Sportive bikes are designed to make the road a more comfortable and enjoyable riding experience. With more and more sportive and endurance rides on the calendar, the profile of endurance events has been raised to a level which was unprecedented just a decade ago.

There is no doubt that within the UK, as the sportive phenomenon gathers momentum with ever more exalted events like the Tour of Cambridgeshire’s closed road Gran Fondo and multi-day sportives like the three day Tour of Wessex, there’s still plenty of scope in which to grow.

Take into account the popularity of these events and the maturity of the riders themselves, and you can see that a shift has taken place towards bikes that provide the same requirements for both the weekend rider and pro alike. This balanced approach to bicycle design has also helped shape a market that now provides more choices of bikes than anyone would have dreamed of twenty years ago.

But what has the sportive or endurance-oriented bike really got to offer riders? Who is the sportive bike aimed at? If you thought it was just sportive riders: think again.  Comfort is a buzz word in bike design, which leads us nicely into our first point…