live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Road Race Bike vs Endurance Bike vs Aero Bike - Which Road Bike Should You Choose?
Dec 25, 2025
Not all road bikes are created equal! If you're in the market for a new road bike should you choose an endurance road bike, a road race bike or an aero bike?
As Van Rysel have released the 2026 Van Rysel EDR CF Ultra Endurance bike we thought we'd see how it compares to the RCR-R road race bike and RCR-F road race bike to see which one suits which kind of rider best.
We also chat to a bike fitting expert to see the riding benefits of an endurance bike vs road bike.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
This is the brand new Van Riesel road bike
0:03
But unlike when the RCRR launched or the RCRF, this one's flown a little bit more under the radar
0:12
Why is that? Well, probably because it's an endurance road bike. And in the past, they haven't been seen as an overly sexy choice
0:21
But in 2025, is all that about to change? What is the best bike for you and your riding
0:27
Is it a road race bike? Is it an endurance road bike? Or is it an aero road bike
0:34
Well, you're in the right place to find out. This is Cycling Weekly. Let's get into it
0:41
Buying any new bike represents a sizeable investment. But what exactly does the term
0:46
road bike mean in 2025? It seems to be an umbrella term that refers to everything from
0:52
what the pros are riding to all road bikes. They're a story for another day
0:57
It doesn't help that with every new release of a bike there seems to be a load of marketing talk to say
1:03
X bike is the best one for you, Y bike will make you 15 seconds quicker, Z bike is 3 million percent stiffer
1:12
Well today with the help of Van Riesel's recently updated range we're going to try to cut through the marketing jargon
1:17
and help you get on the right bike for your riding. We're even going to talk to a bike fitting expert to see whether that bike should be a road race bike
1:26
an endurance road bike or an aero road bike and what the main differences are between them
1:34
Let's start here. This is the new Van Riesel EDRCF Ultra, an endurance bike. But what does
1:40
that actually mean? How does it differ from these two bikes next to it? Now one of the most obvious
1:45
differences between this and let's say the RCRF aero bike is the tube profile. So this has got
1:52
quite round profile tubes whereas these are really deep bladed ones that are designed to cut through
1:59
the wind with as little resistance as possible. Now aerodynamics in cycling are very important
2:05
at over 20 kilometers an hour wind resistance is going to be the biggest force that you have to
2:10
overcome but did you know that about 80% of your drag comes from your body and not your bike? These
2:18
bladed profiles on the RCRF are absolutely excellent at cutting through the wind, but they
2:23
do come with a few caveats. For example, compared to the tube profiles on this, they're going to be
2:28
heavier, they're going to be stiffer, and they're going to be less good at soaking up some of those
2:32
road vibrations. You will quickly realise that there's going to be a theme developing here
2:37
where the RCRR kind of takes a middle ground. It's got some bladed profiles, for example this
2:44
down tube and then it's got some thinner profile tubes for example the seat stays and chain stays
2:49
for that comfort at the rear end. Moving on to another spec choice before we dive into the
2:56
wonderful world of geometry is going to be wheel depth because you'll have noticed that this EDI
3:02
endurance bike has much shallower wheels and that is fairly typical for a bike of this genre
3:08
An endurance bike is typically designed for lower speeds and hence it ships with these 35mm deep
3:16
wheels. In comparison the RCR-R has 45mm wheels fitted to it and this RCR-F aero bike has 62mm
3:25
wheels fitted to it. And basically what this gives you is a pretty good idea of what each bike
3:31
is tailored towards and what type of riding it's going to be best for. So with the aero bike with
3:37
super deep wheels that going to be really good for if you want to go on fast paced group rides if you want to race criteriums or really fast flat road races Those 62mm wheels yes they might get bucketed by
3:50
the wind slightly more than a shallower wheel set but they're going to give you that maximum
3:54
aerodynamic advantage. Then once again taking the middle ground we've got the RCRR with its 45mm
4:00
deep wheels. Now these are going to be a really nice compromise between aerodynamics and handling
4:06
characteristics for anyone that's looking to ride at let's say 25 to 35 kilometers per hour
4:13
You'll find that this mid-depth wheel set is a bit more manageable if you want to ride year-round
4:19
and in some pretty gusty conditions. Then we've got the shallowest wheels fitted to the endurance
4:25
road bike and this is basically because it's designed for if you're traveling at slightly
