Is the Allied Alfa the ultimate everyday race bike? Longterm review
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- The Allied Alfa is a carbon road race bike made in Rogers, Arkansas that I tested over many months here in Colorado and am finally getting around to a review because they want their bike back! I’m kinda sad to pack this one back up.
Besides the excellent ride feel, I just love how the bike looks, and I appreciate Allied’s Goldilocks solution to an internally routed bike you can easily travel with, thanks to the alloy stem they make in house. Plus, you have a slew of build options that you only normally see on boutique custom bikes.
In this video I’ll tell you what I like, what I don’t like, and how it compares to other similar bikes on the market.
I talk with Sam Pickman, Allied’s director of engineering about some of the whys and hows behind the bike.
Like all my bike reviews, no, this is not paid for by the bike company. Instead, I’m supported by a few annual sponsors like Feedback Sports and a bit by UA-cam ad revenue. Thank you for subscribing. That helps me out.
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0:00 intro
2:02 giveaway
2:45 prices
3:45 geo
5:06 engineering
14:28 comparisons
18:17 ride feel
25:48 what I’d change
27:04 summary - Спорт
So in a perfect world, all these bike companies demand that Ben return their bikes all at once and he shows up at the next gravel event and wins the DFL award on a klunker with chrome high-rise handlebars. 😀
Allied and their in house engineering and manufacturing are very cool to me. It is my aspirational bike. Every time I find one in the wild. They look great, and the owners love them
It's rare that I find ease of traveling with a bike as part of a review so thank you for including that in your review.
Thanks for the review! I really like the Made in USA approach. I'm actually really considering the Alfa for my next bike.
I recently bought a Time bicycle (obviously not US made but European). I specified: bar width, stem length, crank length, chaining size, +/- power meter, wheel choice and tire width. All for a relatively reasonable price (lower than many comparable “off the rack” bikes). The frame is a work of art.
Cool. Thanks for bringing that up.
I love this company's approach and their bikes. I really wanted an Echo frameset to build a quiver killer 'all road' bike, and to get away from race bikes ('cause I don't race, duh) but the cost was just too hard to justify. I chose a more cost friendly Blackheart Allroad Ti frameset instead, it's a great bike, but the Echo was at the top of my list.
Got an Echo for the same purpose a couple a few months ago, and with two wheelsets it’s exactly what I’d hoped it would be. Can be a comfy cruiser, but have also used it for a gravel and a road race and it was more than capable. That Blackheart Allroad wouldn’t make me sad either tho.
That stem is a great idea.
I would concur with the review. I found it interesting and helpful. I've had my Alfa since the later part of October '23. The miles on it we comfortable, with a few twicks. My change would be the seat as well, for slightly less technical reasons. But thanks for the review. Thanks to Allied for designing and building my ride.
Made it to 27min before I realized I'm sitting here wearing the same Castelli shirt. Glad you're comfy on and off the bike! Cheers!
Love the people at Allied. They host some good rides when out in Bentonville
You doing Big Sugar this year, Terrill?
@TheRidewithBenDelaney I will in the area since I work for Walmart. I'll just come and ride. Will you be at UNBOUND this year?
@terrillford7784 ah, cool. And yes, sir on Unbound - the fundy hundy again. See you there?
See you there
As always, quality content- keeping us all up to date on the latest and greatest. Thanks keeping me in the loop Ben! Would love to hear how these domestic bikes compare to the bikes you saw built at the Giant Factory.
Great review. I have an Allied Echo. It’s the best bike I have ever owned. The bike rides great. I like that aside from the stem, all the other parts are standard and easily swapped out. I have 2 wheel sets for road and gravel.
Worth a visit to the Allied factory, great visit and it is amazing in what they are doing in that small facility.
I sneak around a lot of brands and models for my next upcoming roadbike. Thanks for the deeper sights @allied alfa.
Great review!
You make a great reviews!
Great review 👍👏
wow
beside the nice bike on your work stand
that is a huge giveaway!
good luck to everyone including me!!!
