2011 Specialized Hardrock 29er at Montrose Bike Shop

Bikes of the Tour de France!: Specialized Venge

HTC, Saxo Bank, and Astana all have the choice to run Specialized’s aero Venge frame, which won its very first outing at Milan–San Remo this spring. We called it “stiff and solid, an unapologetic race rig. The rigid platform snapped up legendary Italian climbs and swooped down tight switchbacks.”

Bikes of the Tour de France!: Trek Madone 6.9 SSL

Leopard-Trek and RadioShack use the Madone 6.9 SSL as their daily driver. We haven’t tested Trek’s top model for a few years, but of the kissing cousin 6.5 we said, “The ride isn't the liveliest compared with other high-end race bikes, but the stiff frame rewards your efforts with speed. And despite that stiffness, the bike was comfortable even after hours in the saddle.”

2011 Trek Lexa At Montrose Bike Shop

2011 Specialized Rockhopper Comp 29er At Montrose Bike Shop

2011 Specialized Roubaix Elite At Montrose Bike Shop

2011 Trek 2.1 At Montrose Bike Shop

2011 Mirraco Edit At Montrose Bike Shop

2011 Specialized Epic 29er Mountain Bike at Montrose Bike Shop: Stop By To See It!

Its a No-Brainer! Stop In to Montrose Bike to Watch the Tour de France with Fellow Cycle Fanatics!

Tour de France SALE at Montrose Bike Shop!

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. Click here for more on Tarmac SL4. 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,

Mike Sinyard Founder and President Specialized Bicycle Components

Trek Bicycle: Great Bikes and Environmentally Conscious

The fact is you can recycle pretty much everything. From appliances to eyeglasses, almost everything can find second life as a new material or be reused as something similar.

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

Specialized has had an extensive women's range for several years, and there are several developments for 2011. First, there's an all-new Safire full-suspension bike. To improve performance, the Safire has moved to the shock position found on the Epic and Stumpjumper FSR, with the shock oriented in line with the seatstays.

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