Well, I've had a little more time with the new bike to get a better idea of it's strengths, weaknesses and form what I think is an accurate over-all opinion.
I hope you find this review useful; I'm aware that there are thousands of reviews available both in print and online for this particular bike, but I'm approaching this in a less 'here's the tech' type of way. I've gone through the process of searching for a new bike to meet my [sometimes it feels like ever changing] needs and know that while technical reviews are exceptionally handy, they tend to not really tell you what the real world experience of a real world cyclist is likely to be on any particular frameset/wheelset/groupset combo. That's what I'm going to try to do here.
In this review I'll break down the various areas of importance into subject headings and discuss those in detail prior to a final conclusion. If you have any questions after reading this post, feel free to shoot me an e-mail and I'll get back to you.
Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL 4 - Why this make/model?
When looking for a new bike, most people will have in mind what they want to achieve with the bike - commute, race, fitness, mountain biking, trail riding, track etc. I was looking to buy a road bike that was light enough to climb on, fast enough to race with and robust enough to train on regularly [daily]. This narrowed down my focus considerably to road bikes, most probably made of carbon fibre.
I then looked at how much money I wanted to spend on a bike. [I was fortunate in that I was only looking to purchase a frameset as I intended to migrate all other components directly from the road bike I was replacing. In the end I chose a size larger frameset which meant I had to replace the original stem with a shorter item. I also decided to replace the original bars, but that was more an aesthetic/weight choice, not a physical requirement as was the stem.] I decided that somewhere around $4,000 appeared to be the sweet spot for the type of fame I was looking for - carbon fibre, light weight, robust etc.
Once I had a style and budget the job got a little easier. I say a little easier because there is a vast range of manufacturers to choose from at this level - most bicycle frame makers will produce various levels of their frames with this price point sitting at or very near the top for most manufacturers.
The brands I looked at were (in no particular order): Look - the 695, Wilier - the Zero Seven, BMC - the SLR 01, Giant - the TCR Advanced SL0, Cannondale - the Super Six Evo, Parlee - the Z5SL, Bianchi - the Oltre, Moots - the Vamoots RSL, Storck - the Fenomalist, Kyklos Featherweight and the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL 4.
I looked for things like: stiffness, weight, comfort, robust design, historical success of manufacture, lab tests, carbon type and layup schedule, was professional rider feedback incorporated into the design... you get the idea - I was detailed! I even went to the extent of producing a spreadsheet with weighted scores for each brand/model that gave a total point score and one clear winner!
I must say at this point that size was a massive contributing factor in my abandoning some of the brands I had considered. Look, Wilier, Bianchi and Parlee were all immediately out of contention as they do not manufacture frames large enough for me to ride [I'm pushing 6 foot 6 inches and weigh around 82 - 83 kilos, so I'm a pretty large unit]. I would have happily ridden the Parlee Z5 SL as my wife rides an original Z5 [christmas gift from a year or so ago] and I ride their full custom Z1, but they don't make the Z5 SL (nor, in fact, any Z5) in my size. Ah well; I guess that's why they have the custom Z1!
Interestingly, not one Italian manufacturer makes a bike large enough to fit me properly. I consider this to be utterly insane, but there you have it - no Italian bikes in my future. Not that I consider this to be too big a loss to be honest - I've never really been drawn to paying the 'Italian tax'.
The remaining brands/models were considered thus:
BMC SLR 01: a lovely, lovely frame. Light, stiff where it matters most [rear triangle and stays/BB intersection] and corners literally as if it's on rails. Things that let it down: the look is polarising to say the least - people are very passionate about their BMCs and some dislike the seatstay/seat tube intersection with equal passion. I have to say two things in regards to this: it's not hard to make something stiff in the rear triangle if you're going to make a rear triangle THAT small and, when you position the junction of such a high-stress area so far down a seat tube, you're going to run into stress issues. Clearly BMC themselves believe this as they've gone to the trouble to brace this area. Unfortunately, it appears they've only bothered to brace the leading edge of this area: I've seen many, many BMCs with cracks in the seat tubes from the seat collar down to the top tube and beyond, thus destroying the frame. With all the weight of the rider sitting out over this area, it's a wonder BMC don't address this in some more concrete manner. Then again, from an engineering perspective, it doesn't seem that there's really much they can do given the current design - they've basically designed themselves into a corner where this fault is destined to keep on happening. So, the BMC SLR 01 was out.
