2021 Specialized Diverge released

Hi @DaveWh
Yeah headset cap is the stock FSA which looks to be about 7mm

Centre of crank to seat is about 75.5cm.

This is with the 20mm spacer taken out and the 80mm stem on.

Here’s a table comparing saddle to bar vertical and horizontal distance of the 54 and 56 Diverge, with the two setups of your Cervelo.

Do you have a fit you are targeting on the Diverge? e.g. matching the 100mm or 80mm stem setup on the Cervelo? Something in between? Less aggressive than either?

All-in, I’d probably say go for the 56… unless you are targeting a saddle-to-bar drop in the 8-10cm range.

image

Note: Its probably worth checking my calculations on your Cervelo my measuring your current saddle to bar drop. The calculations in the table are to the center of the bars (tops), so the drop to the top of the bars will be a little less.

And another caveat - I’m not a certified bike fitter. I just know how to do geometry (I think!).

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That is awesome info thanks. I will cross check it on the Cervelo to check. And 100% accept your not a bike fitter!

I have only ridden a gravel bike a few times, so wasn’t to sure on what is favourable for them with the longer rides, with regards to stack and reach.

I feel a little stretched out when on my Cervelo, that is why I have been trying to the 80mm stem. I’ve ridden the last few years with the 20mm spacer and 100mm stem, but have been looking to get a little lower to get more aero.

I certainly don’t think I would want any lower drop than my Cervelo, but a shorter reach would be nice.

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I’m 5’9” and ride a 54 on the Diverge. Fits perfect. I’m in between 54 and 56 on a Trek Domane, and chose the 56 (It fits fine, but if I had a do over I’d have chosen the 54 so I could maybe hand it down to my wife!).

For a more relaxed gravel fit vs your Cervelo, I’d guess the 56 Diverge could work well for you. If the downturned stem is not relaxed enough, flip it, and saddle to bar drop would be 5cm, with horizontal distance of 67cm.

One thing to note about the Diverge is that the stock carbon seatpost is setback. So you’ll likely need to slide the saddle forward to compensate.

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Hi Dave,

We are finally starting to see some stock of the Diverges come back into our LBS, albeit still minimal. I missed out last year.
Just seeing how you have enjoyed your Diverge now you have had longer term.
Is feeling good speed wise on the road?
Future shock been kind to you?
Comfortable on the gravel?

Kind regards
Gg

The Diverge is great. I really like it.

Best things are:

  1. It can fit big tires. I rode with 45mm tires for much of last year and I bet I could fit 50mm on there also (Specialized “official” spec is 47mm tires as max width).

  2. The future shock. It really works. The only thing you notice is less vibration through the bars. I thought when I got the bike there night also be a squishy feel to the bars when riding on smoother roads. There isn’t. Maybe might notice something if sprinting, but I don’t sprint on my gravel bike!

  3. The swat storage in the down tube. It’s a little gimmicky, but it’s really nice to fit all spares + tools down there and not have to hang an extra bag somewhere on the bike.

  4. The GRX drivetrain and gearing. Works very well for the type of terrain I ride.

There’s other features I haven’t needed yet - like additional water bottle mounts, rack mounts, etc. But I may use these if I do some long bike packing trips this summer.

The combination of big tires and future shock make it really smooth on gravel.

On road, the biggest driver of speed will be the tires you put on it. For the first couple of months I was riding it, I had the stock Pathfinder Pros on there. These have a slick center tread, and felt pretty fast on the road. After getting the Diverge, I contemplated selling my road bike. But who ever heard of n-1!

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Hi Dave,

I picked up my Diverge last night. Didn’t get a chance to test ride before buying so it was a sleepless night wondering how it would ride!

I did a 45km tarmac ride on it this morning, it felt really great. Super comfortable and plenty fast, averaged 35.8km/h. So I can imagine with aero wheels and faster tyres it would be comparable to my road bike.

Thanks for the input to this thread, it was really helpful.
Regards Gg

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You need to ride it on gravel in it’s next outing!

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Congrats on the new ride.

Just curious as to how easy it was to get your hands on a Diverge - waitlist/availability (I assume from your username you are in Oz?) The diverge is definitely on my shortlist.

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Hi,
Yes, in WA.
I wasn’t preparared to buy one without it being in stock or go on a waitlist. So I periodically went to the shops to check stock out. So I walked in yesterday arvo, saw one on the floor and purchased it.

I was prepared to buy the diverge or Aspero depending what was in stock.

Regards

Thanks for the info. Enjoy your new ride.

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I picked up a Diverge this past weekend, the Pro Campagnolo LTD version in size 56. I tried a size 54 of the previous gen for comparison and felt a bit cramped in the drops. My road bike is a Ridley Fenix size M with a 130 mm -20 degree slammed stem for comparison.

Originally, I was planning to wait a bit longer before buying and test ride a couple other bikes. I was also considering some custom options, like the Seven Evergreen. But the Diverge felt so good and I was worried enough about it being sold (the stock of Diverges seems pretty limited nowadays and they seem really popular) that I ended up going back and buying it after agonizing about it at home for an hour :stuck_out_tongue:

I’d been riding a converted steel road bike as my gravel bike so it’s kind of an unfair comparison, but the Diverge feels incredible on both asphalt and gravel. It’s super stable but still feels really agile - so, so fun to ride. It seemed to me like the faster I went, the more comfortable the ride got.

It was a lot faster on asphalt than I was expecting it to be, like @DaveWh mentioned it’s probably due in large part to the stock tires having the slick tread down the center. I’ve heard that this can cause some wheel slip issues in wet conditions (something I’m not too likely to encounter in San Diego).

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How’s the Ekar stuff?

@Power13 I love it. As a caveat I have Campy on all my bikes (Chorus on my road bike, Centaur on my steel bike) and am very used to the ergonomics and thumb shifting, and strongly prefer the feel of Ergopower to the Shimano and SRAM brifters. This is also my first disc-brake bike, and my only comparison was riding a SRAM Force equipped bike, but the Ekar brakes seemed to have better modulation and were a lot quieter. Compared to my Chorus bike the shifting feels a little more clunky but that may have to do with the bigger jumps due to it being 1x. I do miss having multi-shift. It feels a lot better than Centaur though, which is probably unsurprising.

Dave - I’m also a 56cm Domane (90mm stem) rider & looking at a Diverge. The Geo tells me I want a 54cm Diverge but the Spesh Concept Store tell me I need a 56cm.
I’ve had a detailed bike fit & apparently I have long legs & short body at 5’11". I ride with saddle at 78cm above BB centre.
I think I need a 54cm but I’m concerned I might have too much seatpost out. What do you think?

56 all day

They actually have longer reach for comparable sized bikes to most other brands.

Specialized did that along the lines of the longer reach MTB concept, and paired the Diverge with a shorter stem to keep the effective bar position the same despite the longer frame reach.

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I was in the same boat, between the sizes. Really glad I got the 56. 54 would have been way to cramped for me. With that said you well never know unless you ride both,
Fwiw I have my saddle a little lower on the diverge compared to my road bike.