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TECH NEWS
Specialized unveils new S-Works Venge ViAS aero road bike + video
It’s no secret that Specialized has been set to release an update of its Venge aero road bike, with both Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan spotted riding an unusual and unfamiliar looking bike at the Tour de Suisse recently, in preparation for the Tour de France starting next weekend. This week, though, Specialized has officially unveiled the new Venge ViAS, which the US company proudly declares is 120 seconds faster over 40km than a Tarmac SL4.
The new Venge ViAS is the first bike to be developed in Specialized's own wind tunnel (it calls it the Win Tunnel). It doesn’t appear to have much in common with the previous Venge, with a completely new front end and a smaller rear triangle; the seat stays now meet the seat tube well below the top tube, a result of every “tube shape and trailing edge” being scrutinised to make the new bike faster.
How fast? Well Specialized set the lofty target of making the new Venge as fast as its own time trial bike, the Shiv.
“It’s always about speed,” says Chris Yu, from Specialized's Aero R&D. “How can we make the bike faster? So when we set out to design the new Venge, we told ourselves it wouldn’t be worth it if we didn’t hit a pretty aggressive target, and that target was to be as fast as our own time trial bike.”
Let’s go through some of the key details then. The big talking point are the brakes. Specialized is calling them Zero-Drag Brakes and they are proprietary integrated brake calipers which, it claims, create a “near-zero drag coefficient.” Specialized says the front brake completes the fork’s trailing edge, while the rear brake drafts off the seat tube and water bottle mount.
The brakes are located in positions of minimum wheel deflection, it claims, to eliminate the potential for brake rub during sprint efforts and provide better braking performance, something of an Achilles heel for many aero road bikes. Our bet is that it's partly down to feedback from Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan, both capable of causing enough flex to produce brake rub, the last thing you want when sprinting for the finish line in a race.
- 12 of the fastest aero road bikes
Integration has been a popular buzzword in road cycling over the last few years, especially when it comes to aerodynamics. If you’re trying to design a bicycle to be as aerodynamic as possible, it makes sense to consider the bike as a package.
“We designed it from the ground up, taking into account every last component, designed to work together as one, so it’s the most cohesive package that I’ve ever seen,” adds Chris Yu.
So Specialized has designed a new handlebar, stem and wheelset for the new Venge. With the new bar and stem, called the Aerofly ViAS cockpit, the cables are 10 per cent internally routed. They pass through the new handlebar and into the stem, with a series of special spacers with cable guides routing the cables from the stem into the frame.
The new stem is only available in a -17 degree option to “provide the optimal aerodynamic profile”, but the Aerofly handlebar will be available in a flat or 25mm rise option so racers can get the right fit and position. It has also developed a custom Garmin Edge mount and the Shimano Di2 junction box is concealed within the handlebar.
Specialized has also sought to improve the handling and has increased the lateral rigidity of the fork by 30 per cent, while keeping the frontal surface area to a minimum. The frame also uses the Rider-First Engineered technology that ensures each frame size is fully optimised for different height cyclists, as first debuted on its latest Tarmac last year.
Specialized has also developed new CLX 64 wheels which, when used with its S-Works Turbo tyres, it claims is the “fastest road wheel/tyre system [it has] ever developed.”
The new CLX 64 is a carbon fibre clincher wheelset with a 64mm depth and 21mm internal rim width, and a profile optimised for head and crosswinds. The rim is tubeless-ready too. The hub shapes have been optimised in the wind tunnel and are packaged with DT Swiss 240 internals using CeramicSpeed bearings. The wheels are built with butted and bladed spokes.
Specialized reckons its 24/26mm front/rear Turbo Cotton clincher tyres provide lower rolling resistance than a typical tubular tyre. There is data to suggest a high quality clincher tyre offers lower rolling resistance than a tubular, and Specialized sponsored racer Tony Martin has used this tyre in time trials going back to 2014 - and before that in 2012 raced the world champs, and flatted, on Continental clincher tyres.
The new Venge ViAS looks to be a hit with Peter Sagan, who punted the new bike first over the line in stage six of the Tour de Suisse, the maiden win for the new bike.
“I’m excited to bring my new Venge to the Tour," he says. "I rode it for the first time in Tour de Suisse and I won a stage on it on the first day. I guess you don’t get a better start with a new bike than that. Of course numbers are important but that is the work of the engineers - for me the ultimate test comes when I’m on the bike. How does it feel and is it a winning bike? It looks great and I have already won on it, so it will be great to have at the Tour."
A dream debut for Specialized then. The new Venge ViAS is expecting to ship in August 2015, and we’ll have more details on pricing and models soon.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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41 comments
Slowly it starts sinking in that the looks of the Venge Vias will never turn me on. An ugly duck, full stop. Specialized have gone too far this time and I would be surprised if it would sell!
If the Di2 junction box is inside the bars, and its internal battery - how do you charge the Di2?
Looks like fantastic bike, I've expressed an interest but want to see it first and apparently customer orders are coming out before store stock, plus the stores have to send someone on a course to be trained in how to assemble it
What I've found interesting though; Cav and Sagan have used it in the tour. Then they switched to their 'old Venges'. It was mentioned that they are lighter so better in the mountains (although that doesn't really work as I bet all TdF road bikes weigh precisely 6.8kg's). So why wasn't either on the ViAS for stage 21?
