WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU COMBINE AETHOS WEIGHT, VENGE AERODYNAMICS, AND BUTTERY SMOOTHNESS?

Building a great bike is hard. Making a great bike better is even more challenging. Yet every three to four years, brands that make race bikes for their professional road racers take on this challenge.

SPECIALIZED TARMAC SL8

When the brand is Specialized, we're talking about lots of professionals. Just to list a few, the company provides its Tarmac race frame to top European women's teams AG Insurance - Soudal Quick-Step and Team SD Worx. On the men's side, the brand supplies framesets to the BORA-hansgrohe, TotalEnergies, and Soudal Quick-Step UCI squads. And domestically, Specialized sponsors L39ION of Los Angeles.

Before diving into the new-new, let's take a moment to recognize that the SL5, SL6, and SL7 Tarmacs were-and still are-well-mannered and great-riding race bikes. Specialized's goal with the new Tarmac was to improve upon well-regarded and ultra-successful bikes.

That's a far tougher ask than improving a bike with glaring deficiencies. But raising an already-high bar was what Specialized set out to do with the new Tarmac SL8. Thanks to some lessons learned from the fantastically lightweight and smooth Aethos and the devastatingly fast Venge, the SL8 is more aerodynamic and lighter than the SL7.

The result is a bike that answers the question, "What do you get when you Aethosize a Venge?"

On paper, the results look stunning: 685-gram claimed frame weight (115 grams lighter than an SL7), over 16 seconds faster than the SL7 across 40 kilometers (derived from aerodynamic drag at 45km/h), with notable improvements (compared to the SL7) to the frame's stiffness-to-weight ratio, and a smoother ride in the saddle.

AERO FOR ALL?

Specialized touts the SL8 as "The most aero road bike we've ever made" and more aerodynamic than the now-discontinued Venge model.