First-look review: Specialized Venge ViAS
By now many of you will have already seen Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan riding Specialized’s new Venge ViAS at the Tour de Suisse. It’s perhaps the most radical departure from conventional bike design that we’ve seen in years and it’s sure to be polarising.
After a claimed 1000 hours of testing, prototyping and refining the design in Specialized’s own wind tunnel in Morgan Hill, CA, the new Venge has been shaped with the goal of being “the fastest bike in the world.” It’s said that this bike was the impetus behind Specialized creating their own “Win Tunnel”. With no expense spared, it boasts a completely redesigned Venge frameset (and integrated bar/stem), Roval CLX 64 wheelset, Quarq powermeter and Di2.
The claim is bold: “5 minutes”. This is what Specialized says you’ll save over 40 kilometres with the Venge ViAS package, no matter what type of rider you are.
It’s misleading to state that the bike alone will save you five minutes. The five minute message is a way of showcasing Specialized’s “aero is everything” obsession and the product ecosystem they offer that contributes to this tremendous time saving.
We delve further into these claims with wind tunnel baselining, real world testing, and McLaren’s F1 simulators. You can read our verification of their 5 minute claim here, but in the interest of keeping this succinct, I can say right now that it’s true.
Here’s a breakdown of what Specialized says each component of this offering will save you over 40 kilometres:
Venge ViAS with CLX 64 wheels: 120 seconds (compared to Tarmac SL4 with lightweight alloy wheels) *Assumed low to moderate winds on flat course
S-Works Turbo tyres: 35 seconds (compared to Continental GP4000SII 23mm)
Evade helmet: 46 seconds (compared to S-works Prevail or Giro Synthe)
S-Works Evade GC Skinsuit: 96 seconds (compared to an average short sleeve jersey and knicks)
S-Works 6 Shoes: up to 35 seconds (compared to current S-works shoes).*Due to rider foot sizes, differing pedalling motions, the airflow over shoes is highly dependant on the rider
Total: 5:32 over 40 kilometers
As you can see, the 5 minute claim comes from an already high standard of equipment as a baseline.
Again, we verified these claims here and assessed the ride qualities of the new Venge ViAS, but for now we’ll concentrate on the features of their radically new design:
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- Chris D’Aluisio (left, with 16 years at specialized as a design engineer, and many more years with other bike companies) and Chris Yu (right, aka Dr. Speed after just completing his PhD in aerodyamics at Stanford) presenting the bike at their wind tunnel in Morgan Hill, CA.
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- The various iterations of stem/handlebar prototypes that were tested during the design process. Making the front end of the Venge ViAS as aerodynamic as possible was low hanging fruit and the cockpit had much to do with the improvements.
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- One of the Venge early prototypes. Every tube shape has been aerodynamically optimised as was the the rear triangle placement (which has been lowered).
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- Specialized tested the wheel and frame flex and determined that the the most movement occursat the 12 o’clock / 6 o’clock position. The position of the Venge ViAS rear brake was determined by this testing in conjunction with their aerodynamic testing.
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- A view of what the “Aerofly” cockpit looks like from the rider’s position. The cables for the brakes and shifting are routed internally through the handlebar, stem, headset, and frame to their respective components.
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- The Di2 junction box is mounted underneath the bottom bracket. To charge the Di2 internal battery (located in the seatpost) there is a port and diagnostic LEDs visible on the other side.
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- A view of the rear brake with the wheel removed.
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- The Roval AF1 hubs were another part of this bike redesigned for optimal aerodynamics. They include CeramicSpeed ceramic bearings. Front Spoke Count: 16, Rear Spoke Count: 21
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- Oversized bottom bracket with S-Works crankset and Quarq powermeter.
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- The fork is designed to reduce aerodynamic drag, while providing a 30% increase in lateral stiffness (over their last model).
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- The “Aerofly” cockpit features a negative 17-degree stem in an attempt to provide the optimal aerodynamic profile. And to balance out the aggressive position, the Aerofly handlebars feature a positive 25mm rise.
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- Specialized took 6 months to develop special headset bearings and spacers in order to internally house all cable routing and brake lines, which resulted in the elimination of anything being left exposed.
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- It’s not a fairing, it’s a brake…
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- The rear brake cable routing is perhaps the only clumsy design feature of the Venge ViAS. Besides being the only cable exposed (aside from the rear derailleur), it’s a lot to ask for a brake cable to be routed this way. Performance certainly didn’t seem to be affected, but time will tell to see if this design could be improved.
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- The Venge ViAS comes standard with Di2 electronic shifting and a Quarq powermeter.
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- The rear triangle was lowered with optimal aerodynamics in mind.
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- The rear brake placement had to do with two factors: Aerodynamics, and position with relation to wheel flex. According to the testing (and common sense when you think about it), a wheel flexes most at the 12 o’clock / 6 o’clock position. The position here has the least amount of wheel flex, thus reducing the potential for brake rub.
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- The front brakes incorporate a design that some might call and illegal “fairing.” But Specialized was able to get around this by creating an entire braking structure which just happens to be the most aerodynamic as well. The brakes were designed with a performance benchmark that strived to be equivalent to Shimano Di2 dual pivot brakes. Specialized said they were satisfied that they brake just as well (in terms of modulation and power). Maintenance and ajustment looked to be simple, but we’ll report back after we do a longer term review.
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- The front end of this bike was designed to have no cables showing to decrease aerodynamic drag. All cables are routed directly from the brakes and shifters internally through the handlebars, stem, headset, and frame.
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- The integrated computer mount can be removed, and takes multiple models of cycle computers.
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- The new Roval CLX 64 wheels were also redesigned with headwinds and crosswinds in mind. They were matched to work with the S-Works Turbo tyre, which on this wide internal rim width, measure 24mm/26mm wide (front/rear) Front Wheel Weight: 695g, Rear Wheel Weight: 850g
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- Chris Yu riding a prototype Venge ViAS. White isn’t available at this time, but it certainly looks like it needs to be considered.
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- A good look at the unique handlebar shape and integrated computer mount.
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- The new SUB 6 and S-Works 6 shoes. Bottom, the new Evade skinsuit
Pricing
| Model | USA Pricing | UK Pricing | AU Pricing | NZ Pricing |
| Venge ViAS Di2 | $12,500 | £9,000 | $15,499.00 | $17,500.00 |
| Venge ViAS Frame | $5,800 | £4500 | TBC | TBC |
| S-Works Evade Helmet | $250 | £170 | $299.00 | $375 |
| S-Works Evade Skin Suit | $500 | £300 | $699.00 | $650 |
| S-Works 6 Shoes | $400 | £280 | $549.00 | $600 |
| Sub6 Shoes | $325 | £250 | $499.00 | $500 |
| CLX64 wheelset | $2800 | £1700 | $1,695.00 front/$2,295.00 rear | $1700 front/$2400 rear |
Australian availability:
– SW Venge ViAS and Pro Venge ViAS will have very limited availability starting in late August
– SW Venge ViAS Modules will arrive in October
– CLX64 Wheel System will be very limited availability July
– SW Evade Skin Suit will have very limited availability starting in February (2016)
– SW6/Sub6 Shoes will have availability starting in August
– SW Evade Helmet in stock now
Full Disclosure: We would like to thank Specialized for hosting our visit to Morgan Hill, CA and providing us with this experience. Specialized has been a long time advertiser with CyclingTips.
