Thursday, July 21, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Introducing Tarmac SL4
 June 30, 2011 Dear Dealer, As we get ready to launch our 2012 line to you—which is packed with amazing bikes and equipment—we are also super excited to give you sneak peek at a bike that will be ridden by some of the biggest names in cycling on the grandest stage. Come July 2nd, select riders from teams HTC-Highroad, Astana, and Saxo Bank-SunGard will race the Tour de France on the next generation of Tarmac: the SL4. This pure race bike is the culmination of everything we’ve learned to date about working hand-in-hand with pros: taking their insight and putting it to use designing the fastest bikes in the pro peloton, without sacrificing the ride quality we all demand. The Tarmac SL4 is the stiffest frame and complete module in the industry (torsional), and by far the stiffest and lightest Tarmac we’ve ever made, resulting in a lightning-fast machine. But, while improving on those numbers, we’ve also managed to improve vertical compliance to maintain the legendary Tarmac ride quality. We all know it’s not just the numbers, but how balanced the ride is—that is our magic. If you ask the pro riders who have racked up thousands of miles and hundreds of wins on Tarmacs over the years, they would agree. Thanks to them we’ve proven our idea that Smoother is Faster. We’re super excited for you to experience the SL4 for yourselves—and of course to see it start winning races! We’re equally excited that riders will still be able to enjoy our race-proven SL3 frames, which won last year’s Tour. This is still the bike-of-choice for most of our riders in this year’s race, and will continue through model year 2012. In fact the SL3 could win its second Tour de France, as reigning champ Alberto Contador will ride the same SL3 he rode to victory in the this year’s Giro—he’s a superstitious rider and wouldn’t even ride a special pink SL3 frame built for him during the Giro! With the addition of the SL4, our already-unparalleled quiver of race bikes gets one stronger: It joins the SL3, Venge, Roubaix, and Shiv to make by far the most dominant and diverse collection of race bikes in the industry. I am passionate about continually investing and innovating - not only to stimulate the riders and help them ride farther faster, but to support you and give you the tools to grow your business well into the future. The awesome new SL4, which will be available starting in August, will hopefully do both. As always, thank you for your continued support. Here’s hoping we win a few more stages and maybe a jersey or two at the Tour! All the best from the team at Specialized. We are here to support you to ensure our mutual success forever. Sincerely, | |
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| Mike Sinyard Founder and President Specialized Bicycle Components |
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Trek Bicycle: Great Bikes and Environmentally Conscious
Trek Bicycle announced in April that it will start full-scale scrap carbon fiber recycling at its Waterloo, Wisc. manufacturing facility, giving new life to a material that was once just discarded.
Carbon fiber is used frequently for frames because it’s affordable, lightweight and strong, but many other components are carbon fiber-based as well.
Trimmings from parts as well as accepted warranty frames are collected and shipped to Material Innovations Technologies in South Carolina. The carbon fiber is then reclaimed and used for a wide range of new applications in recreation, automotive, medical and aerospace.
Trek already partners with Alchemy Goods to recycle tire tubes, which are one of the most commonly replaced bike parts. Trek dealer stores send tire tubes to Alchemy, which uses the material to make Bontrager bags.
Specialized Updates its Saphire Womens Bike in 2011
That presented a conflict with a desire for lower standover height, but one that was neatly solved by mounting the shock in a forged pocket midway along the top tube. By tucking the shock up inside the top tube, standover height is claimed to be the lowest of any 120mm bike. The revised rear suspension is optimized for the lower shock pressures used by typically lighter women riders, with different rate curves compared to Specialized's men's bikes.
The Safire's cunning top tube construction is also found on the 100mm-travel Myka FSR. Specialized's ever-expanding 29er range extends to women's bikes too, with a 29er Myka hardtail that, impressively, comes in a range of sizes to fit riders from just 5ft tall.
2011 Specialized Allez Comp Gets a Makeover
One of the most exciting bikes shown at Keystone this year was the well-known Allez. which has been completely redesigned for 2011.
Like the Secteur aligns to the Roubaix, the aluminum Allez now aligns to the Tarmac. The geometry is identical to the Tarmac, which makes it an ideal entry level race bike.
Stiffness has been emphasized on the Allez so it should tackle road races and criteriums with equal aplomb. Its stiffness to weight ratio has been increased by 20% compared to the current model Allez, and while it's not at the level of the Tarmac SL3, it's not far off.
There are two versions of the frame: the top level E5 and the A1, which is 75g heavier than the E5.
The E5 features a 1 1/8" to 1 1/2" tapered head tube, while the A1 has a straight 1 1/8". Both frames have the Tarmac-like triangular seat stays, raised bearing placement in the fork, oversized chain stays and a braze-on rather than clamp-on front derailleur to help increase bottom bracket stiffness.
Most importantly, it's been ridden to victory in Specialized's famous Friday afternoon lunch ride, a world championship for those who take part.
Article Originally Published @ BikeRadar
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Tails of Tahoe Trails
People have come from everywhere — first the Washoe tribes, then European foreigners who evolved into “locals,” who then built homes and lodges just in time to witness the birth of the ever-absent and ever-present second homeowner. From its beginnings, Tahoe has always been a collective watering hole gravitating visitors of all sorts into its kidney-shaped orbit.
And with cyclists it is no different, Paco Lindsay knows.
Lindsay came to Truckee in 1978 and opened Paco's Bike and Ski out of his garage in 1979. The bike shop was one of the first in town.
**Continue the article @ TheUnion.com
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Montrose Bike Excited About New Specialized Venge Road Bike
There is nothing more interesting in the market today than the new engineering and use of materials in the road bike lines at Specialized Bicycle Company. The new Specialized Venge S-works is just another example of Specialized attempting to dominate road bike racing in the same way they already dominate mounting biking. Here is a recent article from Road Cycling UK about the new Specialized Venge S-Works. Pictures are compliments of Stuff.co.nz.
The rate of development in road bicycle design in the past decade, even just the past couple of years, has been outright staggering, and one of the key topics is that of aerodynamics.
Firstly, such aero developments were seen solely on time trial bikes, but recently road bikes have been getting more aero, with examples like Cervelo’s S3 or Felt’s AR showing a new direction for road frames.
Until this week Specialized hadn’t moved their top-end road frames in that design direction, but with the release of the new Venge that has all changed. When Specialized decided to pen the new road frame, they paid a visit to McLaren F1, and together the two companies worked on developing the latest frame.
It’s touted as the “world’s fastest UCI-legal road bike” and taps into the vast knowledge the F1 team has acquired through competing at the sharp end of the most high-tech motorsport on the planet.
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