Tarmac....
The LBS invited me to try out this S-Works Tarmac for a few days. Interesting frame: The bottom section (painted red) is the E5 Aluminum spine with the upper section in carbon. It’s equipped with DA 9v, ‘04 Ksyrium SSC/SL, the S-Works carbon bar and Pave seatpost. I replaced the Specialized saddle with an Aliante and installed Speedplay X/1 pedals. The bike weighed in at 16.8 lbs as you see it (Size X-Large/60cm)….
It’s a pretty nice ride. Stiff enough through the driveline with quite sufficient dampening up through the saddle. The handling is pretty neutral, perhaps even a little slow, but a better fit for me would have been one size smaller. The larger size should be expected to feel a little slower….
All the bikes in my stable have 172.5 cranks. I got on this one, rolled the cranks over one revolution and said ‘These must be 175 cranks.’ Second revolution: ‘No doubt about it: 175 cranks.’ Sure enough….
The Carbon bar: I loved the flat top segment and hated the hooks. The last couple of years, I’ve taken to non-ergo shallow drop bars (Italian bend), so while I don’t necessarily have any aversion to ergo bends, that one section that bends up into the palm didn’t do it for me at all….
The computer is a Specialized Elite wireless. It worked for about ten minutes before becoming an RNG (Random Number Generator). After another hour or two, it read 0.0 mi/hr when the bike was rolling at anything over about ten or twelve mi/hr.
I like this bike. I’d change a few of the components, but I certainly wouldn’t boot it out of my stable…. ****/5.
Here’s the Specialized page with the frameset equipped for ’04 (DA 10v)…