Special ed Turbo Creo SL: e-road game change?

[Elefantino]

Certainly with a $17,000 price tag for the CEO edition, it is.

https://cyclingtips.com/

People used to joke about Serottas being for dentists. Those were the old days.

https://bikerumor-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Specialized-Turbo-Creo-SL-road-gravel-e-bike-3.jpg

[AngryScientist]

With Serotta, no matter how much money you threw at the bike, at the end of the day, the rider still needed to pedal it, and it was only every going to be as fast as the guy pushing the pedals. Regardless of salary level, I can respect that, period.

I am completely anti "performance" e-bikes. I am all for electric "utility" bikes. using an e-bike to commute, run errands and as a mode of transportation and leisure are great, and reduce the cars on the road. performance oriented e-bikes that look like regular road and gravel bikes are just wrong IMO.

[cmg]

that one shows how far the mountain bike and road bike have blended into one. fugly. I'm not a fan but if one gets in front of me during a group ride i'm sure to try to draft off it.

[fa63]

I don't get it. The Orbea Gain series has a 250W, 40 Nm motor and the bikes weigh in the 13 kg range. It can take big tires as well. You can also buy a 105-equipped version for 3200 USD. What is so revolutionary about these Specialized?

[oldpotatoe]

Actually $15,500:eek:

[KonaSS]

I am completely anti "performance" e-bikes. I am all for electric "utility" bikes. using an e-bike to commute, run errands and as a mode of transportation and leisure are great, and reduce the cars on the road. performance oriented e-bikes that look like regular road and gravel bikes are just wrong IMO.

I am not in the target market for this bike, but I could be some day. There are certainly specific use-cases that they shouldn't be used in, but many good use cases too. I ride with a guy who has cycled all his life, crossed the country on a bike. Still races and gets results in his age group, but is in his upper 60s. (He looks 59 at best) On the groups rides, when the pace picks up, he gets spit out the back and is on his own. He goes faster and longer than the B or C groups, but can't hang with the A group any more. I bet he would love one of these. :banana: He is still going to get a workout, and we get to ride together.

[ultraman6970]

Thats what i was goinbg to say.... you can buy a motorcycle or a car for far less than the e-bike. Just insane.

One detail. with regular bikes you kind'a know what is going to happen pricewise after 5 to 10 years, with electric wonder what it will be. Worse than a regular bike? better?


Actually $15,500:eek:

[eddief]

https://www.orbea.com/us-en/ebikes/road/gain-road/cat/gain-m20--usa-19

Just the other day I was in the Petaluma Mike's Bikes talking to the manager about e-bikes. He apparently knew nothing about this new Specialized coming and wondered why the company was not competing with the likes of Orbea. He can't get enough Orbeas to satisfy demand. Well now Spec has announced this one and I am thinking it still won't compete with the likes of Orbea.

For better or worse the e market is busting out all over and so far I have no issue with it. Remember we don't clean up horse sh*t anymore.

[Lewis Moon]

http://i.imgur.com/QexArU9.jpg
https://cyclingmagazine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/https___blogs-images.forbes.com_carltonreid_files_2019_01_melted-mess.png

[FlashUNC]

Hey man, Serotta went away, not the dentists. They have to buy their bikes somewhere...

[Bostic]

This one looks more like a regular bike than the Trek Madone+ that I recently posted a ride review on. $17k for 26 lbs is another 10k more to drop to go from 38lbs of the Trek to the S-Works founder edition. With how I didn't have too much trouble to get 28mph on that Trek, having several pounds less to move is big. The price tag is ridiculous but then again so were those Venge McLaren editions frames.

Something to consider, not for this forum userbase, right now e-bikes are allowed up to 28mph assist. If this becomes too big a liability laws might be changed in the US to reflect the much lower speeds allowed overseas. If you don't buy one now, you might not be able to in the future.

[tuscanyswe]

28mph assist bikes have no place in the bicycle lanes we have here thats for sure.

If you have trained long enough to be able to reach those speeds with a regular bike then you have also been on a bike enough to be able to handle it in various situations close to other cyclists. Thats a big difference vs mr or mrs x that has never pedaled a bike before and can suddenly reach 28mph in traffic with other cyclists.

I wouldenta affect me since i ride on the streets with the cars anyways as its much safer to do so around here. But if those 28mph riders would become the norm or at least common then we would soon needs road and not lanes or paths for cyclists in general.

Here any assist is limited to 30km/h. They can be torqy and fast of the line but not fast. An ok compromise in my book.

[Jaybee]

Motor assist aside, I find it interesting that they chose "boost" spacing for this bike, i.e. 12x148mm rear, 12x110mm front. Loads of hubs/wheels available for the rear, but I'm not sure I've ever seen 12x110. I'm sure there are several 15x110 hubs that can go to 12mm with an endcap swap, but still kind of an odd duck size.

[pasadena]

I don't get it. The Orbea Gain series has a 250W, 40 Nm motor and the bikes weigh in the 13 kg range. It can take big tires as well. You can also buy a 105-equipped version for 3200 USD. What is so revolutionary about these Specialized?

Specialized developed a real ebike with mid-drive.
It's much better than slapping a hub drive and battery on a frame.

It's a lot of work to develop this kind of integration and once you go mid-drive, you will see the performance and ride quality is much better.

I don't have any "criteria" of what is acceptable with e-bikes.
The market will define that.
I'm excited that this may open the door for more mid-drive ebikes on the road.

I'm also all for tapping the roadie market, because it can really help people enjoy rides on equal footing.

The largest gains are in gravel/touring bikes, imo. Having e-assist on a loaded bike, on steep terrain, with the option of power... seems tailor made for multi-day trips.
With mid drive, it would make it nearly as practical as a traditional bike.