3 rides now on the beauty. KOM on every ride ;)

love it!!

just ONE thing... why a 160mm disc rotor on back?

Excited to hear you received your bike and have been enjoying the ride!

As the industry moves to disc brake components and these components evolve, and with triathlon joining this movement, we decided to be more progressive with the choice to add 160mm rotors. Some component manufacturers are choosing 160mm rotors as the best experience for the riders - and it also opens up some additional clearance to allow for more wheel options - especially with disc disc wheels in the rear. Pushing the caliper away from the drop outs increases the clearance to spokes/hub/wheels. With a minimal aero impact in the rear, and with the added benefits noted above, it was the best decision for this platform.

since owners are now getting these bikes can you all give some feedback on thoughts on the bike other than “it’s awesome and omg so fast”? details on your thoughts on the integrated hydration, does it really handle more like a road bike than a tri bike as specialized has said?

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Hey Cameron,

Can we expect a frameset option for this bike?

I hade the ”old” shiv s-works and my first impression was that it is stiffer. I have my first 70.3 in 3 weeks. Can give u an honest say after that ;)

Had my first ride on this today. Sweet ride. KOM and plenty of PR. Fast as hell but surprisingly similar to the speed concept 9.9

Mine was delivered a good 1.5 weeks before IM Lanzarote so - obviously - I took the new ShivDisc with me and left the old, reliable ShivPro 2012 (sram force 10s, FFWD 60mm) at home.

* Got used to the synchro shifting after a few short rides. coming from a near perfect sram force setup, the DI2 synchro shift is next level though. Especially in windy/hilly conditions, being able to shift on the base bars is really nice. Not to win minutes, but it means comfort and that’s want you want on the 180k bike ride.
* My 'feeling' with the new ShivDisc compared to the 2012 Shiv is that it is much 'stiffer'. I'm probably not using the right word as I don’t mean stiffer frame only. It just feels like everything is 'bolted together better' and that results in the feeling that it's much faster.
* Cross winds: I trained with the 2012 shiv in Lanzarote earlier in the year and the crosswinds often were pretty terrifying (up to the point I needed to hit the brakes on certain straight descents midway). On race day, with the ShivDisc, my <feeling> was that it stood up much better to the crosswinds. Again, a feeling but I remained confident pretty much all the time and I had the impression that the forces on my front wheel were much less compared to the 2012 shiv. To me, "it cuts through the wind".
Never had the impression that 'the sail' aka the rear hydration unit was pushing me around in crosswinds.

* Either my old FFWD wheels are 'end of life', or those new Roval 64 wheels reallly 'turn frictionless'. Driving on a flat road, stop pedalling and the bike seems to keep on going much better. Again, a good feeling that it is better than the old one. Probably not a surprise given that the ShivDisc has premium components all over the place and that it's brand new. But I clearly notice the wheels turn much better.
* Brakes... OMG.. the brakes on my 2012 Shiv are so shitty I nearly had to start braking at the top of a descent in order to get it stopped at the bottom of the hill (my friend's new canyon TT with rim brakes pretty awesome too so its not that rim brakes are bad in general,... just my rim brakes ;-) ). So for me, the stopping power of the ShivDisc is insane. I'm sure it saved me at least a minute or two on the bike leg of a long Ironman.. On faster descents (70-80 kph), i did hear a strange noise coming from the brake system (like som parts were about to fly off off the bike). Either i need to have this checked or its normal.. don't know. On one descent, the rear brake starting making a really loud noise to the point that it was somewhat embarrassing. The noise went away on the next hill descent though.
* Fuel Cell - Hydration Unit: This was the biggest change I had to get used to in the 1.5 weeks before the race. My race setup ultimately consisted of the fuel cell for 5-6 gels and three salt tablets, an xlab torpedo mounted on the TT bars, a xlab gorrilla cage on the down?tube and the rear hydration unit.
Fuel Cell: Easy to stick my repair kit under the fuel cell, that's good. The fuelcell itself, although it is positioned lower than the xlab 'poche' i had installed on my toptube on the 2012 shiv, is easily reachable. Happy.
Hydration Unit: For me, this is the only part on the bike that I think needs improvements. The lid doesnt stay fixed so I had taped it for the race. Refill on the go is next to impossible (and I dont think it was designed to do that). But that means that you have like two bottles of fluid in there and once you’ve emptied it, the rear hydration unit is 'useless'. And for me, two bottles is 2 hours in what ended up to be a 6u30 bike ride. I noticed on instagram that Braden Currie tried a hack wit an inverted bottle pouring liquids right into the hydration system . It confirms a bit that other people (even pro's) also think the hydration system works well but a good refill option is not available. So for the remaining 4u30, i used the xlab torpedo and downtube cage to refill and store liquids.
Inserting my hydration bladder and connecting it to the 'drinking tube/hose' is really difficult as it seems the bladder is a bit short. Tried all sorts of things and with some 'pressure' you get the bladder connected to the hose but it is far from user friendly. I don't think its going to last long. Well, in fact, my bladder is leaking already - bummer. Drinking from it, however, is a pleasure. So ideally, I want to refill on the go and connecting the bladder to the hose much easier.

