I’ve been gawking at a Facebook Marketplace listing for an Italian made BASSO x MAAP Diamante rim brake bike, it’s been listed for a while now and the seller has recently reduced the price. It blows my mind that it hasn’t sold (I think it’s gorgeous enough to hang on the wall as art), then again there’s a couple of Specialized S-WORKS SL5’s for sale that also don’t seem to be selling. I suppose nobody wants a rim brake bike anymore these days?
I’m still set on a Specialized S-WORKS Tarmac SL8 frameset (I mean come on, 8 is my lucky number!), but the $9,500 asking price for the frame alone is something I just can’t swallow (and even if I could I’m not sure I love any of the currently available colours enough).
I messaged the seller of the BASSO. I hate to waste anyone’s time as I semi-knew I was 50/50 on the bike, but after a brief back and forth I told him I’d sleep on it and only bother him again if I was sure on the bike. I slept on it, then I slept on it for another night, and another, then yesterday morning a size 52 S-WORKS SL6 popped up on Marketplace.
Apparently the Specialized S-WORKS Tarmac SL6 is the last and best rim brake Tarmac Specialized have (and will) ever make (it was universally praised on launch and some even go as far as saying it’s the best rim brake bike of all). The listing was made by someone who was selling it for a friend who wasn’t on Facebook (who the hell isn’t on Facebook these days?!). The pictures weren’t great, and the seller was selling the bike along with a billion accessories; a Garmin 520, lots of tubes, C02 canisters, a spare short cage SRAM Red rear derailleur, a helmet, shoes and more (IE: it looks like the seller had quit cycling for good!).
The asking price was $4,600 negotiable. I messaged the seller, and got the phone number of the actual seller. I sent an SMS yesterday morning to say I’m interested to come look at the bike, but by late afternoon I hadn’t heard back. I called the number instead and got voice mail so I left a message, and later that night I got a call and we organised for me to come look at the bike the next morning.
This morning I drove out to check out the bike, and first impressions were GREAT! I couldn’t care less about the components, my main goal was to thoroughly look over the frame and the frame looked as good as new.
Turns out the owner was a super chatty guy. He bought the women’s frameset (it’s actually Unisex) as it was the only frame available at the time and he had the bike built up and serviced by Chris Schofield at Velo Tech Centre, then Covid hit and the bike was never ridden again. IE: He has not ridden the bike for 4 years, and the bike has been sitting in his garage gathering dust since the pandemic.
He insisted that I take the bike for a spin. All the batteries were dead, but air went into the tyres just fine, and off for a spin I went. Surprisingly the saddle height and 100mm stem felt fine. The bike was stuck in an easier gear but I tried my best to stamp out of the saddle multiple times to see if there was any creaking coming from the press-fit BB, no creaks. The sound of pads on carbon rims sure sounds wild though (terrible, actually!), but apart from the brakes, the bike felt farkin’ fast.
We ended up chatting a whole lot more about the state of bicycles, how expensive the new S-WORKS Tarmac is, and the slow death of rim brakes. I ended up showing him the listing of the BASSO that I was interested in (now dropped to $3600), and that the listing for that bike, and many other great rim brake bikes were still up with no takers. I let him know that I’m probably more of an outlier in that I like bikes that others might not be so interested in, and that for $4,600 more people would probably take a brand new SL7 Sport over his old SL6.
We started talking price, and in the end I got it for $3,900 with batteries, charger, cleats for the pedals and spare SRAM Red short derailleur (I negotiated the helmet, shoes and all other misc items out from the final sale).
Pretty happy she’s now mine!
Next step is to give her a good clean (though she’s already pretty damn clean!), replace the batteries in the shifters. I don’t own another set of road shoes for the Look cleats, so I’ll have to figure something out (maybe SPD’s for my other pair of shoes for now), replace the saddle with my S-WORKS Power saddle, maybe bin the cages for the super light AliExpress cages I have in the parts bin and then (after a few rides!) I’ll start planning a build with the aim to at the very least get the bike into the mid 6kg’s.
SPECS: 2018 Specialized S-WORKS Tarmac SL6 “Women’s” (Unisex size 52) in Satin Gloss Monocoat Black/Acid Purple/Rocket Red Fade.
GROUPSET: SRAM Red e-Tap, ROTOR 3D crankset (172.5), Power2Max Power Meter, Praxis Works Chainrings (53/39), Campagnolo Direct brake calipers, SwissStop pads, Shimano Ultegra cassette (11-32).
WHEELS & TYRES: Zipp 202 Firecrest Carbon Clinchers (32mm), Zipp Aero skewers, Continental GP 4000 S II (28mm).
COMPONENTS: ENVE Aero stem (100mm), ENVE SES Aero handlebar (420mm), Look KEO Blade Carbon pedals, Specialized Power Comp saddle, ENVE K-Edge computer mount, TWE carbon water bottle cages, Fabric bar tape.
WEIGHT:
7.47kg