Giant TCR Advance SL 0: big bang for buck here, but a very harsh ride and hard for me to get comfortable on the 'compact' geometry. Even when I did manage the right combination of frame size, stem length and bar size, it wasn't exactly a WOW type ride, more a 'this is what I expected it to be like' ride: pretty harsh but very stiff. Oddly, I did find a little flex in the rear stays and the fork didn't track as well as one would hope for a 'race' bike. This one was out of the running for those reasons and for the fact that it was a little on the heavy side. I'm not a brand snob and would happily ride Giant bikes - if they rode as well as other brands. They don't, so I don't.
Cannondale Super Six Evo: Great frame if a little on the harsh side. Every single ripple in the road is felt through the contact points. Fine if you're riding crits and nothing else, but less than ideal if you want to train and ride hill repeats AND race on the one frameset. It is super stiff and quite well finished as well as being light. The big reason I'm not riding this bike is that it was so harsh - that and the fact that Cannondale Australia [better known as Cycling Sports Group or CSG] have ZERO stock of large sizes. In fact, Cannondale themselves appear to be run by half-wit marketing graduates high on cocaine these days: they've never got stock and they misjudge the international market every year by thousands of units. In short, they can't supply bikes. Which is kinda weird since all they do is make bikes. Also their warranty service is UTTERLY crap - as anyone who has had anything to do with them knows. It's a pity because I truly do like the Cannondale brand and would happily ride their bikes - if not for the harshness and the... well... lack of availability.
Moots Vamoots RSL: a fabulous frameset, beautifully made and a joy to ride. It's titanium and hand made by master frame builders in the USA, so you know it's going to be compliant. It is. In fact, it's a weird mix of compliance and harshness. I found my hands getting pretty jarred up while the rest of me might as well have been sitting in an arm chair. An odd feeling. This I could live with [or, more likely, find the cause and fix it]. This was right at the top of my list and was not easy to dismiss. It finally came down to a matter of personal taste and material. I like the concept of titanium and the whole 'a frame that'll last the rest of your life', but I'm not a fan of the actual look of Ti. I also don't swallow the idea that carbon has a limited use-by date. If properly built and cared for, there is no reason a carbon frame shouldn't last just as long. Given that I was spending $4,000, I wanted everything to be perfect. The Moots was very, very close but the aesthetics and the weight finally ruled it out of contention.
Storck Fenomalist: I really, really, REALLY wanted to love this bike. I wanted to take one ride and just know that this was German perfection. I wanted it to be as light as it is and as stiff as it's claimed to be. I wanted the rumoured comfort too. In short: I wanted it all. The sad truth is that I only got one of these things: it's light. But it's so horribly flimsy, so poorly put together, so flexible that the only reason you'd buy this bike is to brag about the weight. This is not a rider's frame, this is a coffee stop cyclist's frame. Here's a fun fact: if you push your thumb hard in the middle of the top tube of this frame, you will crack through the carbon. True. In short, the Storck is an utter piece of crap and I couldn't wait to give it back. If you're reading this and you're offended: good, you should be. You should also be ashamed of yourself. Take your Storck to the nearest bike shop and beg them to sell you something better. Don't worry, something better shouldn't cost you much.
Kyklos Featherweight: There are rumours that these framesets are cheap open-mold Taiwanese frames. I don't know about the validity of that claim. The name is Greek and the bike is Italian. They're very nice, they're $5,000 and they don't fit me. End of list. For those who are looking to purchase a nice frameset who are of a slightly less... heroic stature, the Kyklos could be of interest. It's stiff, light and comfortable. I mention it apart from the other Italian frames because it's new and is drawing a lot of interest in Australia. It's most notable characteristic is it's cornering ability: it's basically on rails. It tracks beautifully thanks to the stiff and agile front end and simply loves to corner - point and go simplicity makes this frame awesomely quick in corners, light weight makes it easy on the climbs. All round, it's a very nice ride. The only down side is that this is the first model from a relatively unknown ccmpany - and it's $5,000. And it doesn't fit me.
What I didn't test… and why:
You'll note that I didn't test ride a Cervelo. With good reason. The SL 4 is known to better the R5CA and THAT'S, near-as-damned-it, a $10,000 frameset. I've already got a full custom, handmade American frameset that rides far better than a Cervelo could ever hope to do, the Cervelo isn't as competent as the SL 4, so why oh why would I part with that much cash? No, I'm not a Cervelo fan at all - I've ridden them and they have absolutely zero comfort in their ride: they transmit every single pebble through to the bars, they're not what I would call a robust build and the build quality on the R5CA was about level with everything else I was looking at. Keep in mind that everything else I was looking at was UNDER HALF the R5CA's price point! I'm not hating on the Cervelo brand, I just don't think they're even remotely worth the cash.
