Aluminium Bike VS. World’s Hardest Group Ride

Alex puts an entry-level, £1,000 bike, plus a couple of ‘cheeky upgrades’ to the ultimate test on one of the fastest and most brutal group rides around: the Bristol Chaingang. Can this bike, equipped with a Shimano Cue’s groupset, hold its own against top-spec machines and seasoned riders? The ride is 60km with over 500 meters of elevation, so tune in to see if the bike and Alex’s legs can survive to the end.

In collaboration 👉 @RideShimano

Chapters: ⏱️
00:00 – Introduction to the Challenge
00:37 – The Bike and Its Groupset
01:16 – The Sneaky Upgrades
03:28 – The Brutal Ride Starts
04:01 – The Group Splits
05:53 – A Deeper Look at the Bike’s Setup
08.41 – Back to the Race
10:25 – The Debrief: A Toast to Survival
11:11 – The Ride Re-lived
13:04 – The Essential Upgrades
15:50 – The Shimano Q’s groupset

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We’ve proved that an entry-level bike can hold its own, but what’s the one upgrade you’d make to a new road bike to get a performance boost? Let us know in the comments! 👇

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This is an entry- levelvel bike and I’m about to start one of the fastest group rides about. That was one of the toughest things I’ve done since unbound that little section. Now, I’m told on a good day they average 45 km an hour or 28 mph. So, I want to find out if I can keep up on a bike that costs £1,000. Now, I really want to be able to achieve this because I want to prove to the world that bikes just like this are capable of pretty much anything we can throw at them. But I’ve not exactly made it easy for myself, have I? Now then, I know what you’re sat there thinking. You’re like, “Oh, here we go. It’s just another video where Alex says he’s riding an entrylevel bike and he’s tricked it out with all of his spare durace components.” But no, I was kind of told that was bad. I am however riding the allnew Canyon Endure Race All Road, a bike which is tricked out with Shimano’s Q’s group set, which bikes like this and many others will come fitted with as standard. This exact one is the U6030 group set. But if you don’t speak bike nerd, well, it means I’ve got two chain rings up front, 10 speeds at the back, hydraulic disc brakes, mechanical shifting. Now, as I’m sure we’ve all grown to expect from me, I have made some pretty cheeky upgrades because, well, you know, it’s kind of my thing, but you can probably say it’s kind of your thing as well, too. Now, the reason for doing this is kind of to put my money where my mouth is because here on GCN, GCN Tech, I spent a lot of time saying you don’t have to spend a truckload of cash on a super bling bike to either have a great time, to go far, or to go fast, or indeed all three of the above. Now, I’m going to talk you through my bike a little bit more later on cuz right now, well, the race starts. I mean, bike ride starts pretty damn soon. Before that, I need to do some route reconnaissance. This race, I mean ride, is like many around the world. It leaves at the same time from the same place every week. No one owns it. No one organizes it. But if you want to ride hard, this is where you come. The route is 60 km long with just over 500 m of elevation. Many riders start, but not many get to the end. The first 5 km are uphill, so it’s going to be a spicy start. But the key moments to watch out for are the three ramps around the halfway marker and then the two very close to the end. That’s if you’ve made it that far. Right, this thing is going to be absolutely brutal tonight. I’m absolutely buzzing to have you and Sai by my side, my wingman. Right. But um where actually is S? Don’t know. He said something about he had to go to gymnastics class. Guys, I’m literally right here. I’m not doing gymnastics tonight. Anyway, this race, uh, let me correct you there. Fast group ride. This fast group ride starts pretty soon. Um, think I want to see what everyone else thinks of my pretty boss looking bike. Yeah. So, it turns out that everyone was fairly conservative with the judgment of my bike. Many thought it was pretty cool, but no one was really blown away by it either, which means it’s going to be down to my legs to help do this bike justice. Anyone that manages to ride, specifically me, out of the front group, I’m going to buy them a beer at the end. Like, I feel a bit nervous having to say this now. Um, so there’s maybe one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. This is potentially eight beers anymore. [Music] [Applause] [Music] right? Neutralize