Specialized – Diverge – A1 – Elite vs Sport vs A1 – Groupset upgrade?

Hi there,

I am a roadbike newbie, and I am inclined on getting the specialised diverge as my first ever road bike mainly because of its versatility.

The difference between A1, Sport and Elite is due to the groupet, going from Claris, to Sora, to Tiagra accordingly. At the moment the A1 is priced at £750, the Sport at £900 and the Elite at £1100

Assuming that I have my facts right wouldn’t be more cost effective to go for the basic A1 and upgrade to Tiagra (£250) or even to 105 (£300)? The indicated groupset prices include the brakes as well so since the diverge include disk brakes i would assume that the groupset price would drop even more.

Seems like a no-brainer decision, but I am not sure I am not missing something here…

Many thanks in advance for your help.

PS The detailed comparison of the bikes can be found in the link below:

http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bikes/road/compare/#/1267-15Diverge-15DivergeDIVERGEA1/1267-15Diverge-15DivergeDIVERGESPORTA1/1267-15Diverge-15DivergeDIVERGEELITEA1/

That is really odd isn’t it

How good are specialized wheels. Sturdy but durable or built to a price with exploding spokes?

To me the solution is buy the cheap one and enjoy its cheapness

What’s wrong with Claris and 8 speed?

Normally I would expect better brakes, wheels and contact points for the increased price but it looks like you are correct in that is just the gearing that differs. In that case I would buy the A1 and a 105 groupset.

I noticed similar when looking at a pair of giant and cannondale the other day giant ultegra di2 was 650 more than standard ultegra. But the dale di2 was 1000 more than mech ultegra. But both models were same spec exactly other than di2 so i dont know where the 350 difference was decided by cannondale

It depends fussed you are about the frame color and decals:)

I came to the conclusion the Sora bike represented the sweet spot for me, as I could probably live with it for a while before switching to 105. Bear in mind if you have 11 speed in mind you may need a new free hub?

Spyrlond,in the off chance you’re looking for a 56 drop me an email, have one here still boxed for less than retail.
acidsnowatrocketmaildotcom
Cheers
Steven

All, many thanks for your replies.

@ampthill, I guess Claris is fine, and should be enough for the experience I am looking to get at this point. If needed I will upgrade to 105 at later phase… I have no clue about the specialized wheels but I would guess that they should be fairly decent if the the 1100 model (elite) caries them as well.

@GJP, Sora seems to be a sensible solution but will probably go for the basic model for now, which has a great colour as well… 🙂 Are you happy with the diverge overall?

Good point on the hub, would i need to change both of them (front/rear) if I wanted to upgrade to 105 in the future? Also is there any other component which doesn’t come as part of the groupset which I would need to change?
This additional cost might explain the price difference between the models…???

I was at Spesh HQ a couple of weeks back, and was privy to some decent information about these bikes. All I can say is, sod what kit is on it, all that does is change gear. Buy the Smartweld frame if you can afford it. It’s a superb bit of kit, I’d choose it over carbon, and most certainly over cheap carbon.

I wish I could PeterPoddy, but it goes a bit too much @ 2K…

So, I bought a 2015 Sora A1 for a silly cheap price

I have new wheels and a full 11spd 105 groupset to go on.

I have not yet bought the shifters because I am toying with the idea of ST-RS685 shifter/brakes

Any reason why these won’t work/fit?

Has anyone upgrades an A1 to Hydro brakes?

Yup – I have!

Bought a blue/black base model A1 2015. Stripped it as soon as I got home, as put the Claris group set on a mint Allez frame a mate had ( – he paid mates rates for the groupset), then bunged on a full 11spd 105 5800 groupset.

Picked up a set of RS685’s from the Germans for a silly cheap price a few weeks later, so sold the 5800 sti’s and spyres on eBay – for nearly what the 685s cost me, then a few weeks later got some kinesis CX disc V3 wheels to upgrade from the stock Axis wheels.

All in has cost me less than the sora build diverge – people were paying silly money for kit on eBay!

Dead chuffed with the build and have done a load of miles on it in 2015, a good few 100k rides and a couple of 100milers too.

A

Andy,

Any issues with fitting the hydros to be aware of? Did you use the original rotors?

I have also stuck an S-Works C-GR post on mine too.

