Just 18 months after founding the brand, and a mere six months after getting production fully up to speed on the original Alfa road bike, HIA Velo’s Allied Cycle Works has introduced their Alfa All Road gravel bike. They’ve been very quiet about it’s release, only showing it off at Alto Cycling’s demo tent at Interbike, because they’ve already built up a backorder log of about 100-150 bikes, so they are cautious to promote it too much…but it’s here, and it’s amazing.
Built on the same front triangle as the Alfa, they’re able to minimize the learning curve and change time between making them, but they say this version already accounts for the vast majority of their orders. This also means it’s light, coming in at a claimed 960g for a size 56 with their bare clear coat finish (add 30-80g for a full paint scheme).
So, cable management is the same, with the only real difference up front being a re-route of the brake hose from the top tube (for the Alfa’s rim brake) to the downtube for the All Road’s rear disc brake. Drivetrain wires or cables run through their eagle badge.
The key changes for the All Road come at the front and rear of the bike. The fork is all new, sitting 4mm taller than the road fork, but with a much thinner crown. This minimizes geometry changes, but opens things up to fit a 38-40mm tire. They claim the max at 38mm, but I rode one of their employee’s bikes (not the one shown here) with a 40 up front and the only issue was toe overlap, not fork clearance.
Out back, stays are spread apart and reshaped to improve tire clearance and reinforce for disc brake stresses.
They kept the standard threaded BB interface…
…and interchangeable dropouts, letting you swap inserts to accommodate various 12mm thru axle standards (different thread pitches), including the Mavic Speedrelease system. So, the non-drive rear dropout and non-brake fork dropout have an open face, but it works with standard thru axles, too, including bolt-in options as shown here.
Because it’s using the same front triangle, they intend it for equal parts road and dirt, and going fast on both. It’s not a multi-day adventure bike, so it’s lacking fender and rack mounts, but it’s fast. And it rips on smooth single track, but holds its own on the road, too. My short test ride through Burns Park and the hills and bridges around their Little Rock, AR, factory proved this, suggesting it’s the do-it-all bike for people that like to get more fast than rowdy.