is over. Oh my god, everyone’s gone full arrow. Good luck, S. Good luck to you. Okay, 20 minutes in. The group has already split. The body count is high. This doesn’t bode well for the next 50k. Oh boy. I’ve got that racing adrenaline though. I love it. Oh boy. I got to take these little breaks of traffic. as best I can. All right, people are missing turns already. I feel sick. RIP RP on the grid. Another one. Sigh’s looking bloody mega though. And as good as S’s looking, it’s annoying me. He looks so good. Holly’s back. Saved by the temporary traffic lights. [Music] Damn it. This is the hard bit, right? Yeah. [Applause] Come on. Entry level bike. Couple more climbs. We got this. Having survived one of the hardest sections of the route about the halfway marker and crested the rise at best part of 500 W, it’s fair to say the pace was extra spicy. So, while I continue to suffer, here’s me from yesterday to talk more about my setup and of course those sneaky upgrades. Now, this is the bike that kind of broke the internet earlier this year with it mega looks, mega spec, and mega price point. The big appeal for me here is that we’ve got hydraulic disc brakes, and it’s a platform that’s using trickle down technology from Toronto’s top tier group sets. It’s a bike which is pretty much ready to go on any adventure, be that onroad or off-road. You could just as easily go bike packing on this thing, commuting or riding up alpine climbs. This group set that we’ve got here is the Shimano Q’s U 6030 to be precise. But as a group set range, there are loads of different options, specs, and gear ratios to choose from. You’ve got 9-speed, 10-speed, 11speed, you’ve got mechanical shifting, mechanical disc brakes, hydraulic disc brakes, and loads of different options to choose from. Now, as a group set range, it’s set to consolidate lots of existing ranges within Shimano’s offerings, such as Sora, Thiagra, Claris, Altus, Olivio, Acier, and even some Dior mountain bike components. Meaning, it’s pretty much ready to take anything that you want to throw at it. Now, in terms of the upgrades I’ve made here, well, we got to talk about these, right? Let’s start with the most striking visual change, the wheels. So, these are the Shimano RS710 wheels, which are drawing on a kind of tech from Shimano’s top tier Dura Ace and Altegra wheels, C46, meaning they’re 46 mm deep. And of course, I fitted them with some pretty speedy Pirelli Pace RS tires. Now, the tires are pretty much one of the best bang forbuck upgrades in terms of performance and speed gains that you can make for your bike. And the wheels, well, they’re certainly at the more affordable end for carbon fiber hoops, but I’ve also optimized my body position as well, because we all know that is super important, too. So, up front, I’ve got this absolute long boy 140 mm stem matched up with quite possibly my favorite handlebar of all time, the Vibe Alloy Arrow Pursuit Geometry handlebar. just 36 cm wide on the hoods, little flare on the drops, ideal for getting me into that aggressive position. And then I’ve also got my usual Celotalia SLR saddle trying to keep me nice and comfy. Now, these upgrades are what I would make if this was my first proper road bike. And I really wanted to try to optimize it a little bit more for speed with some time and perseverance. These are the kind of upgrades that you can find at some fairly reasonable prices, but the kind of stuff that we’re probably going to end up considering looking to upgrade on your bike anyway. Right, that’s enough talking about the spec of this bike. Let’s get back to the race. I mean, group ride. [Music] That was one of the toughest things I’ve done since unbound. That little section, you know, you’re trying hard when your arms start to ache from gripping the bars. Never before in my life been so pleased to see a red light. And we’re off. 600 W. So, we’re basically drafting the bloody lorry. [Music] Bike’s good. I’m enjoying it. Engine warning lights nearly on though. [Music] Okay. [Applause] [Music] Okay, we’ve made it to the pub and I’ve remained true to my word. Got the boys a drink each, not only anyone that dropped me cuz I think I actually finished second place. So, officially I only owe one person a drink. But we got the drinks in. Everyone’s hydrated. Sigh has actually gone to gymnastics. No joke, he actually has. Ollie, no idea where he is. I’ve WhatsAppapped him. Apparently, he’s on his way. He got dropped and then he got lost. Um, but I think we’ve proved one very, very, very