The Differences Between the Honey Allfondo and the Honey Allroads

We build bikes for every type of riding and most of our bikes cross over various types of riding.

Honey Allroads

The Allroads is the one bike that does just about everything very well. Riders have been enjoying this bike riding on gravel, more serious mixed terrain verging on mountain biking, cyclocross race courses, and even pure paved roads. The tire choice impacts what the bike can do - not the frame, it’s ready for all of it.

Honey Allfondo

For those seeking out the Allroads due to its disc brakes and ability to offer a smooth ride over long distances, and who like to ride pavement or smooth dirt roads, but don’t need the bike to get that far off the beaten path, there is the Allfondo. The Allfondo takes the best qualities of the Allroads that are aimed at length of ride and road riding and accentuates them.

Allfondo vs the Allroads:

We developed the Allfondo to meet the needs of road riders who want the control and all-weather riding of disc brakes while having the enjoyment of comfort over long distance riding and speed that comes with a performance road bike.

Attribute Model: Honey Allroads Model: Honey Allfondo
Overview A titanium disc-brake gravel bike made to be a true mixed-terrain bike: stable, well-built for riding every kind of surface, comfort for rider implied with larger tire sizes, made for all-day riding, adventure rides, four-season riding. A titanium, disc-brake road bike designed for long road rides, comfort for the rider over short to very long distances, stable handling, stiff drivetrain for maximum power transfer, 75% paved roads, 25% dirt roads, not for technical trails or challenging mixed terrain.
Optimal Ride Time Loves to be out for 3-6 hours. Happy to go shorter or much longer! Loves to be out on the roads all day - 3 to 10 hours. It's smooth and ready for long rides. Keeps the rider fresh by offering stable handling and plush vertical compliance.
Rider Position Optimized for mixed terrain riding: center of gravity slightly back off the front wheel. Slightly higher center of gravity for clearing obstacles. Slightly longer reach and lower front end for efficient rider position. Optimized for paved and dirt road riding all day long. Low center of gravity for stability and ease of handling. Slightly shorter reach and slightly higher front end for less aggressive position and rider comfort.
Paved Roads Super stable no-hands stability. Slightly less comfortable with 25-28mm tires since frame and wheels optimized for higher volume tires and mixed terrain riding. Loves pavement, flies on pavement.
Dirt Roads Very stable and glad to be riding dirt roads. Confident and fast on dirt roads. Happy to ride these all day, too.
Class IV Roads With 40mm-50mm tires, ready for the roughest roads. Not intended for really rough terrain with tire clearances up to 32mm.
Handling Characteristics Faster than the Allfondo - meant to allow easy handling in single track and technical terrain. Not too quick, either, not as fast as a cyclocross race bike. Note: Allroads bikes are seen racing cyclocross races. Handling is controlled, assumes rider is in the saddle all day and wants to be able to ride for miles with a light touch on the handlebars.
Climbing With a rugged frame and beefier fork, the bike will feel fast uphill, but not as quick as the Allfondo. The sleek fork and frame keep the bike weight low and with stiff chainstays, it flies uphill.
Descending Confident and stable. Bigger tires mean more rubber on the ground. Confident and slightly more stable than the Allroads with slightly lower bottom bracket.
Tire & Wheel Optimization 35-40mm optimal tire size. 28mm-50mm tires may all be ridden. 28mm optimal tire size. 25-32mm tires may all be ridden.
Frame Feature: Fender Mounts Fender mounts for full-time fenders included. None.
Frame Feature: Rack Mounts Fender mounts double as rack mounts with the addition of a seat post collar that has rack stay mounts included. None.
Frame Feature: Bottle Cages 2 bottle cage mounts included by default. We add a third under the downtube by request. 3 bottle cage mounts included.
Frame Feature: Bead blasted or vinyl decals Rider's choice of either bead blasted decals or reflective black vinyl decals. Rider's choice of either bead blasted decals or reflective black vinyl decals.
Frame Features: BTC S&S Couplers for easy travel May be incorporated into the frame. Does not impact ride quality of the bike at all. Adds 1/2 lb to weight of the frame. An upcharge applies. May be incorporated into the frame. Does not impact ride quality of the bike at all. Adds 1/2 lb to weight of the frame. An upcharge applies.