If you thought that was harsh, you should hear my opinion of Pinarello and Colnago. But they escape my view, being Italian bikes and produced by makers who appear to think that human life stops at 5 foot 10 inches.
Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL 4:Stiffness Redefined.Incredibly stiff, very comfortable. Those are the first things you'll think when you've finished your first ride on this frameset. The SL 3 was, let's face it, not a thing of comfort. It was a thing of speed and precision, but it did own a harsh front end that was pretty twitchy. Somehow Specialized has managed to increase over all stiffness AND comfort. The front-end comfort (relative to the SL 3 at least) is probably mostly due to the decrease in lower bearing diameter - down to 1-3/8thin. Specialized also introduced the 'King Cobra' head tube on the SL 4 (this style - the Cobra head tube - first appeared on one of their women's specific framesets) - so called because the top tube and the down tube both wrap around the tapered head tube and create a very noticeable bulge that does look like the head of a cobra when viewed from the saddle. It might be a marketers wet dream of a name for the technology, but the result is without doubt: more torsional rigidity in the front triangle. Speaking of front triangles, this one features a down tube that tapers from 55mm across at the bottom bracket junction to a truly mammoth 66mm across at the head tube. That's 6.6cm… go get a tape measure and just think about how big that actually is for a second!
These are only a small sample of the changes that have been made on the SL 4. Other things like internal cable routing (a really nice touch - more on this in a second) and hollow alloy dropouts embedded in the frame as well as utterly stupendous chain stays all come together to play their bit in a synergistic harmony of stiffness and comfort. This frame really is a triumph of engineering where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
That Specialized have managed to do all of this and STILL drop 50 grams over the SL 3 frame set is a phenomenal effort. Clearly 50 grams is small change when you're talking about a full bike, but in this world of lighter is always better, a 50 gram loss is better than a 5 gram gain.
Ride Quality.So. The frame is stiff. Great. The frame is (relatively - let's not forget: this IS a race specific machine we're dealing with here) comfortable. But how does it ride?
NOTE: A lot of how a frame rides is down to the wheel set you pick to put on the frame. That's why I tried this frame with two different wheel sets: Enve 45's and my DT Swiss RRC 1250's. I've tried to remove the influence of wheels from my review of the ride quality.The power delivery is smooth with the frame ramping to speed in a linear way - it's a fast ramp to cruise speed, but it is linear, with no sudden leaps. This is another nod to the design of the front end - keep it well weighted when you surge away from the lights and the front end will stay planted and behave itself admirably. Of course, if you plant the foot and your technique is a little sloppy, the front end will try to bite you by rising up or skipping out to the non-power side. This is a frame that rewards skill and reminds you that it likes to be dominated. Failure to do so will see you touch the floor.
Once you're at cruise speed the frame handles like a fine surgical instrument - it's been said before, but it bears repeating: this bike is a scalpel with which to slice apart a peloton. When the road points up it is a joy to be on. As we now know, I'm not a petite Spanish climbing specialist by any means, but on this frame I love to climb! Pair this frame with a lightweight wheel set and you'll happily climb all day. I shudder to think what a true climber could do on a combination like this.
Maintaining speed is not an issue - in fact, you'll run out of legs well before the frame runs out of desire to go faster.
That stiffness is evident at every pedal stroke too - push the pedals, instant go. No filter, no spongy feel to how this bike transfers power. It's a digital experience - push to go.
The BB area on the SL 3 was very stiff. We all know that. Still, I could flex it (visibly) when I was out of the saddle and giving it some. The SL 4 uses the same OSBB as found on the SL 3 (a cousin of the PressFit 30 standard), but the chain stays and that down tube take care of any potentially power-robbing flex here. I can still flex it a little bit, but that's only if I really, REALLY try.
At this point I guess I'm coming off as a bit of a Specialized fanboy. Well, I don't mind that at all: they make very nice top-end products. Their lesser level stuff is about equal to other makers if a little over priced considering their spec level, but their top-tier stuff is truly legendary.
Here's where I stop looking like a fanboy.
Niggles, Issues and Foibles.So, is all perfect in SL 4 heaven? No, of course not.
