ALL IN THE BLUEPRINT

Wouldn’t it be boring if all bikes looked the same? There was a time when that was the case but as designers have striven to tailor performance to specific needs, that homogeneous vision has splintered into a myriad of more targeted machines.

In some ways, the more recent flock of race bikes has seen some of that splintering dissipate – the traditional race bike has assimilated aspects from aero machines and tyre clearance increases for added versatility: just look at the current Specialized Tarmac and its close proximity to the Venge.

But designers looking to fulfil a certain need will still tailor their creation to the demands of a certain genre. So what defines an aero bike from, say, an endurance-oriented machine or even a