Allied Alfa frameset

The Allied Alfa is a lightweight carbon fibre race bike that offers an excellent ride quality and, unusually, it's made start to finish in-house in the US. It's available as a frameset or the UK distributor, The Bicycle Chain, can build it up for you, either completely custom or as a standard build.

• Pros: Great ride quality, low weight, custom builds available
• Cons: High-end always means it'll cost ya

The Alfa balances its light weight with a high level of stiffness, particularly through the centre of the frame, and it feels great throughout the longest rides. The overall offering is hugely impressive.

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Jump aboard and this is clearly a bike that's built for speed, putting you into an efficient flat-backed riding position (more on the geometry later). Although Allied hasn't sought to shave off the grams at all costs, this is a light bike with a claimed frame weight of 875g and a fork weight of 325g. You can certainly find lighter out there, but built up for us by the UK distributor, our complete bike (minus pedals) came in at just 6.89kg (15lb 7oz). I'm not one of those people who gets obsessed by bike weight, but this is a bike that feels very light in use.

One other thing you notice straightaway is the level of frame stiffness on offer, particularly through the middle of the bike. Get out of the saddle and sprint hard and the bottom bracket area doesn't budge – not so much that I could detect, anyway, even when giving it full beans.

Unlike most manufacturers of performance-orientated bikes, Allied has gone for an external threaded bottom bracket (BSA standard) rather than any of the press-fit options that are out there, with the aim of avoiding any issues with creaking further down the line and keeping serviceability simple. It doesn't seem to have had a detrimental effect on rigidity down there.

I liked the cornering characteristics too, the tapered head tube – like many others, it houses a 1 1/8in upper bearing and a 1 1/4in lower bearing – and Allied's own fork keeping things in order up front. This is a bike that allows you to have some fun pushing hard into the turns, shifting your weight around with the minimum of braking. If you need to change your line, the steering is quick and responsive.

All the while, the Alfa kept me feeling pretty comfortable. Of course, a lot of that is going to come down to the components you choose. Our review bike was built up with Zipp 202 wheels fitted with 25mm Pirelli P Zero Velo tyres, a Fizik Cyrano R3 handlebar and stem, Cyrano R1 seatpost (27.2mm diameter) and Antares saddle.

I didn't feel much in the way of road buzz coming through that lot. Quite the opposite. I mean, we're not talking about the level of smoothness you get with some endurance models, but this is a race bike. You can be out on the Alfa for hours without feeling like you've got into a scrap with the heavyweight champion of the world, or even the flyweight champ. If you wanted to put more air between you and the road, there's enough clearance for 28mm tyres (or 30mm if you went for the disc brake version of this frameset).

Geometry and sizing

Another thing that has a huge effect on comfort is, of course, the geometry and the Alfa is interesting in that it is available in six sizes from 49cm to 61cm, each of them in either a standard or a + fit – so a total of 12 different versions. The '+' indicates a head tube that's 2cm taller than normal, bringing the handlebar position higher for a more relaxed setup.

We have the 56cm model here, in the standard rather than the + fit, and it's a long and low race bike geometry, although not at all outrageous. A 56cm frame is usually too small for me but the top tube is a little longer than normal at 565mm. It slopes ever so slightly downwards towards the 552mm seat tube. The head tube is a dumpy 157mm, the head angle is 73.5 degrees and the seat angle is 73.25.

The stack on this size is 560mm and the reach is 396mm. This all results in the kind of speed-orientated riding position that you'd expect. If it's too aggressive for you, the + option will take a little strain off your back and neck without the additional flex associated with a stack of headset spacers, and it looks a lot better too.

Frame details

Talking of looks, Allied hasn't added a whole bunch of eye-catching features to the Alfa just for the sake of it. Visually, it's fairly understated although there are some neat little touches that catch the eye, such as the top tube that bends around the sides of the seat tube before morphing into the seatstays, and little eagle motifs on the cable ports.

There's another eagle at the top of the down tube. Rather than being merely decorative, this covers the holes that would be used for internal cable routing if the frame was set up for mechanical shifting – the same frame can be used for either type of system. If you want mechanical you simply swap the eagle for one that allows access via ports in its wings.

If you want to use the Alfa with SRAM Red eTap wireless shifting, you can get a frame delivered with a plain eagle and no rear derailleur routing at the rear.

One feature that you can't see is the integration of Innegra high-modulus polypropylene (HMPP) fibre in certain areas: the top tube, seatstays and fork crown.

Innegra? That rings a bell. It's also found on the Orro Terra C 105 Hydro that we reviewed on road.cc a few months ago. The idea is that it prevents catastrophic failure in those areas of the frameset most vulnerable to impacts. It is also said to improve damping.

Monocoque method

As mentioned up top, Allied – or Allied Cycle Works if you want to be formal – makes its bikes under one roof in the USA, in Little Rock, Arkansas, having bought up manufacturing equipment that previously belonged to Guru Cycles when the Canadian brand went under. Although established only in 2017, the team behind Allied has a vast amount of bike industry experience.

Unusually for quite a small scale manufacturer, Allied produces the Alfa using monocoque rather than tube-to-tube construction methods. Instead of a series of pre-made tubes being cut to length and then joined together, the carbon fibre comes in on a roll and the frame is made (in three different pieces) in moulds. Check out Allied's video to see how it's done. The forks are made in-house too.

The process is way more labour intensive than you might think and those moulds don't come cheap. Far from it. You have to sell a lot of frames to get your money back, which is one of the reasons why smaller manufacturers don't tend to favour this method.

Most brands outsource the manufacturing process to Asia where labour costs are cheaper (although they're rising), but Allied has chosen to build everything itself on-site. Why? Because 'it is the right thing to do', according to Allied. It puts a value on offering an American-made product that's not the same as everyone else's, calling itself 'the breakaway brand of integrity and authenticity in the industry'. Check out what Allied has to say on the subject here.

It's certainly a cool story, a point of difference from most others, allowing Allied to boast of products that are made from start to finish in the good ol' USA. That has a certain appeal to many, especially over there in the US, of course, but also over here.

Value and build options

The Alfa frameset is priced at £3,000 with a full custom paint job adding up to £385 more (some of the paint options are stunning). Allied is offering a free paint upgrade for road.cc readers at the moment. Like the other frames in the Allied range, the Alfa is available in a full custom build while the UK distributor also offers some standard build kits (all of which are available with interest-free finance).

For example, an Allied Alfa with a Shimano Ultegra groupset, Mavic Ksyrium wheels and Fizik finishing kit costs from £4,800, while a model with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset, Zipp 303 wheels and Fizik R1 finishing kit is £7,000.

How do the prices compare with those of more major brands? Well, a Trek Emonda SLR frameset is £2,590 while a Specialized S-Works Tarmac Ultralight frameset is £3,450, so the Alfa sits about in the middle of those two in terms of price. A Giant TCR Advanced SL frameset is quite a bit cheaper at £2,099, while a Bianchi Oltre XR4 CV frameset is more expensive at £3,400 and a Specialissima CV frameset is more expensive again at £3,800. Although the Allied Alfa isn't cheap, it's not as if you're paying a huge premium to have something a little bit different.

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All in all, the Allied Alfa is a really interesting option. It has the lively character and sharp reactions you want of a race bike and the ride quality is really impressive. If you're after something that's high end and high performance and you're looking for an alternative to the see-them-everywhere brands, this is well worth checking out.

Verdict

High-end frameset that's light and offers an excellent ride quality, 100 per cent made in the USA