4:30
lower speeds. So you won't have quite the same aerodynamic advantage as a set of 62mm wheels
4:37
like on the RCRF, but you get the advantage of a shallower wheel set that is a bit lighter so it
4:43
feels more quick to accelerate. And then also because more of the wheel is spoke rather than
4:49
rim, it can soak up more of those road vibrations, again helping this bike to be as comfortable as
4:56
possible. Also contributing to comfort is tyre size and as is generally the case with endurance
5:05
road bikes this one can fit much wider tyres than a road race bike or an aero road bike
5:11
So in fact this EDRCF Ultra has space for up to 38 mil tyres whereas the other two can fit up to
5:18
33 mil tyres. What this means is the endurance road bike is quite a lot more versatile. You can
5:25
maybe even take it on some light gravel if if that's of interest to you. The general rule is that
5:30
the faster you go the narrower you want your tyre to be and if you're a world tour sprinter
5:35
riding a bike like the Van Riesel RCRF then you'll probably go for a 28mm tyre maybe even one with a
5:42
with some trip poles on it like that one. On solo rides though you're probably better off with something that's 30mm or wider and it's worth
5:51
remembering the tyre sizes seem to only be going one way and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more
5:57
and more 35mm tyres on local club runs and back lanes in the UK. Another advantage of having really
6:06
wide tyre clearances is that you can fit mud guards and still fit that nice plush rubber so even if
6:12
you don't want to fit 38mm rubber it's still a good idea to have that clearance because then
6:17
using the mounts you can fit a set of mudguards and still run some some nice wide comfortable
6:23
tires. Another feature that you often find on endurance road bikes is some extra mounting
6:28
points and as you'll see on the down tube of this EDR it's got space for an extra extra bottle a
6:35
little bit of storage for if you're if you're going long. Moving down the bike and you'll find
6:42
another big difference between endurance bikes and road race bikes and that is gearing. Now this
6:48
is something that I think Van Riesel does really well and that's tailor the chainset sizes to the
6:53
bike's intended purpose. So we've got the RCR and the RCR-F and they both ship with 52 36 tooth
7:01
chainsets. Now don't worry if that doesn't mean a lot to you. What it means is that basically on
7:07
road race bikes it's got more big gears so you can go faster at a comfortable cadence. Moving on to
7:13
the EDR endurance bike and you'll find a compact chainset which is fairly typical for a bike of
7:19
this design So that a 50 tooth big ring and a 34 tooth little ring and that gives you more options when things get steep when you climbing Moving towards the back and we got another difference
7:33
So the endurance bike has an 11-36-tooth cassette fitted to it. And the road race bikes, well, Shimano road race bikes typically come with 11-34-tooth cassettes
7:43
What that means is that the aero bike and the road race bike
7:47
if you're riding in a group where you don't really get to dictate your pace there's smaller gaps in
7:53
between the gears and that means that when traveling nice and fast you're more likely to
7:58
be able to find a gear that you can fine-tune your cadence in whereas on the endurance bike
8:04
you do have slightly bigger gaps but the trade-off is that you've got more range so when things get
8:11
really steep or you're commuting or you're carrying more stuff you're on a really long ride you don't
8:16
want to dig deep up a climb you've got those options of some bailout gears
8:23
And then there is what I think is the biggest difference between an endurance road bike
8:29
a road race bike and an aero bike and that is geometry. So what we're going to do now is pop
8:35
up on the screen the geometry charts of these three bikes in a size medium and I know geometry
8:42
can sometimes seem a bit dry but it does make a massive difference in how a bike rides so I'm
8:47
going to point out some of the more interesting bits. As you can see this endurance bike has a
8:53
shorter top tube and reach figure that means that the bars will be slightly closer to you as you
8:59
ride along. What you'll also find is that the head tube is slightly slacker putting the front wheel
9:04
further in front of you and that is excellent for control and stability. It also has a longer
9:11
wheelbase which does much the same thing and then also a taller head tube so this bit here
9:17
which is going to put you in a slightly more upright position now this could be a good thing
9:22
or a bad thing depending on what you're looking for lower is often considered faster but if your
9:30
back can't take it then it can't take it and my personal opinion is a comfortable bike is more
9:36
likely to be faster than an uncomfortable lower one. With that in mind I thought it'd be good to