* Case - Flight: I used a hard case before and the soft case looks very fragile at first. I was really anxious to put my brand new, premium bike in such a case. Removed pedals, loosened the cockpit, took off the rear derailleur and taped it to the inside of the frame. I didnt remove the saddle/seat post as I thought leaving the rear hydration unit on there without any 'cushioning' would leave it very vulnerable to breaking off . So I lowered the seatpost so that that would absorbe an impact and not the plastic hydration unit. again, dissambling the hydration unit is a bit of a pita. Removed the arm pads as well from the cockpit. Wheels fit nicely. Lots of extra room to store my helmet, spare parts, bottles etc. Weighed 25 kgs so well under the 30kg limit that my airline uses. Bike made it to and from Lanzarote in one piece! Most stressful moments of the trip I admit :-)

best bike review EVER.

thanks so much for taking the time to write all that up!!!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

The brake noise is mostly like due to expansion heating and is completely normal. Mountain bikers have tried a million things to improve the issue with but it’s just one of those things.

Brake technique is a big factor and you need to learn not to drag to brake but rather use shot intense pulses when riding discs. (A quick google will pull up lots of videos on the topic). On mountain bike people have also moved to larger rotors but that isn’t a solution for you.

Good review...thanks! Aside from the bladder being sort of inaccessible to refill on race day, are you happy with your purchase? Anything else you've uncovered during rides with it thats worth noting?

I hesitated alot to put it up on ST :-) My first review ever and triathletes are not an easy audience, damn perfectionists :-) .

I'm really happy yes. Now, I must admit I only have Specialized bikes (1x shiv disc, 1x shiv pro, 1x venge, 1x stumpjumper, 1x allez ) so it would be really difficult for me to say this bike is anything other than impressive :-) Plus i'm not an expert biker, i ride since 2016.

But I love taking it out for a spin, even if it's a 2u30' LSD, recovery ride. And in the end, that is what matters to most riders. Great if it can win races like Lucy C or Braden C show... but I love to ride it day in and day out.

The only thing I'm sort of uncomfortable with is people staring in your direction but ultimately look at the gorgeous bike :-) Lot's of people took photos of my bike at an IM event and not my friends brand new BMC TT disc .. I rest my case haha!

Ah, and the build-in powermeter is more inline with my Tacx Neo and my coaches' Kicker as compared to my old Garmin vecto paddles so that's great too!


But i'm curious about other owner's and/or experts first impressions! And if people recognize the very small/tiny cage holder that fits between the rear hydration unit and the saddle.. i'm looking for it.

Update: Specialized kindly notified my that i was doing it wrong.. very wrong! Here's a link to the cockpit and hydration unit installation procedure: https://vimeo.com/325542736 Hope this can prevent fellow shiv disc owners from making the same mistake. Thanks!

Hi Cam -- Can you guys share a stack/reach chart, which shows the X/Y coordinates possible with the various sizes. I see you guys have some kind of sizing tool online where you measure your current bike against a wall, but it was WAY off (suggested a Small for me, when I'm most likely a Large, maybe Medium) given I'm X=480, Y=640.

Cervelo's "Bike Size and Setup Calculator" is the great, since it even shows you how many spacers/etc you'd be running, but even just a simple chart would help.

Have you a black 2019 Shiv? You pass me in Mirador de Haria with your shining SWorks it’s marvellous!! 😍

any one here have any info on when we might see additional models released? Looks like the limited edition version is down to only a few left...

I’m still not getting any concrete delivery information from my LBS. They are saying not even Specialized Canada knows when the bike will ship. Do you have any insight on shipping for Canada? I was initially told it would be here in April, then May, then June, then July, and now “sometime in August” was my last update.

id be pretty mad if i paid $14k and was told a specific delivery date and that was pushed back like that.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Is that the special edition one? Weren't they all built and in stock?

It was for the special edition one. I ordered and reserved it when it was revealed last year.

FYI
The stock Shiv and S-Works will be released later today

It's a beautiful bike! I was so happy it was delivered in time to take it out 'for a spin' across the Lanzarote island :-) I hope you had a good race too!

Here they are https://www.specialized.com/...ikes/c/roadtriathlon

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that pink / yellow paint...

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I love that red one!

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/