An exceptionally smooth ride, but it might be road bike overkill for some
Words James Spender Photography Joseph Branston
This is generation seven of the Specialized Roubaix, a platform that debuted in 2004. Great fact, I know, but in searching it out I came across something that I think really is interesting: a 2009 review of an S-Works Roubaix SL2. Its price? £5,499.99. Insane money. But now?
This all-new Roubaix SL8 is £6,000. OK, so it’s not the S-Works version – that is insane money at £12,000 – and it weighs a kilo more than that SL2. But it does have disc brakes, wireless gears, carbon rims, a power meter, tubeless tyres, front and rear suspension and aerodynamic tube profiles.
Then, another fact: the average price of a pint in 2009 was £2.83; today it’s £4.87. Anyway, food for thought. And on to the review…
Shock news
It seems like such a cliché now, but the new SL8 is less a bike re-engineered and more a bike refined. Take the Future Shock front suspension, the aspect for which the Roubaix is famous.
Now dubbed Future Shock 3.0, it looks very similar to Future Shock 2.0 and mechanically it pretty much is, producing 20mm of suspension. But there are changes – it now comes in three guises. This Roubaix Expert (and £5,000 Roubaix Comp) gets Future Shock 3.2, a coil spring with hydraulic damping that sits between head tube and stem. The Pro and S-Works models (£8,000 and £12,000) get 3.3, the same internals as 3.2 but with an adjuster dial on the top cap that changes spring rate from soft to firm. Meanwhile, the basic and Sport models (£2,500-£3,250) get Future Shock 3.1, a spring with no hydraulic damping.
The big differences between 3.0 shocks and 2.0 are that the pre-set sag (the amount the unit compresses under normal load) is reduced and the tuning dial has gone from 12 increments to five, because feedback was that each increment didn’t feel like enough of a change previously.
Every bike comes with three springs, soft to firm, based on rider weight, plus preload washers that can be inserted to change sag. While there is no adjuster dial on my test bike’s 3.2 shock, it is possible to open it up and change the spring rate with a couple of tools – something Specialized recommends getting a dealer to do (in contrast to changing springs or tuning sag, which it says can be done
