2022 Specialized Allez Sprint Rating

There’s a new Allez Sprint on the block. And the unapologetic race-focused aluminum platform has arrived at a time when Criterion Racing is once again bursting with interest.

First introduced in 2015, the original Allez Sprint quickly became a bike with a cult-like pursuit among Red Hook racers with its combination of aero-tube profiles, a rigid structure, aggressive geometry, and an affordable price point. Specialist certainly went after a piece of cake that Cannondale then owned with his CAAD series, and like the older CAADs, the old Allez sprints still collect a surprisingly high dollar in the second-hand market.

The new 2022 Allez Sprint does not stray too far from the original recipe, but it is a completely overhauled engine, and now an effective replica of the company’s flagship Tarmac SL7 racing bike. And what comes as no surprise, it’s just disc.

I have been riding and screwing on the new Allez Sprint for the past two weeks, just enough time to get a good understanding of what the new alloy race bike excels at and where it does not. This review covers what’s new, knowing the technical details, and how it works.

And if you’re after the shorter version, be sure to follow the link to my video revision of the new Specialized Allez Sprint.

An advancement of SmartWeld

As expected by the company, Specialized has not been shy with some bold claims related to this new bike. The California company says the new Allez Sprint is the fastest alloy road bike ever created.

In the wall tunnel test, its aeroforming and concealed wiring apparently puts it much closer in efficiency to the Tarmac SL7 than to its less fast predecessor. The front of the bike is said to be the most complicated and advanced alloy head tube ever produced. And you will save hours washing time because you can hardly break a sweat to ride at the speed of less bikes. Ok, I did that last one.

At the center of these claims is some rather wild physical manipulation of the aluminum material. Aluminum bike frames have gone through some major innovations over the years and hydroforming is one of the more prominent examples where hydraulic pressure is used to create impressively complex shapes that mimic those of carbon frames. Today, it is rare to find high-end aluminum bike frames on the market from mainstream brands without such shaped tube shapes.

Specialized takes hydroforming to another level with its patented Aluisio SmartWeld technology, something first introduced in the Allez range back in 2013. SmartWeld benefits more from hydroforming by creating unique tube shapes that weld the welds of the moving highest load points. SmartWeld also rolls the edges of the tubes, which not only creates a valley for welding, but also creates more welding surfaces versus traditional methods.

According to Specialized, the new Allez Sprint sees further progress from SmartWeld. With the main welds on the front end of the bike, now positioned further on the down-tube and top-tube, the Allez Sprint’s head tube offers an obvious visual example of SmartWeld and how it has progressed from the last Allez Sprint. This new head tube – with extended top tube and down tube extensions – starts out as a stamped piece of aluminum which is then mechanically shaped and then welded internally into the head tube connection you get on the front of the bike. The result is not only something that looks different, but is said to create a stiffer, stronger, more durable and lighter structure, all the while providing internal cable routing. In the words of Specialized, they would not have been able to create the new Allez Sprint without them.

It is an impressive investment when you consider that each of the six frame sizes gets its own unique stamped, shaped and welded head tube with material thickness varying and to fit all.

The former Allez Sprint used a similar SmartWeld concept in the lower bracket, but the successor model takes a different new path. Let your eyes follow the wide and shaped tube in the hunt for the first weld joint, and soon enough you will be on the opposite side of the lower brace. And this is because the lower bracket is now hydroformed as a piece with the down tube.

“[This method] helps to remove some of the additional welds and materials required by the first-generation Allez Sprint, but at the same time uses the same material wall thickness across the entire pipe versus two pipes to stand together, “explains Specialized Road Product Manager Cameron Piper.” This is balanced. the riding feel of the bike. ”

The regular old 68 mm English threaded bottom bracket sleeve is then bridged, welded and machined into this one-piece hydroformed shell. The design also leaves enough space around these sleeves for the rear brake hose and gear cable to stay concealed in the frame while also physically separating them from the crankset spindle.

