"Speaking with my internal buyers they’ve confirmed that unfortunately we will no longer be producing this bike going forward. There has traditionally not been a ton of market support for us in this relm of cycling and with continued issues in supply chains between us and groupset manufacturers we have pushed resources towards Tarmac and Aethos going forward.
I do apologize for being the bearer of bad news on this front"
Is the shiv disc really dead after only a few years?
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.
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.
Arguably the worst bike launch of the past 10 years.
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…
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.
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.
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.
My best guess from people I know who are Specialized dealers is the tri bike sales are a low single figure % of total sales.
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
The Shiv design and mold costs have been paid and it’s not like they’re investing in it elsewhere.
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?
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.
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.
Thanks for that - I totally forgot about the dentists
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).