Allfondo vs the Allroads: Comfort on the Road

Where the Allroads has the opportunity to use bigger tires to give a rider relief from the roughness of the road, the Honey Allfondo has a tubeset that maximizes on-bike comfort through tubeset choice assuming the rider will be using 25-30mm road tires.

Allfondo vs the Allroads: Handling characteristics

The Allroads needs to be able to nimbly dance through trails, whereas the Allfondo provides stable, predictable handling for long days in the saddle. This bike handles well, just not as fast as a bike used for trail riding needs to.

Disc Brake vs. Rim Brake Performance on Road Bikes

One of the most common questions we receive is whether disc brakes are better for road bikes than traditional caliper brakes.  It seems every company now offers disc brake road bikes.  So many marketing dollars focus on selling discs for every type of riding.  It's easy to understand why most people think discs are better for road bikes.  "Better" is a broad word that covers a lot of ground, just as "road bike" is a broad term.  We find that find each brake system has benefits and shortcomings.  These positives and negatives often get clouded by the latest bike review which may be influenced by what bike brands want to sell -- whether it's right for every rider or not.

We are agnostic about brake systems for road bikes.  We offer performance road bikes with three brake system options:  Calipers, discs, and even medium-reach calipers.  The reason we offer three systems is that each has strengths and weaknesses.  We just want cyclists on the right bike for their kind of riding.  We hate it when a rider ends up with the wrong bike for the wrong reasons. 

This article explores braking performance:  Which brake system lets you ride "faster" on various surfaces and in wet and dry conditions.  The answer is surprising.

Comparing 700c & 650b Wheel Sizes for Gravel Riding

Dual wheel size bikes have continued to gain in popularity.  Honey first offered a dual wheel size bike seven years ago.  It was very unusual at the time.  The bike was our Allroads for 700c x 40 mm and 650b x 47 mm.  We're doing more and more Allroads with two wheel sets.  People tend to have questions about what works and when it makes sense to have two wheel sets of different diameters.

We're agnostic about which wheel size and tire size to use.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there, sometimes biased by bike companies with a horse in this race.  We're not trying to sell any specific technology.  Honey doesn't get paid to sell one wheel over another.  Honey is agnostic about wheel size because we build with all wheel sizes.  We like both 650 and 700 but neither is perfect for everything.  Here are our thoughts on the benefits and shortcomings of 700c and 650b wheel choices.

PavGrav and GravPav: Mixed Surface Riding -- is it Gravel First or Pavement First

PavGrav and GravPav: Mixed Surface Riding -- is it Gravel First or Pavement First

Honey Bikes coined the terms PavGrav and GravPav in order to distinguish between four similar but very different types of riding. 

We've always parsed the term "gravel riding" because that's a huge generalization of riding.  In fact we find that most riders talking about gravel riding aren't really doing much gravel riding, if at all.  If we recommend a true gravel optimized bike for anyone that talks about doing "gravel griders" we're doing many of those riders a disservice by providing a bike that's sub-optimal for the kind of riding the person does day-to-day.  It starts with better understanding what "gravel riding" means to the rider.  We find the terms PavGrav and GravPav help.

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Honey Introduces Titanium Bikes

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Titanium bikes from Honey?  

We've been working on this project for over three years.  Design, fatigue testing, ride testing, fatigue testing, redesign, more ride testing.  You might think that the process would have been quicker since some of the Beekeepers have been building titanium bikes for more than thirty years.  It's been a long and rewarding process that has culminated in a really unique bike design. 

We are now ready to introduce our first Ti model:  The Allroads Titanium.  The AllTi.