The SmartWeld concept for creating a valley for welding is also used at most other intersection points of the frame. And at the same time, there is not a single round of tubes to be found. Instead, all tube shapes mimic exactly those of the Tarmac SL7 – so much so that the Allez Sprint shares the same carbon aero seatposts as its carbon big siblings.

Specialist did not share exact stiffness numbers, but says the new Allez Sprint meets the stiffness targets of the company’s Tarmac SL7 and offers a better power transfer than the previous Allez Sprint.

More of the same

There are a number of other elements that make the Allez Sprint the alloy sister of the Tarmac SL7. In particular, the full carbon fiber fork is borrowed directly from the Tarmac SL7 Pro. I weighed my test fork at 418 g with an uncut 250mm long steering wheel in the through shaft, but without the compression plug.

The new Allez Sprint also borrows the internal routing system of the Tarmac SL7, with a special headphone assembly that feeds all the brake hoses and gear cables (if applicable) through the oversized upper headphone bearing.

Each brake hose and gearbox receives its own dedicated slot in the headset top cover and matching split ring, which then feeds each line into the frame. However, while the Tarmac SL7 has a trunk lid that keeps these lines completely hidden from view, the Allez Sprint takes a simpler approach with the cables and brake hose free to rub outside of the unique headset top cap.

The Allez Sprint is ready to use with any normal 1 1/8 in trunk and matching links, without the need for special cable routing. Changing these components or adjusting the stem height is no different than riding a bike with fully exposed cables. The only complicated thing to know is that when the need arises to replace headphone bearings, you have to loosen all cables and hose on the bike – a pain but nowhere as problematic as bikes with fully integrated cockpits where everything runs internally. Similarly, you can expect that changing the mechanical gangway will be a more involved process, but with full-length housings through the frame, changing an inner cable will be easy.

Of course, I can not ignore the fact that the Tarmac SL7 has recently gone through a rather public recall related to its headset and fork lift. The issue was that the single headset split ring was quite sharp, and could cut carbon taxes in certain situations. The Specialized solution, as used on the Allez Sprint, includes two new parts. First, the new split compression ring now encloses a small stainless steel ring that protects the carbon tax. Second, the compression plug that sits in the steering wheel has been extended to run from the top of the steering wheel to well below the top headset bearing. There has been endless discussion about this, but from my point of view, this revised split ring fits super well together and holds tight, and the new, longer compression plug seems to offer safety redundancy that many other designs lack.

Some will spot the fact that the 56 gram, ultra-long compression plug is not necessary to secure the bike. And with that being said, it’s probably no longer needed than the myriad other bikes that people ride today. Carbon tax failure is one of those things that keeps tech editors awake at night, and while the specialized solution to provide a fail-safe is not perfect, I truly believe it’s a step in the right direction. Ok, let’s move on.

The dropped and extremely buttoned chain pieces mean tire resolution is also compatible with the SL7. We are talking simple room for 700 × 32 mm tires front and back. And in fact, these figures are quite conservative, so depending on your rim width, you can certainly get wider again.

Like the SL7, or really any other road racing bike, there is no need to worry about storage for Fenders as there are no mounts for them.

Usually the geometry gets its own engaged section because it is the most important part of any bike. However, there is not much to say here – there’s yet another area that now matches the low and fast steering Tarmac SL7. Geometry Chart Geeks notice some differences due to the Allez Sprint’s shorter head tube, but if you include the proprietary headset top cap (which must be used), all the important fit and handling metrics are the same. So the professionals who read this need not fear; Your Allez Sprint will be an exact match in the fit and steering geometry of your SL7. I’ll come back to this geometry later.

As mentioned before, the seat post is identical, and all models of the Allez Sprint come with the same S-Works version as on the Carbon Bikes. It is impressive light with 173 g, is said to be one of the reasons why the new Allez Sprint is more comfortable than the old one, and …