Wooden and dead 🙁
That's my first impression of it. My other bike is an Argon 18 Gallium Pro which feels lovely and agile when you get out of the saddle, whereas, the Spec just feels really flat when you get out of the saddle. It's like it just wants to stay in one plane. It also doesn't have that sudden rush of acceleration like my gallium.
I do have carbon wheels on the gallium and conti GP 4000 S II tyres. Which will no doubt make the bike accelerate and feel different.
I am going to keep it for a bit as my plan was to use it for my commuter and winter bike. I suspect if you are coming from a cheap aluminium bike or looking for your first carbon bike then it will feel great.
Probably doesn't help, but what did you expect? Did you not test ride it?
Going from a lightweight super stiff out and out road race bike to a soft heavy adventure bike that's pretty much what I'd expect. You probably just need to ride it for what it's intended (pootling around gravel, light off road, towpaths, places where the Gallium won't go.)
That's you off Flashy's Christmas card list
It's a completely different bike.. Isn't it supposed to be errrrr.. Different?
As above, what did you expect? It's not a race bike.
You probably just need to ride it for what it's intended (pootling around gravel, light off road, towpaths, places where the Gallium won't go.)
On reflection, your all totally correct. It is a totally different style of bike and is not intended to feel like a dedicated racer.
From a functional point, I can see how the integrated mud guards and discs will make it great during the winter.
Does anyone have any experience regarding the Specialized Roubaix Pro tyres. Just wondering whether the casing on them is not very supple and some different tyres might make it feel a little different.
The tyres aren't the best. Changed mine to some Challenge Strada Biancas and, dare I say it....
[img] 
[/img]
It brought the gnarmac alive! 🙂 Look awesome, too.
Had a massive flint gash in the front one the other day, sadly. Would have killed any tyre. So, replaced with another of the same.
Lighter, suppler sidewall tyres make a real difference.
Check out one of the other Diverge threads on here. Someone was saying tyres were critical and he'd moved from the Roubaix tyres to Challenge Strada Bianche tyres (not cheap!) and it had transformed the performance.
It'll probably help a bit but it's not going to make a soft relaxed bike designed for a bit of off road adventure feel like a stiff sharp handling road racer.
plan was to use it for my commuter and winter bike.
No plans to do any adventuring on it then? Sounds like you really wanted a racey road bike with racks and guards.
Ha ha, there you go!
2 recommendations for these. Thanks. I'll take a look. I just let the tyre down to feel the casing and it does feel pretty rigid and not very supple.Changed mine to some Challenge Strada Biancas
Ummm. I am not going to pass judgement for a while, but maybe something more race orientated with discs might have been better.Sounds like you really wanted a racey road bike with racks and guards.