In the past 2 weeks I’ve done about 250kms or so on the SL8 so I thought I’d chime in with some thoughts.
Initially I couldn’t get over the asking price. $21K AUD is a LOT of money for a bicycle, full stop really. There’s just no other way to get around that, but I’ve gone from “it’s not worth it” to “the SL8 is great”, and here’s why.
I love tinkering with everything; cars, guitars, bikes, you name it. I get a lot of satisfaction from making something “my own”, but going bananas on a complete S-Works SL8 makes little sense as it’s just so good as is.
For example; The 3D printed Specialized S-Works Power with Mirror saddle is heavy at 203g, it’s kinda ugly too, but god damn it’s comfy. As much as I love the Berk saddles (on my Allez Sprint and SL6) putting one on the SL8 made me instantly realise that light weight comes at a cost, and in this case it was comfort.
The bike is just so compliant, and that’s with 26C tyres with tubes pumped up to 70PSI. I’ve thought about replacing the Roval Rapide CLX II wheelset with a lighter and shallower wheelset but they behave so well in crosswinds, they spin up fast and hold speed well too, and hey, this frame was designed to be aero, so anything shallower than a 50/60 just seems illogical to me (not to mention this is a top shelf $4400 AUD wheelset!).
See what I’m getting at? The components the complete S-Works SL8 comes with are just so good it makes little to no sense to replace anything on it. In retrospect I should have gotten a frameset to build up, which was actually the original plan but by the time I was ready to buy one there were none in stock Australia wide so buying a size 52 complete was my only option.
I have some Tubolito tubes on order and I’m still contemplating a lighter 0 offset seatpost (if R2 had a Darimo in stock I would have pounced on it by now). The 115mm Roval Cockpit combined with the long SRAM Red E1 hoods makes for a more stretched out position (the slammed stem doesn’t help either) than my SL6. A 100mm x 380mm would be perfect but Specialized don’t make it so I’ll deal.
Specialized marketed this bike as the “one bike to rule them all” and fuck me, they’re not wrong. I’ve not ridden my Allez or my SL6 since. Even in the rain I’ve been taking the SL8 out.
I met a guy recently who had 15+ top shelf bikes in his man cave, we’re talking LOOK 795, Bastion Ti, Wilier Filante, Cannondale SSE Hi-Mod, Colnago C64, S-Works SL6 Sagan, you name it, he had it and whilst he also agreed that the S-Works SL8 wasn’t worth the asking price he said he’d still pick it if he had to choose only one bike. Same with MAAP Ambasador Jen Kay who inspired me to buy my SL6 as her SL6 was her “forever bike”. She also agrees that the asking price of the SL8 is too high, but hey, it’s all she rides now as her SL6 gathers dust.
Anyways, that’s where I’m at with the bike. What a brain dump! Better out than in though, right?!
