Rider-First Engineered names the concept behind which the new Tarmac was developed. On Friday evening in Morgan Hill, California, Specialized founder Mike Sinyard presented the bike that is supposed to change everything again. The Tarmac will probably not revolutionize road cycling as such either, but the concept behind Rider-First Engineered makes a lot of sense and one wonders why this hasn't actually been taken for granted for a long time.
Each of the six available frame sizes (49, 52, 54, 56, 58, 61 cm) was developed entirely independently to achieve the optimal balance of performance and riding comfort. A small South American climber is a completely different rider than a Tom Boonen and has completely different needs from his bike. To meet these needs, specific targets for stiffness and vertical compliance are set for each frame size.
The forces introduced by the driver are determined separately for each frame size.
The graphic clearly shows how this has an extremely positive effect, especially on steering behavior. We are very excited about the first test drives, as soon as not only the pros are allowed to drive the new Tarmac.
The very descriptive video presenting the new Tarmac can be found here on this page.
