Specialized has just confirmed what the rumours and spy-shots from keen-eyed fans at WorldTour races over the last few months have been suggesting: it has developed a new Shiv TT bike.
The new design has already won on the WorldTour at the Tour de Suisse and scooped three national time-trial championships.
However Specialized has clearly explained the new design isn’t any faster than its previous iteration. The brand claims the new bike instead rides and handles better, as well as being around half a kilo lighter.
‘In a hypothetical 40km TT, the new Shiv TT Disc creates essentially the same drag as the previous Shiv, which is the most aerodynamic, UCI-legal bike in the world. But time trials aren’t raced over hypothetical 40 km courses,’ the brand said upon the news of the bike’s release.
‘For example, just the weight savings over the previous Shiv made the new Shiv TT 10 seconds faster in simulations of the Stage 9 time trial of the 2019 Giro d’Italia. Include the better handling, fit and acceleration of the new Shiv TT and those gains will be amplified. Giving a rider the opportunity to ride in a more comfortable and more aerodynamic position, for longer, ultimately improves the entire system’s performance.’
Handling and ride quality have been improved through the use of more truncated tube shapes – where most TT bikes push tube depth to the limit of the UCI’s rules, the new Shiv TT Disc looks to employ considerably shallower profiles, which also has the inherent benefit of shedding weight.
The feature is most prominent around the back of the seat tube, where there is clear daylight between it and the rear wheel. The frame has been optimised around the Roval 321 Disc wheel, meaning the frame is likely to lose some aerodynamic efficiency if paired with another design.
Like the brand’s latest Venge, the new frame is disc- and electronic groupset-only. Specialized says designing around disc brakes opened opportunities to make the frame faster than if it were limited by rim brakes, and that provisions for mechanical routing would have added weight and complexity at the bike’s front end.
Gearing has also been simplified – the new Shiv comes set-up as 1x. ‘For time trials we see more and more riders moving toward a more efficient and aerodynamic drivetrain with a 1x system,’ says Specialized.
‘The team specifically designed the front derailleur hanger to be removable. When it’s removed, the frame is fully optimized around aero performance since the hanger mounts to the trailing edge of the seat tube.
‘We know that, even on the WorldTour, a 2x system will be required for some TT stages and in training, so we wanted to ensure that the Shiv TT is compatible with both 1x and 2x systems.’
While you can watch the pros on teams Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-QuickStep putting the new bike through its paces on Stages 2 and 13 of the 2019 Tour de France (which starts this weekend) mere mortals will only be able to get their hands on the Shiv TT Disc from December, for the princely sum of £11,999.00.
