Personal experience with the Roadmachine 01 here. Let me add to the “comfy” points and ride feel, which is all personal and relative to primary terrain and purposes of the bike etc. I bought a Roadmachine 01 last year just as everything was shutting down in the spring and I wish I had ridden it more before I did so. For me, it was a soft and plush ride that made me think of a stereotypical cush Cadillac. However, once things opened up again, I kept taking the bike back to adjust the stack, swap out stems, because I could never get really happy with the geometry. It dawned on me the reason why was the geometry was very similar to my gravel bike, which I was spending loads of time on and the Roadmachine had me in a similar position. I wish I did a longer test ride – and not the “typical spin around the block” as @Power13 wrote – plus somehow I missed comparing the angels to my gravel bike. (I was in kit for the test ride with my pedals on the bike and had all the time I wanted, but it got really cold and I wasn’t dressed for the sudden temperature drop, so my ride was short, certainly shorter than they expected.)
I did get compliments nearly every time I went out, it just didn’t fit my need or style. I wanted an aggressive (or “aggressive”) road bike geometry to hit the hills. The RM is really a great all-around bike for long miles but I wasn’t impressed with its climbing compared to what I was going from and probably the fact I was already doing a lot of climbing on an endurance frame (my gravel bike) and this wasn’t shining above that. That’s not surprising since it’s an endurance bike for long hours in the saddle and not a specialized climbing bike. For clarity, I live in eastern Switzerland and I wanted a climbing bike that descended better than what I had (what goes up must go down) with long miles on the flats as training rides or filler between climbs. The Roadmachine was great on flats, good on small hills, and very stable on the descents but not my fav for the long hauls up the mountains. If you’re aiming for hills (my quickie out-the-door-I-only-have-less-than-an-hour is 11mi with 1750’), I’d steer you differently and away from an endurance frame. If long, steep climbs are rare or simply not a primary concern, the RM is a great, comfortable, all-day ride. It’s a Cadilac.
Honestly, I have seen remarkably few RM’s here (maybe 3 or 4, though I may have seen the same person twice, since last year). BMC are, naturally, popular here in Switzerland and I see loads of them on the road and the big climbs, like when they close a big pass to cars for cyclists (and everyone goes up, roadies, MTB, people hauling kids in a trailer – respect – ebikes, city bikes – respect, these are usually older like in their 60s or 70s – you name it) or cycling events (AlpenBrevet, Haute Route, etc), but not RMs. But this isn’t a scientific survey by any means.
Like @FrankTuna wrote, figure out your “must haves.” The RM may be squarely in this box and if so, you’ll love it and not look back. (I replaced the RM with a Factor, a very different bike but exactly what I wanted.)
That all said, I have no experience with the Specialized.
… window shopped the bikes on the floor …
