That's what dozens of sales does. ;-)

Arguably the worst bike launch of the past 10 years.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

That's crazy, they must be eating a lot of money on how the project was so unsuccessful.

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Team Zoot 2023

^^^^That's what I was thinking.

Only offering it as a super-pricey S-works, and having middling aero credentials (~1min. faster in an IM than the 2011 Shiv Tri) didn't help.

Since the molds were already made, seems like they could have made a lower cost option (even an intro 105 level sans the rear tank/fin).

So what is the Spech offering for the AG tri market? A 2011 vintage, rim brake frame isn't going to cut it.*


*Disclaimer: I own a Shiv tri (bought a decade ago).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

The number of triathletes who will drop 10k+ on a tri bike is pretty small. Combine that with a lot of other offerings at that price that are likely better bikes.

Do they have many sponsored (long distance) triathletes left?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were leaving the tri market and spending more resources on things like ebikes and gravel. I feel like we are that with some other brands. Giant hasn’t updated their tri bike in quite some time and Cannondale essentially doesn’t offer a tri bike at all.

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Matt

Findlay, Amberger, and Vincent Luis (but he may be more of a get on the road bike side of things). It's kind of crazy that they are just not going to be in that market, there's lots of dentists who like the specialized S.

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Team Zoot 2023

100% have to agree with you there. When I first got into triathlon I got the previous model shiv with the bladder in the frame while Craig Alexander was riding one. Specialized had transitions stacked Shivs and still have a lot of them floating around. In Australia ironically a friend of mine bought a new one in the last few weeks but apart from that I have seen two others in the flesh in Australia in all the years they have been available. Their first outing at Kona with their sponsored pros, everyones lid fell off the hydration unit on the back and was the big talking point. Overpriced, ugly and the hydration unit on the back was a step backward not forward IMO...

They would have to continue the tt disc though. Then they've got the bike the S fans are seeing at the tour - VL could jump on that with a BTA for hydration and be fine.
If it is the case that the tri specific version goes - they'll just be rationalising down to one model that covers the limited sales.

I read some time ago (but cannot remember where it was) when the rumors came up first that the plan was to focus on other parts of the business such as e bikes since the demand is extremely strong. With supply being very challenging and components are hard to get due to raw material shortages and long manufacturer lead times I don't think it is much of a surprise that companies use resources on high margin product with strong growth potential. Triathlon market certainly is not a big market share in cycling. This is the same approach companies take across all sorts of industries. Will be interesting to see though if they keep their pros and also if they keep the zwift project up and running.

Im sure spesh has valid reasons but the fact that tri market is small is not good reasoning. If a $15k tri bike has a higher margin than a $6k gravel or ebike, then some of the limited production should go there. I'd rather sell 1 high margin product and 9 lower margin products than just move all resources to the lower margin product because it sells more. The Shiv design and mold costs have been paid and it's not like they're investing in it elsewhere.

the thing was introduced in 2018. 4 years is a reasonable life-span for a 'super-bike', then you have to either update or quit

My best guess from people I know who are Specialized dealers is the tri bike sales are a low single figure % of total sales.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I remember when the new Shiv was launched and I thought 'OMG its horrible!!' and that bladder on the back was the worst thing I have been in my short time in triathlon. When I read this post I was not sad at all, I thought 'good riddance'. Wow that bike really brought out some really strong (negative) feelings in me!! LOL

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

I was wondering about that as well. With the R&D and mold already being a sunk-cost, why not just continue to milk it? If you are worried about needing the limited amount of groupset parts then just offer it as a frameset only?

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Matt

I don't believe, from what I've been told, this is permanent. It reflects the current issue with supply chain involving parts and Specialized was forced to prioritize. Tri is a small market for them so it was one of the first to be set aside.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

hard to morn the loss of a bike no one wanted to buy.

Thanks for that - I totally forgot about the dentists

I agree, I went to the Specialized web site to check on the Shiv page, and had a bit of PTSD with that rear hydration.

