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Specialised gave us a take a look at the street bikes of their 4 professional groups for the 2023 season, letting slip sneak peeks at a number of prototypes being examined as a part of their Venture Black improvement program. Official particulars stay skinny, however we’ve take a look at a brand new S-Works Turbo street tire, a brand new 3D-printed Mirror saddle form, and a few sleekly aerodynamic TT aerobar extensions. Learn on for a better look…
Specialised Venture Black prototype improvement
It’s no shock that a part of Specialised’s take care of sponsoring professional cyclists is their suggestions & testing of next-gen prototypes. However past a boilerplate reply when asking for extra particulars (under), they mentioned they “can not discuss any of our Venture Black improvement product”.
“Specialised depends on suggestions from skilled athletes in each growing and testing superior pre-production merchandise in real-world functions. With this top-level suggestions, a few of these design parts and merchandise ultimately present up in future retail product choices. We name this Venture Black.”
S-Works Turbo prototype street tire
What’s most shocking right here is that Specialised simply launched a totally revamped Turbo tire line-up final fall, together with a top-tier street racing model that they claimed to be sooner & extra sturdy, and have received a number of Tour de France phases. So what’s new?
This 28mm Specialised Venture Black prototype tire noticed on the bikes of Soudal Fast-Step’s Yves Lampert & Kasper Asgreen continues the tiny directional cornering shoulder knobs into even smaller micro dot tread throughout the middle of the tire vs. the utterly slick middle of the current Turbo.
This micro-texture file tread middle additionally seems to alter route relative to the cornering tread.
Development-wise, it appears to be the identical as the remainder of the staff’s top-tier light-weight S-Works Turbo RapidAir 2Bliss Prepared dual-compound tires. And these even get the identical molded-in label on their tan sidewall.
Maybe the brand new tread will likely be launched for the moist and changeable climate that set the spring classics aside.
S-Works Mirror prototype 3D-printed saddle
Specialised already has two completely different 3D-printed Mirror saddle shapes – the unique short-fit Energy (in two variations) and extra typical Romin Evo. Now it appears like a 3rd S-Works Mirror saddle is within the works, after the Soudal Fast-Step staff went in to dial of their on-the-bike matches with Retül.
It’s a bit tough to put the saddle inside the current Specialised line-up, however this appears like a modified model of the off-road-ready Phenom form? Entrance-to-back it is vitally related in profile to the Romin, however this prototype S-Works Phenom with Mirror saddle characteristic extra of a rounded rear, and the identical slender full-length cutout as the opposite Phenom variants.
The 3D-printed Mirror saddle prototype additionally has a way more closed-off, conventional-looking prime and sides, that solely reveals the 3D-printed honeycomb construction inside its cutouts. Which will even assist alleviate the odd floor texture subject we noticed in one of many unique Mirror saddles, and also will doubtless imply a extra typical feeling between your shorts & saddle.
Customized Shiv TT prototype aerobars
Whereas Specialised’s dramatically-shaped Shiv Disc triathlon bike advanced a double-crown fork and single-mast for its aerobar extensions, the Shiv TT Disc was fairly a bit extra constrained by UCI regulation. Even nonetheless, nearly 3 1/2 years in the past the TT bike shed substantial weight in its fully-adjustable, modular aerobar cockpit.
However professional groups can usually do higher within the free watts aerodynamics recreation.
As soon as they’ve dialed in every key rider’s ergonomic place on the bike the place they will steadiness energy output and low rider drag, there’s no use for additional adjustability. And as an alternative, they will additional optimize airflow over the rider’s outstretched palms.
Specialised’s pro-custom Shiv TT aerobar resolution has been molded to the person rider’s arm and wrist angle, with skinny padding beneath the rear a part of the forearm and grip tape beneath the palms. Every rider additionally will get a neatly built-in biking laptop mount molded into one of many extensions (typically the appropriate one, typically left). They usually additionally retain some vertical adjustability by way of numerous riser stacks.
Will any of the at present pro-only Specialised Venture Black prototypes make it to finish shoppers, too? And if that’s the case, when?
Nicely, we don’t know for certain. However the 3D-printed Mirror saddle tech began out as a Venture Black product just some years in the past, and you’ll already pop right down to your native Specialised bike store and decide one up at present.
