As cycling journalists, especially those of us who spend our days testing and writing about the latest and great tech, we can be spoiled for choice in what we have available to us. However, video manager Sam Gupta and many of his colleagues all have their own collection of bikes and some of those bikes are ones which they've had for a very long time. This video shows of Sam's dream Specialized S-Works Allez build and he also tells us why this is the one bike he will never ever sell. What do you think of his road bike and the way he has built it up?
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00:00Like any kid working in a bike shop, being surrounded by all the latest bling meant that
00:04the desire to upgrade my own bike occupied more of my mind than arguably it should have done.
00:10Sadly, the amount of money you can earn when you're working in a bike shop
00:13doesn't really lend itself to being able to buy all the shiny things that surround you
00:18every single day. However, that was never going to discourage me. After plenty of waiting and
00:25hunting around for the right bike, a specialised S-Works Alley came up for sale in my size on Facebook
00:31Marketplace. It was being sold by a local lad, a local racer actually, and he was wanting to move
00:36it on to make space for next season's rig. To me, this was absolutely ideal. Buying a second-hand
00:43aluminium bike did not worry me at all, and the ability to buy into the S-Works moniker for a
00:48discount price, well, it was a done deal. After a meet-up at the local Sunday Circuit race and an
00:55envelope of 50s handed over later, my new bike was grabbed out the back of their team van.
01:01Of course, the bike went straight to the shop where I was working to allow the modifications
01:05to begin. Little did I know at the time that this bike would go on to join me for countless
01:10adventures and become the one bike that I have vowed to never, ever sell.
01:15The frameset is what made me fall in love. The satin finish on the paint was the perfect balance
01:30between gloss and matte, and the satin chrome decals set it off incredibly well. And the virtually
01:37invisible welds trick the eye into thinking that it could be carbon fibre. Specialised fitted an S-Works
01:44level fork which utilised their top level carbon at the time. And the aluminium, well, that was
01:49hydroformed, meaning that they could replicate the shape of the tarmac again at the time. But it also
01:55meant the weight was kept down to a minimum. The overall weight of the frame by itself hovers around
02:01that thousand gram mark, which actually is pretty good. The bike predominantly plays host to an
02:08Ultegra 6800 groupset, as this is what the bike came with when I bought it. However, in my eyes,
02:14the Dura-Ace 9000 groupset is probably the prettiest groupset ever made. So I decided to take the plunge
02:21and buy the chainset and the rear mech. Since these components are arguably the most visible parts of a
02:28groupset, I think they do a really good job of increasing the bike's curb appeal. And quite frankly,
02:32the chrome details on the components paired with the frame itself, it's just a match made in heaven.
02:39When I did change the chainset, it did also provide the opportunity to revise the gear ratios. The bike
02:45came with a 5339. However, I was finding that my little chicken legs were struggling, so I opted
02:51for a 5238. Now, it may not seem like a huge change, and granted, it's not. But out on the road,
02:58I found that turning the cranks just felt so much better. And when I paired that with an 1128 cassette,
03:05the ratios, for me, they just fell into place. The Roval CLX40s that the bike came with are sadly
03:12no longer with me. After six months of use, I decided to sell them before the value either
03:17dropped out of them because, you know, road disc brake bikes were finally coming onto the market.
03:22But I was also wary of the fact that if I kept using them, I was going to wear through that brake track,
03:27and again, they would end up essentially valueless. As a young lad in a bike shop,
03:32I wasn't really in the position to lose that kind of money over an extra couple of watts. So,
03:38I hunted down on the web a set of just cheap Chinese carbon wheels for about 300 quid.
03:44And say what you will about them, but actually, these Chinese knockoffs have actually been pretty
03:50decent. They're easy to service with their sealed cartridge bearings, they've never needed truing,
03:55and actually, when you pair them with a set of Swiss Dot Black Prince carbon pads,
04:00when you pull on the levers, you will definitely stop.
