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specialized venge pro 20193Are Specialized about to launch a new super light road bike? Peter Sagan shares images of previously unseen model
A series of photos quietly shared by Daniel Oss and Peter Sagan have fired up the new bike rumour mill big time, showing off a skinny Specialized model that is yet to be released.
Review: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 Dura-Ace Di2
The launch of the Tarmac SL7 has seen Specialized discontinue their Venge aero road model, as it turns out you can have both fast and light... well, as light as the UCI's 6.8kg limit will allow anyway.
Posing with his mysterious new bike, Daniel Oss of Bora-Hansgrohe says: "Man, the TDF is good, but, I can’t wait to break the rules a bit and #JustRide on my new machine after all the racing is done"... words that don't appear in any way contrived or sent to him for copying and pasting by a marketing department.
Man, the TDF is good, but, I can’t wait to break the rules a bit and #JustRide on my new machine after all the racing is done. I love that Specialized is all about the ride! (Also, Peter, please don’t touch!) Always more to come. Photos by @cyclingimages pic.twitter.com/5kvQ7Zb3Kg
— Daniel Oss (@Daniel87Oss) September 17, 2020
Judging by the language used, the #breaktherules hashtag and the photo of Oss easily holding the bike above his head, we're betting on this bike being super light and not intended to be used in competitions under UCI rules. The frameset is more traditional-looking with skinny tubes and less integration than the completely cable-tidy pro bikes we're used to seeing now, but hydraulic Shimano Dura-Ace disc brakes are still chosen ahead of rim brakes.
There also doesn't appear to be any branding other than a big gold 'S' on the head tube, with the lack of paint also suggesting Specialized have endeavoured to save every gram possible.
If this is indeed a tactical 'leak' of a new model then Specialized have been here before with the Tarmac SL7, dropping a mystery preview on their Ride App before the bike's official launch in July.
What do you reckon? Does it look any good, or is this all just a big old misunderstanding? Let us know in the comments as always...
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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17 comments
Looks Nice, but.....
The 6.8 lilo UCI wieght limit is totally out of date.
My summer bike is less than 5.5 kilos including pedals, It's a mixture of ten year old Campag record 10 speed and unbranded Chinese frame and wheels. It is now in it's third year and it cost less than £2000
Brands work to the UCI wieght limit by adding disc brakes, electronic shifting, etc, which are not really needed, but add "value" and weght to the bike. A bike should be simple and elegant, and capable of being seviced by a cyclist.
In a world where frames already weigh 800g as standard, will losing 200g off a frame make it that much easier to lift a whole bike over your head?
Just what the world needs. Yet another over-priced and over-marketed bloody Merida!
After spending the last few years trying to flog us aero bikes it appears that Specialized will now move back to trying to sell us lightweight bikes.
Expect to see lots of graphs about how weight matters again now after the consumer had been told for the past few years that aero trumps weight.
Everything is cyclical, the Venge wil probably make a reapperance in a few years time to great fanfare.
I suspect they are just doing what Canyon do for the Ultimate where they release 5,8KG one just for publicity. I doubt they will market it as much as they do the road legal ones though.
The (ahem) "Re-Venge"
you win the internet today!
Rim brakes will come back again as the lightweight option as soon as everyone's been sold a disc frame
I get if you're going everesting etc then a really light bike helps, but do many people actually obsess over the weight of their bike anymore?
Yes
> are Specialized about to throw out the UCI rule book?
Oh, this modern journalism, there is a UCI logo on the seat tube, just saying...
> words that don't appear in any way contrived or sent to him for copying and pasting by a marketing department.
Lol, sure, no NDA signed, nothing, just a sponsored person with 150k followers writes how much he loves his new Specialized, and posts world's first professional pictures of a non-released bike.
https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/equipment/liste-des-modeles-de-c...
you want page 41. SL7 is the latest approved frame. no sign of this one, and bikes always show up on the list before they're launched, because that's how the testing works
Thanks for the link, yes, I know. But that's no doubt a UCI logo on the bike, or am I wrong? So how can that be explained? I think I read interview with Specialized representative that there is a few months flexibility with UCI on when they publish the model approval.
I understand breaking the weight limit, but in real terms, isn't this just continuing Specialized's lightweight or aero thing?
"The launch of the Tarmac SL7 has seen Specialized discontinue their Venge aero road model" - no they haven't.
There will be no 2021 model of the Venge, so it is discontinued. This from Cam Piper at Specialized: "This (the Tarmac SL7) is one bike to rule them all, putting an end to the idea of a climbing bike and an aero bike. That idea is simply old fashioned. We have the technical ability to create a bike that's as aero as rules allow and as light as rules allow in a single package. Anything else would be forcing riders to make a compromise on race day, and we just weren't okay with that anymore. Asking riders to pick between two different bikes is so 2019."
From the same people who mugged you off about the SL7 being super aero, when in fact it was the new wheels that were the dominant aero feature. Take away the Rapides and it's just a slightly more aero SL6.
Spec are still producing the Venge as a frame only option (I would hazard a guess until the new Venge and the wording of the accompanying spin has been drafted) so it's not discontinued.