Specialized S-works Tarmac SL7
Maybe you can have it all
Maybe you can have it all
In November 2018, under the cover of darkness, Cameron Piper rode the first test sample of the Tarmac sl7. The frame had arrived hours before at the Specialized headquarters in California. The project manager and his team were excited and built it up so they could take it for a spin. The company’s flagship race bike at the time, the sl6, was a little more than a year old, but Specialized had already made some significant gains with its successor. That was good news because Piper and his group had ambitious targets. “When we first started the project, we were laughed at a little bit,” Piper says. “The engineers thought it was either a good challenge or impossible.”
You might have noticed the trend with the major releases of Grand Tour, climber’s bikes this year. They are getting more aerodynamic. The story now seems familiar, but for the Tarmac development team, the ability to keep the bike light and stiff, and make it more aero, wasn’t a given two years ago. Now, Specialized is so confident that it’s nailed the Tarmac’s aerodynamics that it will effectively discontinue the aeroroad Venge next season. It’s putting its money where its tube shapes are, if you will.
The S-works Tarmac sl7 I tested came equipped with S-works Aerofly II bars, new Roval Rapide clx wheels and a green tint fade over spectraflair/chrome colour scheme, which sparkles when the light hits it just right. It’s a stunning machine. The combination of the frame, new wheels and threaded bsa bottom bracket not only makes each pedal stroke feel powerful and purposeful, but smooth – really smooth. The clx hoops are designed for maximum wind-cheating with a 50-mm rim depth on the front and 60-mm depth at the rear. I’m definitely impressed by their performance. With the bars, however, I’m a bit ambivalent. The tops are so aero that they don’t seem designed for hands, at least not mine. The Aerofly is pretty comfortable in the drops. It took me some time to find the best position for the hoods. When they were off, I felt too high and bit off balance when I was out of the saddle. I do appreciate some of the usability built into these bars. You are not 100 per cent committed to cut-once steering-tube height. If your fit changes a bit throughout the season, you can drop the stem – the two-piece aero spacers can come off easily: no need to re-hose – and run regular round spacers above the stem.
While Piper and his team were glad to meet their targets – weight hovering around the uci minimum of 6.8 kg for a complete bike, aerodynamics better than the old Venge Vais – the project manager is also happy about achieving a more intangible goal. “Often in these projects, the best target for me is to have a rider ask wholeheartedly if they could race it a few days after riding it for the first time.” He said pros would come back grinning after first rides. For me, with many bikes to test recently, I kept reaching for the Tarmac to ride it as fast as I could on my local roads.
“It’s putting its money where its tube shapes are.”