The bike looks fine in UCI form, under Evenepoel, et al, though.

I really find it hard to understand why on ST people just come to trash either bikes or athletes or youtubers etc. Sorry for replying to your specific post and I am not saying don't do it if it makes you feel better. Liking a bike or not is very subjective and I am biased in this particular case as I do like the bike (but also like Canyon and Scott). From my point of view though most new super bikes are looking very similar with air foils on the fork and around the seat post. Gap behind the front wheel seems to increase aerodynamics as well which is probably the most extreme on the Ku. So from an aerodnamic point of view I believe (without having exact data) that there is not much difference probably anymore between any of those top end bikes. Assuming this holds true it all comes down to subjective preferences (and in some cases getting caught up in good marketing).

In Tizzle's defense, he clearly stated he was talking about his feelings. :)

I don’t think it’s quite that easy. Generally the Uber super bikes have more molds that are then bonded together. This allows different carbon layups on different parts of the biking depending on what is needed. Strength versus aero. Where a lower end bike May half half the molds for instance.

So even though the molds may be sunk, the cost to produce the bike may still be too high due to the number of molds.

I think I saw something with Cervelo on this. It might have been from their book I don’t remember though it’s been awhile.

I think it's a public service to discuss bikes, good and bad. I'm with you on the Canyon, riding a SLX Disc for the past year and love the bike. Only quibble with it is the blue paint chips easily and the narrow aeropad width is not for everyone. (but works fine for me) I also agree with you that without data to prove otherwise, it's a wise assumption to make that different clothing and helmets will make a bigger aero difference than the aero differences amongst the top bikes from reputable manufacturers.

As for the Shiv, let's see. Expensive. (very) The hydration system simply does not work. If the cap does not fly off (friends who ride this bike ALL tape the lid closed), it still cannot be refilled in a race. This is renders it essentially useless (other than its aero purpose) The Canyon system on the other hand is easily refilled at aid stations with standard bottles handed up on any course any where in the world. Aero, convenient, and effective; the only drawback to the Canyon system is buying the proprietary hydrapaks at $40USD a pop as they are difficult to really clean thoroughly and need more frequent replacement. They are also tricky the first few times to install, but once you figure it out, it is actually quite easy to do. The criticism of the Shiv is not subjective, nor is the fact that the Shiv is very expensive relative to its peers. These are facts that in part explain why this bike has not been a hot seller despite being ridden by high profile pros and having the marketing weight of Specialized behind it. Agree the looks are subjective...and from some angles, I love the Shiv, especially the fork area from center on view.

So in short, someone in the market for a tri bike comes to slow twitch...reads how the bladder doesn't work well...and they benefit. That's what forums are for! Or they still buy the Shiv because they love it, but they go in with their eyes open about its limitations. Criticism is certainly not a bad thing!

What you're seeing is high expectations of expensive bikes. It's uncommon to hear strident opinions on entry level bikes and those bikes generally do have only small differences as they've been built to a pricepoint.
Bikes at the top end of the price range that are presented as a 'complete package' are going to get scrutinised - if any aspect of the system is inadequate it can invalidate the whole bike.
In the case of the Shiv Disc - there are the bottle usability issues and the poor adjustability of the bars - which for a lot of people diminishes the appeal, even before we get to the polarising looks.

And performance is not equal when we look at full systems. But there isn't good information on that available.

Selling a $5000 frameset that costs $600 to produce makes more money than a $3000 frameset that costs $300 to make.

On bikes like that it often comes down to MOQs on small parts
If they'd run out of any of the proprietary bits (there are a lot), they could be facing a 2 year lead time on certain items.
PD have dropped a number of items for that reason
Even if they're not facing massive delays (which would be unusual), they may not wish to sink the capital into producing MOQs of slow moving product.
From what I've seen - Specialized focus on making business decisions rather than emotive ones. So it must not stack up from a financial or lead time perspective.

In contrast, if they make an ebike it will be sold well before it lands in country.