Specialized launches 2022 Allez Sprint

by · March 22, 2022

After days of social media teasers, Specialised has simply lifted the covers off the brand new Allez Dash, a motorcycle that it’s calling the “world’s first alloy tremendous bike”.

Since its unique launch in 2015, the Allez Dash has been a cult favorite amongst racers because of its lower-than-carbon pricepoint, excessive ranges of stiffness and aggressive geometry. It made it into our information to the finest aluminium street bikes for these very causes, and it seems that the audience for the brand new model may be very comparable. The blueprint of the up to date Allez Dash is essentially unchanged, however Specialised has made plenty of tweaks.

The outcome, Specialised claims, is a motorcycle that’s 41 seconds sooner over 40km than the Allez Dash Disc that it replaces, whereas additionally being extra suited to on a regular basis riders.

It is clear from Specialised’s advertising that the Allez Dash is designed to emulate the model’s flagship race bike, the Tarmac SL7, and the aesthetics of the bike give the exact same impression. It makes use of the identical seatpost and fork because the Tarmac SL7, and maybe most importantly, the geometry has additionally been altered to match that of its stablemate. The previous Allez Dash featured a geometry that was decrease on the entrance, making it nimble, agile and direct, but additionally much less snug, so it was extremely tailor-made to quick, quick rides reminiscent of criterium races. A lot in order that Specialised even launched it as ‘final crit-racing bike’. The transfer to loosen up it to the tried and examined geometry discovered on the Tarmac, Venge and Aethos will undoubtedly open it as much as a wider viewers of riders.

Additional opening the bike to a wider viewers is the truth that the brand new Allez Dash can settle for tyres as much as 32mm in width. This is not unusual for street bikes lately, even ones focussed on racing, however the capability to swap to 32mm rubber will probably be a welcome inclusion for the bike’s newfound viewers who aren’t chasing apexes and bumping elbows.

Up entrance, the cockpit options built-in cabling that sees the cables enter the body by way of ports within the headset cowl. The bike is suitable with hydraulic disc brakes solely, and can be utilized with both mechanical or digital groupsets. The entrance derailleur hanger might be eliminated for those who wish to run a 1x groupset, too.

The model claims that for a 56cm Allez Dash LTD – the top-level manufacturing unit spec mannequin out there (although not within the UK) – the load is 7.9kg.

What’s D’Aluisio Smartweld?

A closeup view of the bottom bracket on the 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint

(Picture credit score: Specialised)

Made utilizing Specialised’s proprietary E5 D’Aluisio Smartweld aluminium, the Allez Dash makes use of aluminium a bit of in a different way to most. Fairly than the extra widespread follow of welding spherical alloy tubes at every finish, D’Aluisio Smartweld – named after its creator Chris D’Aluisio – makes use of hydroforming to create extra complicated aerodynamic shapes and transfer the weld away from the junctions between tubes.

In response to the model, the bike’s head tube is reduce from a single piece of aluminium, earlier than being mechanically fashioned into an aero form with a constant tube wall thickness. From the headtube itself, junctions protrude rearward which then slide over the down tube and prime tube. The welding is then positioned on the finish of those junctions, additional away from the pinnacle tube itself, as a way to minimise the pressure on what’s a high-stress space of the bike.

The underside bracket is given a equally thought of method. Nevertheless, somewhat than welding a separate backside bracket to the down tube like most bikes – and the previous Allez Dash – the brand new mannequin hydroforms each items as one from a single piece of aluminium. The outcome, Specialised says, is a rise in energy switch and structural integrity of the world.