SPECIALIZED TARMAC SL6 DISC › Robin is relishing this highly specc’d superbike
£9382
Shortly after Campagnolo unveiled its mechanical 12-speed Record and Super Record groupsets last year, I attended the launch of the new Specialized Venge. During a spare moment, I found myself lobbying the Big S’s reps to build a Tarmac SL6 Disc equipped with a 12-speed Campy groupset. The folks I was speaking to were keen on the idea and this is the result. And it’s hard to say what’s more outstanding, the frameset or the groupset.
Fully built up, the bike weighs just 7.29kg and that’s noticeable on the road – the Tarmac is fast. But it has a re!ned, supple ride quality, which allows the bike to "oat over broken road surfaces and bound uphill.
The frame’s dropped seatstays contribute a lot to its superb ride feel [1], but I’m still surprised at how well it’s able to absorb bumps with ‘only’ 25mm tyres !tted.
As for the groupset, the externally braced carbon chainset had to have 53/39 rings for this build [2], but with the 11-32 cassette you get a wide range of closely spaced gears. The shifter hoods are sumptuously comfortable, although there is a gripe: the inner thumboperated shift button requires some contortion to push from the drops (a problem the electronic EPS shifters don’t have thanks to their extended shape). But the shifter blades built into the brake levers are perfectly !ne and adjustable. As for the disc brakes, they’re impressively quiet and consistently powerful.
Whether you’re racing, training or just riding for the hell of it, this bike begs to be ridden fast. And with a spec that wants for nothing, I’m anticipating spending many happy months with it.