14% Less blabla 17% more blabla it's Just a 2013 WILIER 101% AIR
really impressive looking bike and great marketing, they have an interesting story behind the new bike
I never like the old Venge, I found it very uncomfortable in the rear and vague handling in the front, especially when cutting turns
really interested to ride this new bike, and see what the handling is like, because from the time I have spent recently on a borrowed Giant Propel Advanced Pro, I've realized you can have a very quick, but comfortable and well mannered aero bike
if Specialized have managed to do that, and have what they claim is the quickest aero bike, it will be a sweet ride.
Great looking bike. If (big if) I had one wouldn't know whether to ride it or display it on the wall. Wouldn't want to ride on the tops for long!
never see so clean cable routing of road bike yet
When they test aero bikes in the wind tunnel do they have them sitting stationary or do they replicate the side-to-side motion real cyclists follow?
Don't like carbon, don't like aero, hell, if it doesn't have cotter pins it's not old fashioned enough for me. But that thing is gorgeous.
Where's the mudguard eyelets?
I'll take 2; with the new SRAM wireless I also wont be able to afford
My back would never take that slammed position anyway!
Road riser bars. #soenduro
Oh, it's so logical to do away with wires which spoil laminar airflow! Every airplane aficionado knows that the reinforcement wires between the top wing and lower wing on old biplanes were creating lots of drag. As a consequence the modern biplanes did away with them as soon other methods of building rigid wings became available. I am really excited about the new Venge, although I was expecting the new rim brakes to be hydraulic. Does anyone else believe that it will eventually be introduced?
Thing is the Tarmac SL4 isn't the latest Tarmac.
Can we get a comparison outside of the spesh family? How fast is it relative to the Canyon Aeroad? How fast are those wheels relative to something made by Zipp??
In the video they say its 50seconds faster than the leading rival (although they don't mention that rival by name !)
By their own figures, a straight race between someone with hairy legs on this and shaved legs on the 'leading rival' should be reeeeally close...
What a great idea. Why don't road.cc hire a wind tunnel (those are a dime a dozen obviously), get their hands on the yet-unavailable Venge and pit it against the Aeroad? I would particularly like to see the latter fitted with the FSA electronic groupset, which doesn't exist yet.
Really?? I was maybe hoping that Specialised could put their machinery up against real alternative options. If I'm worried about saving time over a flat 40km course, why the hell am I riding a Tarmac SL4?? It would be rather easy for them to compare to the old Venge, that would be a better comparison, but presumeably the numbers aren't quite so impressive.
Previously, they've said that the old venge was 59 secs over a tarmac...
The only thing that interests me it's that this looks miles better than the original. IMHO of course. Was never keen on the hump backed look of the original.
Looks like I'm in a minority. It maybe be aero but it's pig ugly.
"just because they could they never stopped to think whether they should"
My thoughts exactly.
I absolutely love it.
lol
I think this is outrageous !
This specialised bike is far too advanced for it's time ! someone should ban it ! Where is the UCI when you really need them.
What about all those poor people that spent all their hard earned money on a road bike with disc brakes ?
Plus the cycle trade was making a mint out of those people buying road bikes with disc brakes. I mean bike shop owners have families to feed don't specialized care ! so what if the bike shop owners did secretly know that internalised brakes in the front and rear forks were bound to be come into reality sooner or later.
Look this bike has come too soon and miles before the hype around disc brakes for road bikes had had a chance to reach a full crescendo with all bike shop owners getting a chance to make loads of money out of those sucked into the hype of buying a road bike with disc brakes.
I can only sympathise with those now wondering how they can get rid of their road bikes with disc brakes. I am pretty sure once people see this bike most won't want a road bike with disc brakes.
Specialised haver really put a spanner in the works now with this bike !
But don't worry innovation for bikes has not ended yet. There is a lot more that can be done to improve bikes, I mean never mind electronic wireless gear changing what about mind reading gear changes ......... I am not joking the technology is there for this to happen.
Ha! Love it!!
I must admit the position of the brakes looks really good - so much better than the under the BB mount some companies are going with...
what a sensational looking bike though.
Interesting they only ever talk about DI2 - of course Astana run Specialized with Campag, presumably the new headtube / stem / bar interface ( which I think looks terrific) would have to work with EPS controllers too
Don't worry they have allready started working on the disc version. And it's more aero, way more - their wind tunnel says so. The new version will also be 517grams for frame and fork, they have highly accurate scales that can measure to 1/100th of a kilogram.
And its proven performance, Tinkoff, Astana, and Trek factory racing all ride their bikes
The UCI page that shows approved frames lists this as Venge RIM so looks like a disc version is well on the way.
We hear you, but where do you stand on road bikes with disc brakes (and I won't accept on the pedals as an answer)...
Shut up an take my... oh, nevermind, there's no way I can afford this
Seriously though, this is sexy as hell and it's great to see them really taking aero to the next level (and probable limits given the regulations they work within). I love the attitude of aiming to make it as fast as their TT bike, now they'll have to make that even faster to keep it's market place
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