The frame set is easily upset in corners on anything less than perfect roads. It's not a huge fan of corners in the first place come to that. Lean the bike into a corner and it tracks true without issue until you need to change lines mid-corner. That's where the fun starts. I guess it's down to it's unearthly steering input response: perhaps I just give it too much input and it's doing exactly as told by my clumsy direction? Whatever the reason, it is a flighty little devil in those situations, requiring finesse rather than strength.
Oddly enough, it copes with descending corners very well indeed. In fact, it's one of the nicest, most well mannered descenders I've had the pleasure to ride.
Whilst comfort is definitely way up on the SL 3, this IS still a race specific bike. Make no mistake; you will know you've ridden 120 or 150 kilometres when you get off. As long as you understand that race bikes do not give an armchair ride, you will be pleasantly surprised by just how comfortable this frame is.
I mentioned the internal cable routing a little earlier and I've deliberately waited until this section to circle back to it. Not because it's a niggle or an issue, but more because it's a (potential) foible.
Specialized have conveniently provided those who will assemble this frame with removable internal guide sheaths that protrude from the internal routing exit points and are taped down to the frame. This makes it a snap to cable your frame. The first time. When it comes to replacing cables down the track, you'll need to cut the cable from the lever (rear brake, front & rear derailleur only) and somehow connect the new cable end to the old cable start in order to have a guide to draw it through the frame. If you don't, you'll have the devil's own time getting the cable to exit in the correct spot and an almost impossible time cabling in the Californian pattern for front and rear derailleurs.
One other thing to note for those building this frameset into a complete bike - on the rear brake cable, draw the cable through the removable sheath, remove the sheath and cut it down in length slightly before adding a few cable donuts to this sheath. Replace the sheath over the installed cable and feed the sheath back into the top tube up towards the head tube. This completely stops any potential cable twanging on the inside of the top tube. If you've ever ridden an internally routed bike that had no protection on the internal rear brake cable, you'll know how annoying and frustrating this can be.
The frameset is ready for electronic group sets if you're that way inclined, and is provided with all necessary hardware to mount said electronic group sets.
Frame Finish.
The S-Works SL 3 finish left a little to be desired if I'm being brutally honest. Yes, the paint work was lovely and the design (at least on my blue and white team Saxo Bank version) was quite subtle for this maker, but there were some down-sides. The paint was exceptionally easy to chip, the bearing race cover cap on the headset wasn't properly UV treated and so tended to yellow over time and that underside of the fork was prone to scoring a little too easily from road grit.
The good news is that Specialized appear to have upped their game on the finishing front. The frameset that I've purchased is the raw carbon/gloss hot pink/matte white version - no, it's not to everybody's tastes. The raw carbon is easy to keep clean and maintains it's finish well. The matte white on last years SL 3 tended to be impossible to clean, this year's paint seems to be of a different composition as dirt is simple to remove and it does not stain at all. The hot pink… well, it's glossy and it's paint, so that's probably going to suffer the same chipping issues as any other gloss paint on a bike.
Finish around the rear drop outs and the fork drop outs is spotless, whee's fit perfectly with no gaps or tension.
The version I got did have a small imperfection in the paint line on the rear drive side seat stay, but hey - it's a mass produced product and this is a very small (and the only) imperfection on an otherwise exceptionally well turned out frame.
Conclusion.
If you've read this far then you can guess my conclusion. I love this frame. It's everything I could want: fast, stiff, comfortable, light and well finished from a company line that has a pretty much impeccable history. If you're in the market for a frame at this level, you would be remiss in not testing an S-Works SL 4. You may not be a fan of the marque, but please don't let this put you off the ride.
The Build.
- For those keen to know what parts I put on this frame, here's the list:
- Bars: Specialized Carbon Compact.
- Stem: Specialized S-Works CLP Multi Stem (a brilliant bit of well thought out engineering).
- Seat Post: Specialized S-Works Carbon - supplied with frame.
- Saddle: S-Works BG Toupe Carbon Saddle.
- Groupset: SRAM Red.
- Wheelset: Enve Composites 45 Carbon Clinchers laced to Tune hubs.
- Tyres: Schwalbe Ultremo ZX (black and hot pink!).
- Pedals: Look Keo Carbon.
- Skewers: Tune.
- Jockey Wheels: Full Carbon - Fibre Lite
- Computer: Garmin Edge 500.
- Cages: Arundel Dave-O black (with a nice hot pink centre).
The entire bike, in a size 61 with pedals, cages, computer and lights weighs in at 6.7 kilo.