good point is, and that is that entry- level bikes and entry- level components with the right engine on, aka me, seem to be able to hold it their own amongst some top spec bikes. Um, what I will do is I’ll pick this up tomorrow with Sai and Ollie for a proper debrief. Over and out from tonight. Enjoy. All right then, guys. Um, how was that for you? Savage. Savage. That was ridiculous. That was hard. I described it as disgusting last night. I’ve I’ve managed to surpass myself in not just getting dropped, but getting dropped twice. Yeah, that was impressive. How on earth did you manage that? How did you get dropped but then catch us up? Cuz I I car I carried on like riding hard. I went into time travel mode and then you fortunately got held up by a temporary traffic light. Thank goodness. I managed to then gun it and get back on. There was actually a point late into the race, I mean group ride, where um where I was so glad to see a red traffic light cuz I was in real trouble for about 5 minutes. Yeah, to I was quite impressed given that we did stop at traffic lights emergency and otherwise. Uh but we still broke quite a lot of KMS. Oh, we did loads of K. There was there was quite a bit of shifting going on. Um can I just say uh that it probably would have been more pleasant had Alex not ruined it for the rest of us. You know that guy on the group, you know that guy on the group ride that ruins it for everyone else? That was Alex. So like you definitely ruined it for me. So So every turn you did instead of easing off to like come back into the line, you carried on. So there was like there’s this like 3 m gap and I’m there having to go from 400 watts to 450 watts having been on the front to close you out. But then there’s that whiplash effect which means the person on the back is then having to do 800 watts just to get on the whip. I was like, “Oh, well, look, it’s even like attack or be attacked.” Yeah. Oh, this is it, right? Is, you know, gloves were off. It’s also ruined it for everybody at home watching this because I I’ve been reading the big book of cycling excuses and no one can now say I got dropped because my bike wasn’t good enough. Yeah, I think on your Pinerella dogma effort that excuse is long gone, mate. Yeah, right. But no, go on. Seriously, Alex, talk us through the bike, mate, cuz I am really interested. You were looking fast. You were fast. Well, as I explained, I made the essential, what I deem to be essential speed upgrades to this bike. Like, we’ve kept as much of the like core of this bike the same as possible. The I think the thing that was going to stand out to most people, right, is that if you were to go go to this a bike shop sort of level, you’re obviously going to have to splash quite a bit of cash on getting some fancy wheels. But, I think I think I could have survived even with the stock wheels. So, the essential upgrades like your bike fit, right? So, longer stem, narrower bars, check. Fast, uh, tires and tubes. Yeah. And a wax chain. I’m going to throw it out there. I don’t think the wax chain was what did it for me. Probably not. Um, the clipless pedals, that’s a given. You don’t need a power meter. No. Obviously, I’ve only got,000 pound meter pedals, so that we’ve got some stats and data to talk through. They’re not haven’t got that cuz it was making the bike fast. Yeah. Anthony, talking of power, do you want to do you have any power stats you want to share or talk through? Uh, yeah. Well, like the average power of these things is never as high as you want it to be, is it? Cuz it’s very on off. But I thought it was striking that I’d spent a total of 26 minutes of my uh evening at over 380 W, 15 minutes over 430 W. So, it’s quite punchy. Very. Yeah, that that did me. I I I I was actually when I look when I you know I was disappointed to get dropped twice. Yeah. But but when I when I got back and I looked at the the power numbers I was actually really pleased with the power that I’d done there. Nice. I think Yeah. But like I think the um you know after sort of recovering a bit from the crash in America, but I’ll tell you what, bloody fair play to YouTube. Yeah, cuz like my power numbers were not were not bad and I got completely dispatched. Well, I like size the averages didn’t look that impressive. So, I did about 300 W average um across the what was it hour 23 or something. Also, I’d like to point out possibly the second fastest I’ve ever done that I think on that loop. As in the second fastest loop of all time. Of all time. Well, if you’d won the sprint, it