2021 Venge...is it round the corner?

I was at my LBS on the weekend as I’ve been lusting over the Venge and wanted to see what they could do for me.

The answer they gave was that unless there’s one in stock in my size that I’ll be out of luck because the Venge is being discontinued. The statement was that the Tarmac is so close now, and a much better all-round bike (his words), that there’s not really a need for the Venge.

I was absolutely stunned by that statement. Maybe the SL-7 with Aerofly2 bars is only a few seconds per 40k off and that there really won’t be a need for the Venge?

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I just decided to start saving up for a 2020 Tarmac Expert Disc and they’re already coming out with a new one?! At this rate I’m going to end up buying a bike right before Shimano comes out with 12 speed…

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To be fair, after seeing the SL7 in the flesh I would be more than happy with the Tarmac.

It already looks FAST AF. It would be the better all round bike, I was looking at the BMC TeamMachine (before a Venge)…the SL7 should blow it out the water.

How did you find the position / ride difference between the two? I went with a Tarmac a few months ago but was considering a Venge originally.

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I believe the geo is the same. I noticed the tarmac felt a bit stiffer climbing and a bit better descending. Other than that I couldn’t tell a difference.

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In one of the other threads I thought there were lots of people saying how the tarmac was a more comfortable bike and easier to self adjust for tweaking fit

So guess the question is, how good/smooth are your roads and how long are your rides?

Nate rides a larger sized bike. My understanding is that as you move up to the largest sizes, the Tarmac and Venge start to feel very similar.

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I guess I’ve also seen people who race no care as much about long term comfort and less bothered by handling on rough roads. (Probably helps when you put out more power so less weight is on the seat so load distribution is different)

It’ll be interesting to see if they do discontinue the venge. My guess is not this year, but I wonder if they will think twice about developing a next gen venge.

The other question that has to get answered is the pro question: assuming the Tarmac SL7 is like 10-15 seconds slower than a current venge and it’s as light as the SL6 - are you going to make your pro tour riders slower in the sprint and only offer one model?

That’s not a easy choice. Science/winning say no. You need to optimize. Probably business-wise you say yes as it reduces you overheads if having 2 bike models to support.

Usually 40-60 miles with a 100 miler once per month or so

Roads here are pretty smooth, maybe 15% chip-seal, mostly asphalt

Right on cue:

1400g for the deep set
1284g for the climbing set

Not tubeless compatible though :frowning:

https://bikerumor.com/2020/06/03/new-roval-alpinist-clx-is-their-lightest-road-clincher-yet-rapide-clx-aims-for-fastest-all-around/

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Not as terrible as their SCS effup, but this is a mistake from the word ‘Go’.

Initial bad product that is behind the times, coupled with what we can expect is an eventual release of a TL compatible version sometime down the line (next year?), where some might expect backlash from buyers to learn their stuff is now “outdated”, (despite being outdated to begin with).

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Very doubtful they’d get rid of the Venge.

There are no affordable versions of the bike. It’s 100% a prestige line to compete with bikes like the Pinarello Dogma, it seems.

When a Bora or Quickstep rider sprints to the line for a win on the Venge it is a huge publicity boost. I think they’ll keep the Venge. 10 watts may be nothing to most of us but at world tour sprint speeds it might be a bike length at the end of a sprint.

The fan boys in my club have both a Venge and a Tarmac. I think they keep both. They could do minor changes for 2021 or 2022 and it wouldn’t cost them much at all to produce a new Venge. They could just put fancier wheels on it and call it faster. The fanboys will eat it up.

I say no Venge. I think they will make the new Tarmac just as aero as the current Venge, but lighter, stiffer and more compliant.

I also think it will weigh the same (or maybe less with these new wheels) than the current Tarmac.

From a business perspective, this will increase their margin a ton! They will cut their skus by half. It will be easier for bike shops to sell. You no longer have to “compromise” on your bike.

They can say “It’s as light as the light bikes and as aero as the aero bikes, why choose anything else?”. Pretty much the holy grail of bikes (except fo the price tag).

And for these new wheels, does anyone else feel like these are just for their WT teams? I suspect the teams didn’t want to go tubeless and they wanted some wheels for the flats and wheels for climbing that were light and disc.

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Don’t most world tour team’s ride tubulars?

You already see limited riders using aero frames. Now the EVO, Tarmac, TCR are all with in minimal difference of the most aero bike, I feel that you are right, one bike will do it all.

Also the last iteration of aero bikes were not really more aero then the models that came out in 2016. Can they scrub 10W off the 2018 models, I doubt it.

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I think they will make just the one bike. Pinarello has been on this for a while. Just the Dogma to do it all.

You’re right. It will be interesting to see if they ride these. I know there were discussions I’ve heard where they were trying to get the pros to ride clinchers.

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