That was a pretty quick redesign. Full range right out of the box too; no waiting for the new design to trickle down to the lower tiers. Also, lots of color choices; maybe a byproduct of discontinuing the Ruby? That adjustable future-shock damper in the upper tier bikes looks pretty cool. Lower models have a damped future-shock, too; just no adjustability.
Just struck me that 6 out of the 9 builds have electronic shifting. No Dura-Ace mechanical option. No way to get the trick adjustable futureshock with mechanical shifting. I bet that Force eTAP build is gonna sell out fast.
good looking bike ruined by the futureshock… too gimicky for my liking
they have one without the futureshock, it’s called a tarmac
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they have one without the futureshock, it’s called a tarmac
Awe, c’mon… when you say stuff like this then folks don’t get a chance to learn the truth about how long and low bikes differ from short and tall bikes and why bike fit is important. And in terms of stack and reach the Tarmac and Robaix are no where near the same bike.
Ian
Call me old fashioned, (or cheap*)
But I really wish there was a rim brake model.
The only reason my Roubaix doesn’t say S-Works is that year was the first year that the S-Works model became disc brake only.
(*cheap because I don’t see why I should have to replace a brace of race wheels, they are fine, and even the carbon brake tracks still stop me fine.)
Call me old fashioned, (or cheap*)
But I really wish there was a rim brake model.
The only reason my Roubaix doesn’t say S-Works is that year was the first year that the S-Works model became disc brake only.
(*cheap because I don’t see why I should have to replace a brace of race wheels, they are fine, and even the carbon brake tracks still stop me fine.)
The industry is moving to disc brake only. Specialized only offers rim brake road bikes in the aluminum Allez and womens Dolce line ups, and as a dealer I think this is the last year for that. Dolce will probably just go away and the Allez should be disc only next year.
Looks like a great redesign for the pro peloton. Not sure where it slots in for the average rider though. Glad I was able to get a Ruby for my wife last fall before this redesign. In her case, the Roubaix would have fit fine, but it needed narrower bars. The much better compliance from the old future shock and the CGR seatpost made it the perfect bike for her (and other women since it was supposedly the top selling women’s bike according to Cycling Tips review).
Love that they used leftover tube shapes from the Venge development to make this bike though. It could definitely be a bike I would be interested in if I ever wanted to race on cobbles for some reason. For the dirt and gravel roads around Boulder, I have my normal road bike for the flat stuff and a gravel bike for the steep and rough stuff. But I could see some people using this as an all around bike (maybe in areas without really steep dirt mountain roads to ride).
I worked in the bike industry for a long time and traveled with both my road and MTB for various events. I still travel at least once a year to some far off place to ride.
Last winter I bought a rim brake road bike, despite knowing discs were on their way. For me, I wanted the ease of adjustability for traveling. If there is a problem with my rim brakes, I can easily fix it. I do not need any special tools/bleed kits and can find whatever I need to repair it at any shop. Nothing would be worse than flying to a destination to ride only to have to wait a week for the shop to bleed your brakes. I’ve been stuck at MTB races with a dead brake running to whoever I can to pray they will fix it.
I’ve been playing around with with the graph they posted comparing the Tarmac SL5, Tarmac SL6, the new Roubaix, and the Venge (which is a very fast bike). If you infer the scale from other wind tunnel tests and use some common values for round drop bar vs an aero drop bar… it would seem that the new Roubaix is actually a very fast bike.
I’m intrigued…
there should be a lawsuit directed at the Paris-Roubaix organizers shortly…
they have one without the futureshock, it’s called a tarmac
Awe, c’mon… when you say stuff like this then folks don’t get a chance to learn the truth about how long and low bikes differ from short and tall bikes and why bike fit is important. And in terms of stack and reach the Tarmac and Robaix are no where near the same bike.
Ian
I haven’t verified looking at the charts, but the bikeradar first look video says the new roubaix has the same geometry of the tarmac. The diverge has done so well it seems they’re letting that be the endurance-geometry option, and bringing the roubaix back to a racier option.
Personally I can’t get past that uglyness of the frame beneath seatpost. Yuck.
I had hoped you could get more tire clearance, like 40c. Guess they didn’t want to sabotage Diverge sales. I wonder if the Diverge will get a similar redesign.
I had hoped you could get more tire clearance, like 40c. Guess they didn’t want to sabotage Diverge sales. I wonder if the Diverge will get a similar redesign.
This bike with clearance for 40c tires would pretty much be a Diverge. It’s not about not wanting to “sabotage” sales of the other model, it’s about not having two bikes in the same “gravel road” market slice without having one in the classic “performance endurance” category. This bike still has a sub-1-meter wheelbase in a size 56, with 415mm chainstays. Stretching those out to make enough clearance for 40’s, and likewise lengthening the fork, would have dulled the handling.
One tack they could have taken to give the bike more versatility without sacrificing the handling by stretching the wheelbase would have been to make the forks and stays wide enough for 42c or 47c 650b’s, like Salsa did with the new Warroad or Rondo did with the HVRT.
I haven’t verified looking at the charts, but the bikeradar first look video says the new roubaix has the same geometry of the tarmac. The diverge has done so well it seems they’re letting that be the endurance-geometry option, and bringing the roubaix back to a racier option.
I don’t know what kind of crack they were smoking, but the geo’s nowhere near a Tarmac in terms of stack and reach, even taking into account that the stack figure on the Roubaix looks taller than it effectively is because of the Future Shock. While he was saying that I was shaking my head because the test-bike right behind him had a head tube that looked to be about a foot and a half long!
****** One article I read this morning suggested that there were going to be 3 sizes offered in a special “Team” geometry which is much more aggressive than the standard geometry, although I’m not seeing anything about that on the Specialized website, yet.
Personally I can’t get past that uglyness of the frame beneath seatpost. Yuck.
Yeah, the junction area between the seat stays, top tube, and seat tube is a little ungainly in appearance.
no swat box?
the swat box was a big selling feature for me for my ‘17 roubaix.
no swat box?
the swat box was a big selling feature for me for my ‘17 roubaix.
Yeah, I was a little surprised by the lack of any integrated storage solution.
Sagan geo looks to be different
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Sagan geo looks to be different
Looks more like a formatting error. Sagan 54’s showing identical geo #‘s to the standard 52’s, Sagan 56’ #s match standard 54’s, 58’s match standard 56’s, etc.
It has WAY more stack than the tarmac, but it is still WAY racier(sp?) than the old Roubaix. Thanks
If you are not riding on rough roads, get a domane or synapse, but if you are that shock really works.