness, well, not all of it, but what about an aggressive aluminium road bike? It would be stiff, fast, heavier than carbon but lighter than steel. Yeah I felt like I was onto something. A bit different, a little naughty. A little rebellious.
Enter the Specialized Allez.
The Specialized Allez Sprint is an aluminium race bike made for crit racing and it has a world wide cult following. It’s basically a carbon Specialized Tarmac SL7 made with alloy and holy shit the welds on it are gnarly, so gnarly that it’s the main criticism by most (not to mention many also consider it way overpriced).
Specialized says: The Allez Sprint is the fastest alloy road bike in history, thanks to the time its sibling, the Tarmac SL7, spent in the wind. It’s details like the most complex alloy head tube we’ve ever made and integrated cables that make it 41 seconds faster over 40km than the previous Allez Sprint. That’s a hell of a facelift. With 41 seconds, you’d have a podium picture in your Insta feed, just saying.
That’s pretty cringe marketing talk, but I’ve done enough research on the bike to know that the geometry is about as aggressive as you can get for a road bike and those who own one love it for it’s brutal speed and power transfer.
The hunt was on but there were none (in my size) in stock anywhere in the country. I looked daily and finally found one on sale at Epic Cycles in Queensland for $3,200 down from $4,200. Even with the sale that’s huge money for an alloy frame with old mechanical Shimano 105 but this build was never going to be about value for money!
Bike mechanic Sam at CCACHE. Trying on a 100m -12 degree stem.
Go wide or go home? ENVE 65 wheels.
Dark side of the Force.
At this stage the bike was hefty at 8.65kgs and I really wanted to address that. I rode the bike enough to know the frame was worth it. IE: I had to be sure I liked the bike before going all out on it.
I decided to stop stalking new Canyon Aeroad’s and S-WORKS Tarmac SL8’s and instead go all out on my Allez Sprint.
The deep dish ENVE wheels I put on the bike made the bike look, feel and sound so much faster which confirmed for me that the frame is awesome (and worth it!). As much as I like the concept of mechanical Shimano 105 being the groupset of the people, in reality it’s heavy and despite the Allez having semi-integrated cables the sight of the 4 cables around the stem was doing my head in so I thought I’d give electronic shifting a go.
I decided to go 1x for weight savings (from removing the front derailleur and extra front chainring) and also for simplicity (less is more!) as well as attitude. I’ve chosen to go for an aero chainring too (mainly because it looks so damn hot!).
I put an order in for the latest SRAM RED AXS E1 groupset with CCACHE. I bought a Roval aero handlebar from Wooly’s Wheels, Tarmac SL7 stem direct from Specialized.com and the stem accessories (cable bat and cover + 3D printed spacer to adapt the SL7 to the Allez frame) from various online shops.
The weight weenie in me has resurfaced. Found this S-WORKS saddle on eBay (OEM saddle was 281g).
Strip down at CCACHE.
Love at first sight.
Internal cable routing is something I’ve never done, good thing that Sam does it day in day out!
If there was ever a best dressed bike mechanic award, Sam would win it!
Lightning bolt tape to match my lightning bolt tattoos.
Gone are the days of old where you could just reach into your parts bin and make shit work. Everything is proprietary these days. Getting the S-WORKS Tarmac SL7 stem to fit on an Allez Sprint took a whole lot of fuckery, but we got there in the end! I needed a custom 3D printed spacer, the stem, a bat cable kit to attach the 2 brake lines to the stem, a stem cover plate kit and last of all (the bit I had forgotten and came in the mail today), a special top cap which the stem cover clips down on.
Won’t lie. Would love to get it in the 6kg range with a lighter wheelset and some boutique weight weenie parts, but happy to have saved 1kg as is.
Heavy panting… the Sprint is done!
I’ve only been out on a couple of rides so far but the 1kg savings is massive and the electronic shifting is wild.
The bike just feels SO fast.
Before the upgrades I was just doing slow laps around Centennial Park, but on the shakedown ride I quickly realised that this thing now just eggs you on to ride harder and faster. It’s a night and day difference from my Canyon Grizl. The Grizl is super playful and fun, but the Allez… it’s trying to kill me!
SPECS: 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint Comp Size 49 in Tarmac Black/Brushed Foil
GROUPSET: SRAM RED AXS E1 rear derailleur, shifters and calipers, SRAM DUB BB, SRAM Red AXS E1 chain, SRAM RED AXS E1 cassette 10-36, SRAM RED 1 AXS crankset 165mm 50t AERO chainring.
WHEELS & TYRES: ENVE 65 Foundation wheelset, ENVE SES 27mm tyres, Shimano Ice-Tech centerlock rotors.
COMPONENTS: S-Works Tarmac SL7 stem 110mm -12 degree, Tarmac SL7 stem cable bat and stem cover kit, RaceWare 3D printed spacer, Specialized Roval Rapide handlebars 380mm, Burgh Lightning Bar Tape, Specialized S-Works Power saddle 143mm & carbon rail clamp, S-Works Tarmac FACT Carbon seatpost 20mm offset, Xpedo Thrust SL titanium pedals, Specialized front derailleur mount cover, S-WORKS bottle cage bolts.
WEIGHT: 7.62kg.