Ha ha – I put a CG-R on mine aswell – LBS had a new but removed from bike one as the person buying the other bike thought it was too ugly……..hell, at the price I paid for I can abide the looks! Seems to work fine though!

Nope, no issues at all – really easy, apart from peeling the hoods back to bleed them has left the hoods a bit baggy – there’s a thread about them:

here

Nope – sold original rotors with the spyres and bunged on some 160mm shimano RT-76 ones. No issues with heat/fade or squealing/noise with them, so glad I didn’t pay the extra for ice-tech ones.

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I’ve done similar with my Diverge.
I bought the A1 model and upgraded to 1×11 Ultegra as Merlin were doing a great price on the kit. I fitted a set of RS685 hydraulics that I got for a bargain price in the Black Friday sales and I also uprgaded the wheels to a set of Kinesis CX disc ones.
With all of the bits that I’ve sold on and alongside the cycle 2 work discounts I got when I bough it, it’s not actually cost all that much to get it where it is now and I’m really happy with it.

Did you stick with 160/140

I think I am going to go Hydro,

I then need to try and sell all my stuff I took of it.

Its been a really fun little project and its such a cool bike.

The R685s are currently £299 at Merlin.

They had 10% off yesterday :o( gutted I didnt snap them up then.

Nope. Went 160/160

I’m loving mine – been awesome so far. Spent more time on it than either of the MTBs in 2015!

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Did the rear need any adaptors as it was originally 160/140?

Sorry for all the questions!

I stuck with whatever rotor size the bike was supplied with. No idea what size they are though!

Yup – rear needed a +20 mount. Think from memory it’s designed as a front 180PM mount (so for front 160 to go to 180)

Had a spare one kicking round in the garage.

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Does anyone know of anywhere doing the R685S cheper than £299?

Im not familiar with the German sites.

I have a Diverge Smartweld Comp 2016 and it is pretty good. Changing the stock Roubaix tyres for Continental GP 4 Seasons has improved the ride.

2016 bikes are fitted with the Specialized standard SCS hubs which will mean normal disc wheels will NOT fit as I understand it 👿

Is your Smartweld Bolt through front and rear?

Show us a pic, share the love.

Bolt through on front, 9mm quick release at back.
Rear dropout has a slot for the wheel to fit in.
Specialized are apparently going to supply new drop outs for normal wheels.

Still a stock bike but Specialized mudguards not available yet so have bodged a set of SKS commuter guards on it using the rack mounts at the moment.

Well designed bike, but ride is not as compliant as my titanium bike that it replaced.

The MKII plug and play guards are fairly easily available. Look good too.

My LBS got hold of some recently.

Any idea what the weights are between the bikes? Or what any of them are.

As above – got plug and play V2’s on my diverge. Had V1’s, they are now on wife’s bike.

Got V1s from LBS and V2’s from Stonehenge cycles in Salisbury.

a

Please find me some cheap hydros STW.

boom!

Ordered mine from them – paid PayPal, ordered Sunday, arrived at work on Wednesday!

Exchange rate works out about 226 quid plus postage

EDIT – if you select England it includes postage – goes up to about 312 euros, or 228 quid ish

Happy days!

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Andy,

That’s just leavers with no callipers.

Oh yeah – my bad!

Blonde moment – sorry!

Looks like merlin deal is the one to go for…..

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So annoyed, they were £269 yesterday!

Guys who have fitted hydros to the A1 model,

Any issue with fron end flex due to it not having the bolt through fork?

Absolutely no flex issues that I’ve noticed.

Thanks very much.

I may be able to obtain the bolt through fork through my Specialized dealer.

I wont rush to do it in that case.

Nope – no flex issues here either.

Was a bit worried coming from bolt-through MTB stuff, that it wouldn’t be enough, but no issues and worries gone now!

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Diverge / Hydro users, do I want flat mount or post mount callipers?

Thanks in advance.

Anyone?

Diverge / Hydro users, do I want flat mount or post mount callipers?

Post mount

EDIT – too slow!

Frame is post mount!

I’ve gone post mount RS-685 – although you “could” put flat mount calipers on with an adaptor (to future proof if you swapped frames down the line to a flat mount std and didn’t want new calipers) although, the flat mount shimano calipers are gopping…….

A