Allez!
Written: Aug 26 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: M4 tubing and an Ultegra groupset finished off with Ritchey handlebars and stem.
Cons: It’s yellow. Isn’t red faster?
The Bottom Line: I would recommend the Allez M4 Pro to serious roadies, time trial riders or triathletes. This is a well spec’d bike with a responsive feel on the road.
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| nmg1969's Full Review: Specialized Allez M4 Pro |
Ever since I began road racing 17 years ago, I’ve been a big fan of Specialized products. When I was offered the opportunity to ride an Allez M4 Pro for a season I jumped at the chance. Allez (pronounced allay) means go and these bikes go like a rocket!
The USA made alloy frame features an aerodynamic seat tube and down tube. The head tube has a fairing behind it to help complete the frames fast appearance. Specialized have used the very successful M4 tubing for the frame construction. This is an aluminum, which can be manipulated into virtually any shape that the frame designers can dream up. M4 tubing is made of Silicon, Copper, Magnesium and Vanadium. The tubing has excellent fatigue strength and lateral stiffness. The frames tube set is double-butted which produces a light yet strong chassis. Double-butted means that the wall thickness of the tubes change. Internally, the ends of the tubes (near the TIG welds) are thicker than the middle of the tube. This gives the frame strength where it is needed. The fork of choice is a carbon Look fork. I found this frame and fork combination to be very comfortable even on long training rides or during races.
The wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear axles) is quite short on this bike, as are the chain stays. To achieve this the back of the aero shaped seat tube has been shaped into a curve to match the rear tire. This not only looks great but also gives the bike a responsive feel that hard-core roadies will love. Specialized have adopted classic European geometry which has been raced successfully in recent years. My bike (a 54cm) has a 73-degree head tube and a 73.5-degree seat tube.
The Shimano Ultegra group set spec’d on this bike is a solid performer. I’ve ridden Ultegra for the last 5 seasons so I knew it was dependable. The group features 9 speed Flight Deck compatible STI (Shimano Total Integration) brake/gear levers. STI levers allow the rider to keep both hands on the handlebars while changing gear. This is very useful as while racing tight street circuits I often need to brake and change gear at the same time. The Ultegra levers shift really well and I’ve found they actually improve after a few months of use.
The Allez M4 Pro is finished off with Mavic rims and DT double-butted spokes. It also includes a Ritchey seat pillar, handlebar stem and handlebars. The seat pillar comes with a fairing which extends the aero shape of the seat tube. Specialized parts used on this bike are the Turbo Team 700x23 kevlar bead tires and the extremely comfortable Body Geometry Pro leather saddle. Note that this bike (and many other high-end bikes) excludes pedals. This is because riders who purchase bikes of this caliber already have a favorite pedal system.
I would recommend the Allez M4 Pro to serious roadies, time trial riders or triathletes.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nmg1969
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Location: Australia
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
I'm an Australian who loves bikes, hi-fi, travel and photography.
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