yeah because logic and common sense shows you that it's a fairing with a non-refillable bladder.

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But the bladder by definition is an independent sealed system save for the opening to fill it. It’s heavy when filled and certainly won’t bounce out of the carbon fin. The leakage must be attributed to the fill system not fully sealing. I agree it’s absurd to consider this an on the fly refill solution but nothing I saw suggested that’s what they were going for. In regards to the lid my Canyon has a cover for the in frame storage area and I always tape it down. If you hit a hard bump all stuff live this will go flying often regardless of how well engineered.

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If Specialized is adamant that the reservoir is not to be filled on the fly, shouldn't they have been all over Tim Don when he posted the photo of him filling it on his instagram page?

I hear ya. I actually don’t mind the bike and some of my negative comments are obviously hyperbole but it seems this entire bike was designed around the piece of plastic you refer to. When it is removed the bike looks ridiculous. So, I think calling it a little piece of plastic is under-stating it at least as much as others may be overstating the problem. Specialized has a problem maybe they didn’t expect—people will try to or want to use this as a refillable reservoir. The fact they they didn’t intend for it to function as such is sort of irrelevant now. They should—and hopefully will—put a little more R and D into figuring out a solution.

To be clear, the little piece of plastic I'm referring to is the lid, not the entire fuel cell. I honestly can't imagine that it would take a lot of engineering hours to figure out a more secure closure system for that lid to keep it from popping open and flapping around.

The fact that I saw several interviews with athletes talking about how they can fill it on the fly would seem to run counter to the narrative their product people are pushing. I've been part of sponsoring products in the past, albeit tangentially, and product people basically give you a script of the things you are and are not supposed to say about new products. If several athletes are saying you can refill it on the fly, then the product people more than likely gave them that leeway. If they knew it couldn't or shouldn't be refilled, you can be almost certain they told the athletes not to say you could.

Nobody's "shitting" on the bike. It's not ready for consumer market, that's all.

Fix the lid. One was flapping, and two others taped theirs down. Also, if one of them seemed to have to secure the bento with something as well. That indicates a poor design of that particular part. Not defective...I never used that word...just poor design. Not paying $14k for a bike with parts I have to tape down so that they stay together.

Also, the down tube bento seems to preclude down tube hydration (there are no bottle cage bosses there), so now they are sticking it way out the back end in the air flow because it has to clear the existing hydration box. Don't you see that as a problem? It's a triathlon bike, and would be expected to perform in long course/IM racing. Your only other option is a seat tube bottle, which is generally an aerodynamic no-no as well.

For those with significant hydration requirements, it seems to force into some very limited decisions that incur elevated aerodynamic penalties over other designs.

From a practical racing standpoint, this design has some limitations vs. some other designs, to my view.

On the other hand, it definitely has some thoughtful, forward thinking designs, such as the Di2/Etap box provisions in the nose cap to facilitate clean front end set up .

With regard to using a BTS setup with the bike, what I saw in the photos was more than one athlete riding the wrong size (too large) frame. Charles couldn't even get her saddle low enough to get a decent fit on the bike, and at least one other person (don't care enough to go look through the photos again to ID who it was) also seemed to have their seatpost slammed as low as it would go. II would think that, if riding a properly sized frame with enough seat post, there would be no problem getting any sort of BTS setup back there that didn't interfere with the fuelcell.

I think you meant Charles? Ref was fine....and on a Felt.

Oof... my bad.

No problem. I think most everyone knew what you meant. I thought you'd like to edit that.... :-)

You can get an after market device here to fix the issue here...

https://www.amazon.com/Travel-Urinal-Drainage-Container-Trucker/dp/B0195W6JX0

So $15k for a 10s advantage that hold two bottles & isn’t intended to be refilled?

Suckers!

you make a good observation about the seat height...

Does this mega shark fin prevent the seat post from being lowered to certain height? Sure no one "should" have to slam their seat, but those bottle cages hanging off the bank look pretty close to hitting.

Meh who cares about a hydration cover. There's a 100 ways to fix that easily. We should ask if they fixed the BB cup which wore out requiring a new frame, or the seatpost lugs that pulled out requiring a new frame. Both happened to me. It's a widespread problem judging by how many people complained about those defects just on this forum.

Really though? Its spesh, they will market the hell out of it no matter how big the mistake.

this post made me laugh out loud. Well played. I agree. The tank is terrible. I rode a Shiv tri for 2 years and the fact that the bladder was super easy to refill on the fly made that bike for me. This sucks.