9:42
chat through this with someone who fits these bikes for a living. Let's go and see what George has to say
9:51
Right George so if I'm the average customer walking into the Van Riesel store
9:55
how do you help me decide what bike I should be on? What's the first step
10:01
So the first steps that we take we ask you what sort of riding you're going to be doing
10:05
So whether you're crit racing, whether you're just looking to raz it around the sort of lanes around your area
10:13
Or if you're looking to do a little bit of longer distance riding. And then from there we also sort of ask price point
10:21
So we look at what sort of budget you're looking at. And then from there we sort of look between the bikes and which one would suit you best
10:29
I've just seen that you've got the new EDRCF Ultra Outputed. Yes
10:33
An endurance bike. but endurance bikes are slow right? I would disagree so the bike that you are most comfortable
10:41
riding is the fastest bike for you so there's the saying the most aerodynamic position is the
10:48
aerodynamic position you can hold the longest okay yeah um so yes you could have an RCRF but
10:55
only be able to ride it for 30k until your back gives out whereas you could ride the EDR for hours
11:02
and hours and still have the same average speed So we know that the geometry is pretty different between the EDR and the RCR and the RCRF but what else makes it different to ride So you got the carbon
11:16
layup of the bike, the tube shapes as well and the geometry of the bike. So with the RCRF it's a lot
11:23
more race focused so it's a very very low front end. You've got much deeper tube shapes so aerodynamics
11:28
plays a massive part because the designed rider for that is your pro athlete. So they're doing
11:35
45, 50k an hour average on their rides or races, so they need that aero advantage. Whereas with the
11:42
EDR, you're looking at a sort of more traditional tube shaping, you're looking at also a more
11:51
comfortable carbon layup as well. So even though the RCRR and the EDR use the same carbon layup
11:58
They do ride completely differently just due to how the carbon is laid up in the frame
12:04
Now, this is a big question. It might be hard to answer. I know you're not keeping a tally of every rider that comes in here
12:10
But out of all the people that you've fitted onto bikes, what rough percentage do you think should be on an endurance bike
12:17
What percentage on a road race bike and on an aero bike? So I would say the percentage of endurance bike riders that should be
12:26
but aren't necessarily on the right bike, is around 80-90% of riders
12:31
Okay. Which is obviously not what you see in the real world. No, not at all
12:35
So what you see is riders on an aero bike when they can't ride that type of bike
12:42
for a sustained period of time, or at least not in comfort. Aero bikes are very pretty though, aren't they
12:48
and we all do like to emulate the pros. So if you could choose between the three
12:54
what one are you choosing? For me and for the riding that I do, I've actually chosen the EDR
13:01
so I ride one myself. You do actually practice what you preach? I do indeed. Very nice
13:05
Cool. Well, thanks very much. No worries. So really, which type of bike is best for you
13:13
is going to come down to the type of riding that you do and your goals
13:17
If you want to race local criteriums and flat road races of one to two hours in length, then the RCR-F is the obvious choice
13:27
If you want to win your local group ride, then again, those aerodynamic profiles will give you a slight advantage
13:34
For most of us, though, I feel like the Van Riesel RCR is potentially the more versatile choice
13:42
This won't give much up in terms of speed when it comes to racing, but most of us can't travel at the same speed as the pros
13:50
And this will be more suitable, more comfortable for if you want to race and then potentially go on a six hour group ride at the weekend
13:58
Then there's the endurance road bike. Bikes like this EDR CF Ultra prove that you can have your cake and eat it
14:06
It's much more versatile than the other bikes with increased tyre clearance
14:10
it's got mudguard mounts and it's not just a bike for people who want to sit bolt upright and go
14:16
slowly. You don't need to be considering multi-day adventures to consider buying one of these over
14:22
the other two either. In fact most of us would probably be more comfortable on an endurance road
14:27
bike and unless speed is your number one priority then I think this is probably the one to go for
14:34
Let me know in the comment section below whether you would go for a road race bike, an endurance
14:39
bike or an aero road bike and we'll pop a link to all three of these bikes down in the description
14:45
If you like this kind of content then please give it a like, subscribe to the channel and we'll see
14:50
you next time
#sports
#Sports
#Cycling