Everything you ever wanted to know about road bikes but were afraid to ask

Road bikes are made for speed and efficiency on tarmac or gravel roads. You might be thinking, 'But you can ride any bike on the road, so isn’t every bike a road bike?' Well, yeah. Kind of. You can indeed ride any bike on the road, but true road bikes have specific design features that help them perform best on road surfaces and separate them from bikes in other categories.

Drop Bars

One such feature is the handlebars, which are called drop bars. This downward-swooping design gives you a lot of flexibility in where you put your hands and how you position your body, which is great for longer rides because you can switch positions to get more comfort or leverage for extra speed.

Skinny(ish) tyres

Historically, road bikes have had skinny tyres, but more modern road bikes range from skinny 25 mm tyres up to 45 mm knobby tyres for venturing on surfaces that can only charitably be described as roads.

Madone

Madone is speed incarnate – it combines everything we know about going fast into one swift superbike.

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Émonda

The Émonda is super light, incredibly balanced and just aero enough to make it our fastest-ever climbing bike.

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Domane+ HP

Big battery, big speed, big fun. Domane+ HP is a high-powered electric road bike for long-range adventures.

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Checkpoint

The Checkpoint is a seriously versatile gravel bike for adventurous riders who want to do it all.

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