Carbon All-Road v2 - Sidewinder Black

Scott here! Yes, I ride for the team so I’m technically biased- ain’t nobody ask me to write this so take it or leave it.

The new V2 All-Road had the near-impossible task of topping the last gen- a bike so dialed it turned my ultra picky ass into a stronger SBC cult member.

Bigger tire clearance? Yup. Internal routing? Clean. UDH compatibility? Future icon shiz. And now it’s got downtube storage big enough to house 5–10 bags of Nerds Clusters… that’s like 1000g of pure, ride-fueled science nutrition.

This bike performs just as well as gravel bikes that cost 2-3 times as much.. makes you wonder what exactly you’re paying for these days when it comes to the big brands. Maybe its for the IG content posting a logo? A hug? Existential regret/crisis?

10/10. State keeps making bikes that punch way above their price tag. JD Powers and his associates, save some time and just give this company all of your awards.

I got the medium frame and it fits great, I'm 5'11". I opted for the Enve wheel upgrade and am very glad I did, light fast and a nice wide platform for the tires which I immediately changed to tubeless without any difficulties. Upgraded the handle bars to Pacific Northwest Coast drop bars for more width. I also put a One-Up dropper post on, there was just enough stack height for the 90 mm travel post plus about 10 mm extra. It was a bit of a challenge routing the cable internally but the final result works great! Overall the bike handles exceptionally well, I have not yet had the opportunity to take it through all it's paces on dirt but with the weather changing to spring I won't have to wait long! Great job on the new design State bicycles!

This bike is designed really well as far as geometry goes. It handles great and has the space to accommodate super-wide tires. I wanted a gravel bike that can rock MTB tires for all the sand and rocks of southern Utah. I also love the storage space in the downtube. This bike is PERFECT for what I need. I also LOVE that the small frame comes with a 165 crank length instead of a 170 or 172 like many other brands in a comparable frame size. I have been running shorter cranks on my road bikes for quite some time now. The stock tires are pretty great as well.

There were a couple of issues, though. The removable part on the downtube had a massive chip in it, so that needed to be replaced. Somehow, the bike came with a 170 crank length on the drive side and a 165 length on the non-drive side, so that also needed to be replaced. I was able to email the team, and they replaced everything that I asked for in a very short amount of time. The customer service was really good.

Also, if you purchase this bike, the serial number is inside the headtube, not on the bottom bracket like the website indicated.

What else is there to say other than I have no regrets buying this bike. My other gravel bike has more of an adventure geometry which typically my style of riding but this bike has me smashing PRs. I've always been one to say " It's the rider not the bike " but this thing rips!

The geometry is fitting for an all-road, and my first bike of this kind. I love its road performance even on its 47s, usually significantly wider than I’d choose but on messy backroads it rolls over anything comfortably. Performs well in gravel, lots of control downhill but even after some adjustments, I’d say the brakes are mid at best. The mullet extra climbing gear was an overkill extra, however why not!? The one beast climb I used it on eased up the intensity of the moment and I probably won’t use it often but it’s another bonus.

At just over a 6’3” with a short torso and long legs, the XL doesn’t feel so stretched out in the top tube and fits better than almost all modern geometry road/gravel frames. On my mtb I appreciate the extra but the reach on this frame fits just right. The dimensions are hard to find elsewhere.

The cable internals (really just a bonus and not particularly necessary IMO), and down tube storage are sexy. Same to say with the Merlot color and matte paint (powder coated?!) it’s a great sensory feel to the touch and has been holding up on gravel stomping.

It’s faster than my old road bike and will quickly become your everything bike. Time will tell, but I’m hooked on the value and won’t stress the little upgrades as it comes time for them.

I'll get the negatives out of the way: The headset it came with, NECO, was not my favorite. The build quality was so so and had to fix the seal right out of the box. The frame kit does not have any extra rubber seals for cable ports you are not going to use. I'm making them myself out of Sugru. There is no frame protector around the driveside chainstay so plan for that. For a gravel/allroad frame that is an oversight. The Fidlock storage is a bit fiddly. Not a huge fan but it works.

The positives are a plenty though. I was nitpicking the negatives. The build quality was solid. Compared to other name brand frames I have owned you can see the difference in paint finishes or surface smoothness of the carbon layup molds. But you really have to look hard. All the surfaces of the working ends like the BB face, the brake mount faces, the headset seat surface, the dropouts, the thruaxle holes... they were all finished well. No paint over-spray or artifacts. The brake lines were super easy to route. Working on this frame was absolutely without any hiccups. If I were to do this again, I would definitely go for a different headset and have frame protectors ready to go before the frame came in.

The key factors for me for choosing frame were: UDH setup, tire clearance, T47i BB, price. I highly recommend getting this as a frameset and building your own bike. Can't go wrong!

Frame swap for my first all road bike. Checks the boxes with no regrets. One bike, two sets of wheels for road and off road.

Amazing bike, amazing value! Recently built up a V2 frame and it's been hands down one of the best bikes I've had on this Texas Gravel. The frame is nice and stiff but feels very responsive and the 2.2 clearance allows me to rub bomb proof tires (2.2 conti kings.). All in all very well made bike that's extremely fun to ride.

State is a super cool company and as I learned more about this frameset - like on Justin McQ's YouTube channel, and podcast about Tyler Arnett's RAAZ win - I knew I had to have one!!! For the price, and what you get compared to the big named and elite brands, amazing! The colorways are good looking, but I love myself a black frameset. My build came in at 18.65lbs. What I love: The bike was easy to build up with one exception (I’ll get to that later). The storage box on the downtube is convenient and doesn’t rattle, lots of tire clearance (I tested some mountain bike tires, settled on 2.1 Thunder Burts), T-47 Bottom Bracket is rock solid, future proofed UDH. With the long and low geometry, I found a good position with a zero-setback seat post. Suggestions/questions for SBC: Why a 72.8 HT angle – why not a 71.5 or slacker? Or why not design the Fork around the chip flip like the Monster Fork? When I ran a 40mm tire on the V2s maiden voyage team group ride, when descending, comparatively, the V2s steep HT made the handling totally skittish. However, on the next ride out, with wider tires, the frame/fork came to life, and descending was what I’d expect. One challenge was the cheap Neco brand Headset that didn’t come with any directions, no model info on the box, no internet info. Perhaps SBC could add a video or directions. I finally got it together w/ help from Chris Palmer, sales rep, (he was great to work with!). I wound up ordering and installing a Wolf Tooth semi-integrated headset, and that was so simple to install, with superior bearings, seals, and design. I’m in the honeymoon phase with this bike, but I could see purchasing the SBC Monster Fork for the 55.5 trail, or a full suspension fork for some fast bike packing.

I owned a Road Bike 12 speed Di2 but this All Road Carbon V2 Merlot is a monster going up hill. Even my cycling buddies were impressed on my performance. They looked and inspected my new bike, my friends were surprised because the components were not big name brand and the quality of the frame and color was amazing. Btw I ordered the All State Brand , 650b wheels and the mulllet 50T.