would have been the fastest. Ben, the guy that rolled you at the end is now got the K. Actually, that that sort of cuts me deep a little bit. Especially cuz from the footage it looks like he outsprints you whilst sat down. Why? Look, I mean I just I like I couldn’t help but notice. Did you notice I let out a little sort of welp welp and grunt at the end? Yeah. Um right, what what I would like to point out is something that we’ve said on the channel in the past and that is that we believe someone could win the tour to France on Shimano 105. Do we think that would be possible on Shimano Q’s or is that a step too far? No. No, they couldn’t do it. It’s a step too far. I mean, because there are limitations to this group set, right? Like obviously there’s the weight which is not super important on that group, right? But it is important. But what else did you notice? Well, the most obvious thing that stood out to me is in terms of gear ratios. Now, understandably, you can change gear ratios. It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but the cassette that we’ve got on here, 10 speeds and a wide range means you have actually got quite big jumps between the the gears. The most frustrating bit being I have an 11 to the bottom sprocket and then the next one up isn’t a 12, it’s a 13. So, because of the speeds we’re going at, I’m going between the two and I’m like, “Oh, this gear is a bit tough.” And it’s like, “Oh, this gear is a bit easy.” That was quite frustrating. There is a reason why when we were racing on 10speed cassettes a wide ratio cassette was 11 to 25 possibly a 28 right like yeah I mean that’s fundamentally like I think there’s perhaps small little nuances around the this level of componentry compared to I don’t know top t people using the tour that lots of people wouldn’t ever really understand or appreciate but I think it’s important to highlight like mechanical shifting right rock solid reliable dependable absolutely do nothing wrong with it, but it’s not as fast, rapid, and slick as electronic shifting. That’s just that’s just a fact, isn’t it? You know? Yeah. And it’s also not quite as crisp and fast as 105 mechanical shifting either, right? Yeah. I think this falls down to the shifting technology, right? Nerd alert. Yeah, nerd alert. Sorry, I’m going to say this anyway. Shimano Q’s uses what’s called Link Glide. Okay. It’s not Hyperglide and it’s not Hyperglide Plus, which is what you get on the top tier stuff. And that does make a difference. Doesn’t make a difference. It didn’t slow me down, especially shifting under load, but it it does make a difference. Yeah, that’s what I want to point out. Brakes good. Yeah, rock solid. Yeah, great. Slowed me down. Not I was trying to slow down at any given point. Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty blooming cool, isn’t it? Yeah, I think it’s super cool. Um, so, do we feel like we’ve achieved what we set out to achieve, and that is to highlight and prove that entry- level bikes are more than capable? I think I think you proved that single-handedly, Alex. Oh, that’s kind. Thanks. I think yeah genuinely I hope everyone else appreciates uh the efforts that Alex has gone to and obviously we should probably caveat it by saying that that I mean Alex is quite good at bicycle riding isn’t it but having said that all of the other guys that were out on the chain game that night were also good bike riders you haven’t all done quite what you’ve done in bike racing but still the level was high so you know that bike’s done done you proud I think I did get outsprinted as well you know I’ll take that you did get outsprinted as Anyway, and welped. Yeah, and welped. I had an absolute blast. It was good fun having you guys along, too. So, thanks for coming along. That was mega. And um well, please do share your thoughts of all three of our performances in the comments section down below. Particularly Ollies. I’m keen to hear all I really enjoyed it. Even Even though like I got dropped, I really enjoyed it. I was It was uh I want to go back and do it again. Spirited group rides are brilliant, aren’t they? It’s got to be said. Like it’s it’s like a proper adrenaline rush and then you’ve got that thing at the end where you you’ve done this slightly stupid thing together and you can have a drink and just be like Yeah. It’s cool, isn’t it? Or go to gymnastics. Oh yeah, gymnastics. Right. And we’re going to go now cuz I’ve got a celebratory cookie to eat and Ollie and S need to go and do more training. We’re out of here. See you. Bye.