I Told You Aluminum Bikes Were Still Cool

During my wet and windy ride over the weekend I stopped for water and a guy I passed a little ways back stopped to do the same. “I really need to upgrade to carbon” he said, I think implying the difference between my carbon bike and his alloy rig explained the difference in speed. Wrong.

21-year-old Jonny Brown just won the U.S. Pro Road National Championships on an alloy bike. That’s right, the largest, most important single-day road race on American soil was won on an aluminum Specialized Allez. If it’s still good enough for the highest echelons of the sport, it ain’t going to slow you down.

Brown’s Allez Sprint DSW costs just $1,200, an absolute screaming deal in the racing world, and it comes in some great colorways.

So sure, you could drop $4,750 on an S-Works Tarmac frame to be like Peter Sagan, or you could save a ton of dough and ride alloy. Aluminum road bikes are doing some truly incredible things these days and are worth a serious look. From the Specialized Allez to BMC’s Teammachine ALR and Cannondale’s CAAD12 there’s a lot of insane value bikes to be had if you’re willing to ride alloy. Plus, with the cost savings you can up your build considerably, or hell, you could even build a second bike.