04:03I've always run the same tyres on this bike, a set of 28C S-Works Turbo tyres. For me,
04:09they provide a great balance between comfort, grip, and just downright speed.
04:14The qualities of the S-Works Turbos are also helped by the fact that I've been running the Turbo
04:18tubes, which are a lightweight, butyl inner tube, but they're also pre-tout,
04:23meaning that that helps them lower their rolling resistance ever so slightly.
04:28The other thing that I really like about those tubes, and it is a bit of a bike nerdy weight
04:31weenie thing, but they're also about 40g lighter compared to a standard butyl inner tube,
04:36so when you do that over both wheels, you're saving nearly 80g, which I'll take.
04:41The finishing kit was actually the first things that I did change on the bike, and that's because
04:45I wanted to get the fit dialed in. I nabbed some 38cm Pro Vibe alloy bars,
04:51and I paired it with a 100mm S-Works Stem. Now, while I was tempted by an integrated carbon
04:58setup, my typically stingy self was never really going to stretch that far, and quite frankly,
05:04I love how easy this bike is to recable. The seatpost is actually one of the few things
05:09that has stayed original throughout my entire tenure with the bike, but the saddle, well,
05:14that has changed. I started off with a specialised S-Works tube saddle, which I had for nearly a decade,
05:20but after those near 10 years, well, it was looking a little worse for wear, so I have
05:26recently actually upgraded and embraced some modern technology in the shape of the Fizik
05:31Vento Argo 00 saddle. Now, while this saddle is ever so slightly lighter, the real game is the
05:38incredibly grippy surface and the increased comfort, no thanks to the super wider wings that
05:44it's got. Sadly, the bike isn't without its faults, or should I say quirks? One thing that I wish
05:51specialised had done with this bike was to give it a thread in bottom bracket. Sadly, though, this bike
05:56came out when BB30s were in their heyday. The months and years that I have spent trying to make this bike
06:03be creek-free, well, quite frankly, it's just not worth thinking about. Luckily, though, I have now found a
06:09solution that does work pretty well, but it does include putting some Loctite on the outer race of
06:15the bearings, but you've got to do what you've got to do. Also, some of the bottle cage bolts now spin
06:21within the frame, meaning that they can't be undone. Now, before you all start telling me that I can have
06:26this fixed, quite frankly, I don't care. One bottle is fine for me and the rides that I show this bike, and
06:33really, I don't want to risk losing the oh-so-cool S-Works bolts. Quite frankly, they're worth the
06:39pizzazz. I do also have to be fairly careful with the red paint on this bike. It comes off incredibly
06:47easily due to not having a protective clear coat to encapsulate it, but nearly after eight years of
06:53ownership, I think it's held up pretty well considering. As I mentioned previously, I'm never
06:59going to sell this bike. So, what does the future hold for it? Well, being aluminium, I have no doubt
07:06that this bike will outlast me, so long as we don't get acquainted with the underside of a lorry.
07:12One thing I've always wanted to upgrade, though, are the brake calipers. Switching over to some
07:17matching Dura-Ace 9000 calipers would be brilliant, and it would just add that extra little bit of bling
07:22to the setup. Once worn down, I will then also be replacing the tyres for the latest S-Works turbos
07:29that got released at the back end of last year. And lastly, I'd also like to fit a new S-Works seat
07:35post. The current one has been pretty beaten up over winter rides, and when I've been attaching a
07:41rear light to the saddle, it's been chewing up the lacquer, so it's just looking a little bit tired.
07:45But overall, I don't really see this bike changing too much more. To me, it's pretty close to being
07:52perfect for what I want from this bike. That's my dream road bike and how it came to be, and also
08:00why I am never, ever going to sell it. Let me know down in the comments, though. Tell me about the bikes
08:07that you are never going to sell and why. I'd be really interested to hear about them. If you enjoyed
08:12the video, then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I'll see you
08:16again very soon.