For more than a decade, the Tarmac has been the flagship race bike at the top of the Specialized range. Despite a seven-year stint in which it shared the top spot with the aero Venge, Tarmac has always been the brand’s best road bike. That became even more definitive when in 2020, the brand killed off the Venge, saying the Tarmac SL7 was the ‘one bike to rule them all.’
The Tarmac SL8 is the next evolution of that bike. Launched at the World Championships in 2023, the Specialized Tarmac SL8 claims to be “the fastest race bike in the world.” It also boasted a full house in the game of bike launch buzzword bingo, being described as faster, lighter, stiffer and more compliant than the outgoing Tarmac SL7.
It’s a hero product with a price tag to match, but interestingly, at the time of launch it is cheaper than the outgoing Tarmac SL7. The S-Works model SL8 is currently priced at £12,000 / $14,000 / €14,000 / AU$19,900. That’s a full £1000 cheaper than the current SL7 for UK buyers, while international pricing is slightly closer.
Of course, that’s still not exactly cheap, but there are more affordable options in the range, with full builds starting at £6,000 / $6,500 / €6,500 / AU9,400.
A thoroughbred race bike, the Tarmac SL8 is aimed at those who want to go fast on all manner of road topography. Alongside that quote of being the “fastest race bike,” Specialized also touts it as the “lightest bike on the WorldTour,” claiming it can save 20 seconds over the Col du Tourmalet, or 4 seconds up the Poggio at the end of Milan-San Remo.
Its positioning puts it in direct competition with other flagship all-rounders bikes from world-renowned brands, including the Cannondale SuperSix Evo, the Pinarello Dogma F, the Giant Propel, and the Canyon Ultimate among others.
On the morning of the World Championships Elite Men’s road race, just a few hours prior to the bike’s launch, I had the opportunity to take the new Tarmac SL8 for a two-hour ride on the outskirts of Glasgow.
If you’re after the nitty gritty details of the bike and the development that went into it, check out my launch story, but for my first impressions of the bike, keep reading.
Design and aesthetics
Given most of this information is covered in depth in the aforementioned launch story, I’ll keep this section focused on the top-line stuff for now. When this first-ride review is updated into a full in-depth review, I will dive into the details.
The first thing…
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