Bike World News

Specialized rolled out their 2009 road bike line earlier this month. I’ve long been a fan of Specialized bikes and really like their products, and I’ll be eager to get my hands on them at Interbike. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

For those of us who are not riding bikes for a living, Specialized offers the Roubaix line. All new for 2009 is the S-Works Roubaix SL2. The SL2 effectively joins the lower section of the Tarmac SL2 with the upper section of the Roubaix SL. The result is the mythical “perfect balance of stiffness and vertical compliance.”

The bicycle includes some features which are becoming more and more common, especially for 2009. The head tube is tapered, with a 1 3/8″ lower bearing and a 1 1/8″ upper bearing (everyone will be buying their headsets from the manufacturer now). The bottom bracket conforms to the new BB30 standard, which allows for both the down tube and the seat stays to be considerably wider and stronger. I haven’t seen the bike in person yet, but from the pictures, the seat stays look about as big as the down tube on a steel frame!

All of these changes result in a 21% increase in rear triangle lateral stiffness, 12% more bottom bracket stiffness, and 9% more in the front end, all in a package that is 40 grams lighter than its predecessor. The Roubaix stills includes Zertz inserts in the fork and seatstays and promises a cushy, yet fast ride for the non-racers.

Other Products:

Specialized used the opportunity of the Roubaix SL2 launch to introduce some other products:

• Specialized will introduce tires for Road Tubeless setups and will also roll out compatible wheels in their Roval line.
• The already popular Pro Road shoe has been made lighter and also feature a thinner sole. The foam-filled heel now has a synthetic liner and the heel tread is replacable. The shoe weighs 550 grams in size 42 and will come in widths from narrow to wide (yeah!).

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