Hey Ben, I really love your discussing geo. I think u should put more emphasis on set tube angle
Hey Ben. I'd be curious to see how the Allied compares to the Time Alpe d'Huez. Seems like both bikes were engineered with a similar philosophy. Great review!
I have never ridden a Time but hope to rectify that soon. I have a gravel frame lined up.
Rite and Allied are sweet looking bikes.
I have thought about the Allied Echo but one of the things I wanted was to use the stem of my choice (Enve carbon ) and keep internal routing and I am not sure that Allied bike would work with this ?
Add a standard 27.2mm seat post and clamp and I’m sold.
Cool company. Dope stem design. I love his stance on dropped stays. Kinda pricey though. They should get into steel frames.
Usually I like to check out the whole review however today around 3min in I checked out at $8000!
How does it compares to the Ritte Esprit??
is that your stages PM? what would you do if you needed support right now?
It would be cool for a company like Allied to ignore the UCI edicts of style and make a bike that, for example, had no seat stays and loses the top tube. Then again not sure the market would be rest for such a road/gravel bike.
Everyday race bike is a funny genre...
The paint looks so good! But the head tube looks meh
This feels like a really stupid thing to complain about, but... why are the screws for the stem non-black, non-color-coded with the color of the stem? Riding every day staring at the shiny screws would annoy me a bit. I realize of all the things to complain about this is very minor, but then again that also sort of reinforces my point. It seems easy to do.
We NEED that new ENVEE Fray review asap !!!!!
Working on it here at Sea Otter… 😮💨
@@TheRidewithBenDelaney My Hero
Nice bike, but why does one name a bike "Alfa" amongst zillion possibilities. The peloton is your herd? Like "Dogma," it sounds entitled, and I would not wanna own it. Names are important; you say, "I ride a Tarmac...etc..." but not the brand.
How tall are you Sir
6’/183
Minority of people demand it, majority don't want it, industry follows what the minority wants. Bike industry sucks. I don't know any cyclist who wants a bike they can't easily service themselves. Only people I see demanding it are in youtube comments.
What a croc!! The only consumers that tell ANY bike company what to provide are the people they sponsor. C'mon Ben, you can do better than GCN!
$8k
Love Allied, but, that new info that their are owned by the walton, they are a bit expensive now for my liking, i understand the costs of everything in the business and that people don't go into selling things if they aren't for making money. Butt, that is a family that doens't need more money, their profit margins are way to big imo
It’s not a bike for you, tbh.
@@petersouthernboy6327 is it for you? How lucky you are 👏
I recently bought an Alfa with SRAM Force and Zipp 303’s. It is a beautiful bike and the ride quality is outstanding. It absorbs vibrations better than any other bike that I have owned over the last 25 years. I have to ride it more to determine how well it climbs but so far on the flats and down hill it’s great. I think the frame could be a little lighter but overall it’s a fantastic bike.
It’s tough to justify the price of everything in our economy but the price of a nice bicycle is way outside of 95% of serious cyclists. China is building brands that are accurately priced for what they offer.
@@Ih8GoogleandApple Yeah i think my next bike gonna be the Van Rysel FCR, sell the whells (mavic sl 65) that comes with and replace them with the new Elite Helix 58
Allied is owned by Walmart wtf haha mind blown
Disagree with the notion that customers chose hidden cables. Customers chose bikes that have them because in aggregate that bake met their needs and hidden hoses wasn’t a deal-breaker, but you also have to acknowledge that alternative options have diminished. So customers didn’t actually ask for it, rather accepted it.
Outside of someone traveling a lot with a large bike, I really don't get the complaints. After the housing is run the first time, it's laughably easy to replace old housing. Just pull a tandem cable through the frame with running new housing through it
@@veganpotterthevegan tell me you’ve never serviced your headset bearings without telling me you’ve never serviced your headset bearings.
@@clarks888 I've serviced way more than I can count potato. I was a mechanic for 20yrs
I used to like this channel until it turned into a sales job for all the bike stuff we don’t need. What’s worse is they bring on a manufacturer that’s telling us we are the ones who want all this new crap. No wonder the bike industry went in the toilet.
Oxymoron everyday race bike.