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I could buy one, but I won't. Frankly, I still can't get on with the "bloated" look of most e-bikes. Not to mention the heft. Having to get a ramp to roll it on to my bike rack, or pray that the electrics work when you want it to is not my cup of tea. Electronic shifting is about as far as I will go for now. Unless i'm hit with a huge health issue and down for years and want to get back into the sport, then I will consider an e-bike.
? i sold it because that is my job!?
First they missed out with the bike itself being heavy & fat with no LT version and no real innovation.
Than they one up themselves with a "look how expensive we are" build that goes against all customer resent to high prices and general crap financial situation the industry is going through.
Nice one Spec !
I would love to know which impact Rob Roskop had since joining Spesh regarding these matters, from my pov it's not that positive. I dare to say it got even worse.
I hate to be that guy, but I've bought 2 cars this year (kids are expensive) for the cost of the Sworks.
As much as us normal folks will call this bike crazy, I bet they pre-sell at least half of them. Some people have the means to buy these... Wish I was one of those people.. But, being a bike nerd, if I could buy it, doesn't mean I would...
I am going to make a wild projection and guess that unlike the future owners of the Sworks, you can actually ride bikes.
tagline should be "coming to a paved multiuse path near you"
I'm definitely at the upper end of average at bikes
world champs pit bits vid
This might be controversial and I'm not sure how to write this without sounding like I'm stroking off Sram but man they’ve really stepped up for their athletes. The custom brakes and calipers are such a nice touch and make the World Champs bikes feel that much more special. On the flip side, Shimano seems to be sticking with pretty standard (tried and true) Saint groupsets, and some riders are still running the now previous gen XT, XTR, or still current Saint brakes. From an outsiders perspective, it really feels like Sram is the brand you’d want supporting you.
Also, anyone else notice the inconsistent crank arms on Asa's bike? In some shots they have the normal cranks on the bike but in this view they're different. New or just custom for world champs?
Cool that sram are making a big effort for their athletes but personally I think all the 50/50 colour schemes look terrible. Wasn’t working for Pivot last year, isn’t working for the syndicate or norco this year.
Frameworks knocked it out the park with the American chopper video 😂
I don’t understand this sentiment. Spec still makes a bike at a price point for you, now they add a bike that means they will actually make money and can continue making the bike you want. But then they are lame for that.
Imagine driving a Ford Focus and then you start shitting on ford because they build the GT40? Or maybe this would be more equivalent to driving an f150 XL then you whine because they build an F150 Lariat
I'm probably repeating myself but I still see more electric full suspension MTBs on footpaths around the lake rather than in the hills because they're a good way for well-heeled retirees to get out and about in comfort. The balance has been noticeably shifting over the last year or two, though.
It's understandable that people buy full suspension bikes to ride on bikepaths tbh. I don't know why suspension seatposts haven't become a new standard on hardtail eebs. Yes, they increase minimum seat height, but honestly, for the game changing comfort they provide on a hardtail eeb, I don't know why they aren't a design consideration at this point. The range of adjustment they have is pretty impressive as well. Goes from full waterbed, to barely moving on the SR Suntour one I use. I'm waxing poetic about this thing, but your average non-cyclist who rides an e-bike once a month has no idea that they exist, and that a $150 part will erase their desire to buy a $5,000 Levo to ride on the street.
Around here, I mostly see FS e-MTB on trails, self-shuttling more often than not. The hot ticket for retirees is electric fat bikes. I can hear them coming up behind me when I'm riding to the pub - an odd cacophony of electric motor at full throttle mated to the thrum of overinflated 4" wide tires - and zip past doing 40 km/h, no pedalling.
Yeah dude if you don’t have a couple e-fats hanging off the back of the RV don’t even bother showing up to the 50s diner sports bar in this town. Names like PEDALOOG and VICTROX in big silver letters on the big square downtube beam member are a bonus.
So you compare a Focus/GT40 with a Levo Al/S-Works? That's like comapring a pear with an apple. A GT40 is a total different car regarding that matter whilst a Levo in the lower Spec Config still is a Levo 4. Try asking brands like Mercedes or Ford if they could live off of their high end Models like the S-Class or the GT40. I can tell you they don't, that's why their struggling and that's the reason for the concern.
I will never forget the poor 20 year old lifty at Panorama trying to explain why the 80lb folding fat E-bikes with a 12 stack of black and chrome spacers could not go on the lift while the couple who owned them screamed at them until he allowed them to try.
I later saw them riding up the hill with no helmets at what must have been 45km an hour at full throttle.
a pear and and apple are pretty close bro
I don’t know the car stuff but I know upwards of 20 fruits.
Surprised no one mentioned the Pink site article on the new Lyrik and SRAM patent on what is actually inside that leg - "Published on August 28th for SRAM LLC, the document shows a fork with a user-adjustable bottom-out bumper located at the bottom of the fork leg. This could prevent harsh bottom-outs and act as an on-the-fly bottom-out adjustment tool."
I’m all for that Sworks. Mega price, but they’ll all sell and your LBS will do well put of it if they manage to get one. There’s a ton of sweet parts and that paint job plus the Sworks (M-Sport/AMG) badge and a few more torques from the drive unit.
Go take a look at the Pivot Shuttle LT($14499) if you want to see an actual rip off. Lots of own brand parts and low spec components (e.g. GX pod rather than XO/Ultimate). We priced it up at work and the parts even at retail only come to £8k, which leaves £8.5k for frame (with a mediocre paint) battery and DU.
You can hate on the SWorks all you want but at least its unique.
Don’t stress if you wouldn’t buy it. There are plenty of folk that buy high end cars to drive at 30mph around town and they’ll buy these at full rrp and your shop will pay its bills for another month or so. And you can still rock up with your reserve wheel that you saved £40 on because you bought it cheap online and need it trued after you cased that phat jump.
Yep - me too. Came here to see the comments about it but apparently bashing bike manufacturers for making expensive top of the range eebs is more interesting.. 🤷🏻♂️
Also wondering what role tariffs may be playing in that price tag. Perhaps they were originally planning a still shockingly expensive number and it inflated to 20 k due to the tax man.
I don't think it was meant to be a direct comparison of a Focus to a GT40. It's more about an affordable vs halo product. They'll sell most of them, just like how Yeti sells most of their special editions. People sure are talking about though, and that's the biggest takeaway. Specialized is on everyone's mind. That's the world. The Big-S is gonna be in a lot of people's minds like an ear worm, and if it results in selling more bikes, then who cares how outraged the "core" is.
To me it just seems like a bigger buttercup type thing with some preload? I don't know anyone who regularly claps out their forks enough to need a bottom out bumper, so maybe they've changed the air spring to make it hella linear?
I was about to say something similar.
Honestly I'm split,
On the one hand $20k for a bike is bonkers.
On the other hand I understand why a company like Specialized wants to build a halo product. It's about brand image and also it makes the regular (non S-works) models seem like a better deal. An $8k bike (e or normal) looks much more reasonable sitting next to a $20k model.
While none of are likely to buy the $20k bike, it's got us all talking about it...
Mission accomplished...
You already have a bottom out bumper in your fork. It's just not super fancy and is more like akin a fat O-ring. I suppose the one they introduce here might be more fancy. More like the ones we see in coil shocks, i guess. And the adjustement is just changing the location of the bumper, i guess?