Endurance road bikes are made with a range of different frame materials. Most of the bikes in this list have an all-carbon frame, which helps create a lightweight and compliant ride. Having said this, alloy frames can be designed to be very compliant and tend to offer a price saving.

Many of the best steel road bikes and best titanium road bikes fall into the endurance road bike category, too. These materials tend to be favoured for comfort-orientated, long-distance bikes because they both do a great job of absorbing any road buzz.

You might want to look for an endurance road bike with mudguard mounts. They used to be a rarity, but you’ll increasingly find them even on top-end endurance machines and they’re often hidden so they don’t spoil the bike’s aesthetics if you decide not to fit guards.

If you’re lucky to go out on dry roads, you may not need them. But if the heavens open on the day of your ride, you’ll enjoy it much more if your bike is fitted with mudguards and protected from wheel spray. And if you’re riding in a group, those following you will definitely thank you.

Mudguards are also a good bet through winter if you live somewhere with a wet climate, making an endurance road bike a good bet as a four-seasons machine.

The best mudguards normally require mounts on the frame to provide full coverage, so look out for a frame with the appropriate mounting points if that’s important to you.

What is endurance road bike geometry?

Many bike brands will label their bikes as having either racing or endurance geometry.

Racing geometry will typically give you faster handling, a lower position and the ride may be firmer, whereas endurance geometry gives a more upright riding position and more stable handling.

All our picks above are from the brands’ endurance road bike ranges. You can also read our explainer on road bike geometry to better understand the angles and measurements involved.

Are endurance road bikes slow?

Russell Burton / Immediate Media

On the face of it, endurance road bikes might seem like a slower option if you compare them to WorldTour-ready lightweight race bikes or the fastest aero road bikes.

Firstly, this is because the more upright position of endurance road bikes means you are less aerodynamic than on more aggressive road bikes, and consequently it takes more effort to travel at the same speeds.

And while wider tyres can often be faster than old-school narrow tyres, there may be an aero, rolling resistance or weight penalty here, too, if your endurance road bike is using all of its generous frame clearance.

Having said this, endurance road bikes, like all bikes, exist on a spectrum and there are some that have racier geometries than others. On top of that, the latest endurance road bikes occupy a finely-balanced sweetspot between speed and comfort.

Many still allow you to adopt a fairly low position, so don’t worry too much about your average speed, and almost all will feel markedly quicker than a gravel bike or touring bike.

And remember, endurance bikes place a greater focus on comfort. So whether that allows you to ride further, or gives you the option for light off-road detours, you’ll ultimately end up at your destination quicker than a race bike with an uncomfortable position and limited versatility.

Endurance road bike gearing

Ben Delaney / Immediate Media

Sportives are designed to give you a bit of a challenge and much of the ride is often on rolling terrain. Most will throw in a few steeper hills, while some routes take you up and down as much elevation as possible. That means having a good gear range is paramount.

The same applies for endurance bikes, which are designed to meet that challenge and allow riders to tackle a wide variety of terrain in relative comfort, rather than being forced to turn a massive gear.

A compact chainset with 50- and 34-tooth chainrings is a good starting point for any endurance bike.

At the back, you’ll normally get a cassette that goes from 11 teeth for its smallest sprocket (or 10 teeth for SRAM’s latest eTap AXS 12-speed groupsets) up to 30, 32 or 34 teeth in its largest.

That should give you plenty of low range to tackle steeper uphills, with lowest ratios at or close to 1:1. You’ll also have enough top-end gears to ride comfortably on faster, flatter sections of the course.

Some brands may spec a semi-compact 52/36t chainset on their endurance bikes. These give you a bit more top-end gearing, but paired with a wide-range cassette you still have the lower gears for easier climbing.

However, if you’re relatively new to cycling, live in a hilly area or are planning on taking your bike to the mountains, a compact will give you more gearing options for climbing.

Groupset

Russell Burton / Immediate Media

A quality road bike groupset will give you light, precise shifting to help you on your way.

Most endurance bikes come with 11-speed or, on the very latest bikes, 12-speed Shimano groupsets, either Dura-Ace, Ultegra or 105 – although Campagnolo and SRAM are also great options and give you similar gear range.

Higher-end machines are increasingly coming with electronic shifting: Ultegra Di2 is the starting point for Shimano, but on a top-end machine look for Shimano Dura-Ace Di2.

Both Campagnolo and SRAM have 12-speed electronic options, with SRAM Red eTap AXS, SRAM Force eTap AXS and SRAM Rival eTap AXS offering wireless shifting.

Brakes

Russell Burton / Immediate Media

Modern bikes are almost entirely equipped with disc brakes.

Disc brakes will give you more consistent braking performance, in the wet or dry, than rim brakes and usually more outright stopping power or modulation.

They’re a pricier option than the traditional rim brakes, although you can now find discs even on entry-level road bikes.

Disc brakes can be either hydraulic or mechanical. Hydraulic disc brakes are more effective, but they’re also pricier, so you’ll find them on higher-spec machines.

Rim brakes are fine in drier weather, but you need to be more careful how you ride if it’s wet (and especially if your bike has carbon rims), allowing for more stopping distance.

Saddle

Felix Smith

You’ll want to be comfortable as you ride and a good-quality saddle that suits your anatomy is important. There’s a huge range of options. Many sportive-oriented bikes will come fitted with a quality saddle, which you might find perfectly serviceable.

But if you find that you don’t get on with your saddle, it’s worth swapping out for another model. Aftermarket saddles come at a range of price points and most saddle ranges will have a budget option. It will be heavier than a pricier saddle further up the range, but should have similar ride characteristics. More expensive saddles typically come with carbon rails to drop the weight.

Saddle brands usually have a fitting system to narrow down your choice, so it’s worth trying these. For some, you’ll need to find a dealer, while for others you can input your details online and get a selection of models to choose from.

And some brands will offer the option to try before you buy or return a saddle after you’ve used it a little, if you don’t get on with it. It’s worth trying some options rather than suffering in silence.

Tyres

Felix Smith

It used to be that most bikes came with 23mm-wide tyres, but most newer road bikes will come with at least 25mm – and even this is now considered narrow by today’s standards.

The trend now is for even wider tyres of 28mm or more, and our endurance road bike picks come with rubber up to 32mm wide, and even wider in some cases.

The extra width means that you can drop the tyre pressure on your road bike without sacrificing speed and add a lot more comfort to your ride. Many of the best road wheelsets also offer the option to run tubeless tyres.

The best tubeless tyres let you lower your tyre pressure even more, add puncture protection by removing the need for an inner tube and may save a bit of weight too.

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