More Specialized Tarmac SL8 documents leaked online

It’s been over three weeks since images of what is allegedly a new Specialized Tarmac SL8 were leaked on the Weight Weenies forum. There’s been no official announcement or confirmation from the American brand during that time, but now further documents have been leaked on the same forum and, according to them, the new Tarmac will be "the world’s fastest race bike.”

The range of PDF files that were leaked contain a variety of information, including marketing claims, but they’ve since been blocked online. Road.cc, who first reported the documents, has also taken down its original article reporting them.

A grainy image of what is claimed to be a new Tarmac SL8 was first leaked on July 10 on the Weight Weenies forum. The quality of the image naturally raised some doubts, but further pictures of the same bike at a Soudal-Quick Step training camp emerged soon after, suggesting that it isn’t a false alarm and that a new Tarmac SL8 is likely to be imminent.

That appears to be supported by the release of the new documents, which linked through to a Specialized web domain and contained a range of information, from geometries to marketing claims, most notably that it would be “the world’s fastest race bike” and would be lighter and faster than the current Tarmac SL7.

Once again Specialized hasn’t commented on the leak or the prospect of a new bike, although they did tell Cyclingnews that they were “gratified there is such excitement and energy among riders around potential new products from Specialized”.

It’s been over three years since the Tarmac SL7 was released, resulting in the discontinuation of the popular Venge aero bike, and six years since the SL6 officially broke cover. Following that pattern, it is highly likely that a new SL8 (presuming Specialized sticks to the tried-and-tested name) will land imminently. While the leaked documents indicate that this release is close by, there is also the possibility that they could be a hoax.

If they are real, the alleged marketing claims that it will be lighter and faster aren’t surprising, but it will be interesting to learn how the bike has been adapted to achieve this.

From what we could see in the leaked images, the SL8 has some notable new features, including slimmed-down tubes and a very bulbous head tube, while both the chainstays and seatstays appear to have shed some weight.