Product news: Sunday is the day, the queen of the classics is coming up. For this special day, more than 15 years ago, Specialized developed the Specialized Roubaix, a bike that not only got the name of the Paris-Roubaix race, but was also developed specifically for its hard cobblestone sections.
No race on the WorldTour calendar is as demanding for riders and equipment as Paris-Roubaix over 250 kilometers in total and over 60 kilometers of the hardest cobblestones make up the hell of the north. With the new Specialized Roubaix, we want to give the teams and athletes a helping hand and contribute to their success. We worked hard on this and the result is impressive: The Specialized Roubaix is said to be the most technically advanced bike that has ever been developed and is lighter than the Venge and more aerodynamic than the Tarmac.
With the "Smoother is Faster" concept, Specialized developed the FSR Suspension System, which finally hit the road with the Roubiax. For 15 years and with six Paris-Roubaix victories, the goal remained the same: to develop the fastest bike that could handle the cobblestones in the best possible way. Each new edition has become even faster and more powerful and even better to control. This also applies to the latest Specilaized Roubaix, which was built even faster and more efficiently to offer the best performance in the hell of the north or on the usual routes at home.
The aim of the damping system is to relieve the rider and not the bike itself. The Future Shock sits above the frame and ensures that you ride smoothly over bumps without losing efficiency. The adjustable spring element Future Shock 2.0 comes with 20 mm of vertical compliance. It sits above the head tube and below the stem. The second spring in the upper part of the Future Shock has been replaced by a hydraulic system with individual adjustability while riding.
Sharing the same D-shape as that of the Tarmac, the new Pavé seatpost is the first compliant yet aerodynamic seatpost. This is made possible by their special carbon fiber coating. The saddle clamp is still low (drop-clamp design), is fully integrated and therefore more aesthetic.
Due to the compliance at the front and rear, you get a balanced ride, no matter what the surface.
The new Specialized Roubaix frame is equally aerodynamic, light and forgiving. The Freefoil tube shapes are based on the Venge and are Win Tunnel optimized - the new frame is even as aerodynamic as the Tarmac SL6. The Rider First Engineered concept for the frame and fork guarantees optimum stiffness and flexibility in all sizes. The frame including Future Shock weighs less than 900 grams, which is also a real challenge in terms of weight.
In addition, the development showed more and more that the differences between two male drivers can be much larger than between a female and a male driver. This in turn means that separating bikes by gender is contradictory, outdated and insufficient. As a result, the selection of components for the bikes was no longer gender-specific, but based on Specialized Retül findings.
