https://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2007...ialized_boonen

Equipment connoisseurs across the globe rejoice at the abandoning of the hideous wheels:

i like specialized bikes, but that is a train wreck. stem length: someone is compensating...
seriously though, the paint is gross and those wheels. those wheels. those wheels are horrible looking. interesting cranks.

The horror...the horror...

But what's cool is it transforms into the Mach Five and the "hubs" turn into saws that cut through the forest.

Honest.

Farg that's ugly.

i think it looks bad***

Geez, I wish I owned stock in Specialized right about now... every body and their momma is gonna want to be on those bikes once the word gets out.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/259069-more-quick-step-team-bikes.html

+1.

I can hear Phil now--"Look out...here comes Boonen...moving to the front on the Vomit Comet!"

I wonder if the Roval hubs make a cool siren noise or something...

Also, if you're going to have a big hog of a saddle like that, some color other than white might let the eye stray away from it... Use what's comfortable, but damn that's loud.

No, it's more like baseball cards in the spokes to give that "motorcycle feel"...

I don't get why Specialized painted the bike in CSC colors, and not the Quickstep colors.
Everyone hates the look of the Rovals, but the wheels are narrower than anything out there, they should keep that hub black. Many pros ride with longer stems theses days.
That crank is for training only.

Is the crank one of the Shimano ones that measures watts (with Specialized printed on the side)? If not that, I don't recognize it.

That crank actually has a centrigal clutch connected to it if you look closely. Boonen is genetically blessed and doesn't like to train as hard as others. As a result he will often just connect a small motor to the crank to power his bike when training to satisfy his sponsors. His bike is technically a moped.
George

It's not Shimano, it's SRM. They make power meters with all kinds of crank arms (SRM, Dura-Ace, Campy, FSA, and Cannondale come to mind) and it looks like Specialized has joined the club.

Weren't the Specialized cranks the ones that the QuickStep guys were throwing the chains on just by sprinting?

The crank is a custom SRM based on the Specialized cranks. It also has a Campy bolt pattern, so they can use Campy rings.

This is true. But, that was the standard specialized ones. These SRM cranks even have custom spiders that allow them to use 135mm pattern Campy chainrings. I'd say they are using these to fix the flexy crank problem... and still maintain the sponsor requirements to run the spec crank. Also, note that Boonen doesn't have the matching computer mounted on his bike.

Ah, makes sense. That's a pretty freakin' expensive work-around!

It does look like there's something on the dashboard in the first pic, though...

I finally saw one of these close up (the QS team bike, red/black/white paint job, with the Specialized crank/BB and the Roval wheels) at a local shop yesterday -- and it does look significantly better in person.

What the heck, I'll say it again.

I still don't understand the red, black, and white frames with such a blue kit. Oh well.

I love this caption of the picture of his saddle: "Saddle, no-name white (similar to a Selle San Marco Regal)."

Also, Bettini is 5'6" and rides a 49 cm frame? I've heard that pros ride smaller frames, but holy crap.

does anyone know when the trend of plastering the logo all over every sq inch of the bike will end? 'cause that'd be cool if it did.

Along with plastering said logo crooked.

It's a race bike.

when people stop buying said bikes

which, unfortunately, is unforeseeable

yes, it is. so were bikes from past decades which had dramatically fewer logos. nowadays everything has a logo slapped onto it.