The All-City Zig Zag: Endurance Does Not Mean Slow!

The All-City Zig Zag: Endurance Does Not Mean Slow!

For a long time — longer than I would like to admit — I thought tagging a bike with the term “endurance” meant it was slow, heavy, and reserved for long-distance weekend rides. I thought these bikes had no place on shorter rides where speed is the main concern.

I am not going to argue about this thought process. To improve comfort and functionality, endurance bikes often add weight, and heavier can be misconstrued as slower. However, slower is all relative to what you are trying to accomplish.

My ability to go out for long rides seems to be shrinking more and more, but the opportunities for smaller more consistent rides seems to be increasing. While I find myself spending more time per week on the bike than I ever have before, it’s never for more than 1 or 2 hours at a time. Because these kinds of rides are mostly commutes, the ride times need to be consistent and predictable. Day 5 can’t take 1.5 hours if Day 1 took 1 hour and 45 minutes, you know? As a result of commuting, I’ve experienced a weird type of body fatigue that compounds on top of itself.

Switching to the Zig Zag with some of the 700x32c Teravail Ramparts has helped me ride more consistently throughout the week. This is what got me thinking about the true capabilities and possible use cases for an endurance road bike. Is an endurance road bike going to win one criterium? Maybe not. But what if you want to ride five in a single week?

Endurance road bikes like the Zig Zag make it possible to spend a lot of time on the bike, which sounds obvious; what’s less obvious, however, is that endurance can also mean a lot of fast time on the bike over the course of a couple days.

Speed is relative — you are only as fast as your last ride. So why not put out your best stuff every time you get on the bike? Riding an endurance bike does not mean you’re going to ride slow all the time; it just might mean you’ll have the endurance to spend more time on the bike, on more surfaces, more consistently.

Get to know the Zig Zag a little better at your local AC dealer.