The Specialized Tarmac has been the go-to road bike for road racers for years (minus the short-lived Venge period). It absorbed the aero personality of the Venge in the SL7 iteration, and embraced the do-it-all attitude of the modern road bike in the SL8. After spending time on the Tarmac SL9, I can say without a doubt, it is the clearest vision of a performance road bike from Specialized, and thats no accident.(Photo/Jordan Villella)(Photo/Jordan Villella)But how far can you push a single model before it becomes unrecognizable or alienates its core audience? Specialized has walked this line with nearly every key bike release this year, and its been a big year for the Big S. Theyve launched new versions of nearly every pillar bike in their catalog. Each has given the rider a clearer vision of the bike and its performance, while keeping the bikes core identity intact. OK maybe the Crux 5 took a left turn into full-on aero-gravel, but you go where the money is, and as much as I wanna admit it, cyclocross isnt pushing tech and purchasing like gravel is. But I digress.(Photo/Jordan Villella)One Rule: Dont Mess It UpThat sounds simple: keep the model aligned with what attracted riders to it in the first place, but times are changing, and so are bikes. Every new Tarmac has to be lighter, faster, stiffer, smoother, more aero, more comfortable, and somehow not ruin the ride that made people like the last one. (Photo/Jordan Villella)The new S-Works Tarmac SL9 is Specializeds latest answer to that impossible brief. On paper, the bike is more aero than the SL8, and built around Specializeds new favorite performance phrase: Time to Finish. Its also more compliant and adds only 2g despite its newer, more aero-shaping. Above all, it thankfully looks very much like a Tarmac.I was lucky enough to get some time on the S-Works Tarmac SL9 with a SRAM RED build before the official launch, and though our time has been brief, the performance stands out.(Photo/Specialized) Specialized Tarmac SL9 First Impressions First off, if youre looking for all the ins and outs of the tech and details of the new Tarmac SL9, check out our news piece here. This piece will cover my first impressions of the ride on the Tarmac SL9, but not all the tech crammed into the bike.(Photo/Specialized) Frame Details The Specialized SL9 has a clean silhouette, and the design team steers clear of over-aero-brutalizing the frame. Nothing is worse than seeing an update of a bike you loved only to be hammered over the head with an over-engineered windsail. The Tarmac SL9 keeps the core frame look of the SL8, but its more of an evolution than a redesign.Ok, its great that the frame looks good, but how does it ride, and, more importantly, will it be enough to entice riders away from their beloved SL8?(Photo/Specialized) Ride Impressions My first time out with the Tarmac SL9 was on the unfamiliar roads around the Costa Brava in Spain. The roads are flowing, with plenty of mountain-pass-style climbing and descending, perfect for getting to know a new bike in testing.Ive been riding the Tarmac SL8 for some time, and I feel very aligned with the machine. Like, when youve ridden a bike so much that handling feels more like an extension of your body. I was afraid that the new Tarmac SL9 would take that away, or at the very least, over-index on the aero-super-bike thing. Kinda like how they took the Crux to aero-gravel heights. (Photo/Specialized) Like Home In the first few minutes of my first ride with the Tarmac SL9, I felt at home. Not like, this is exactly like the SL8 I have at home, but like a I could get used to this feeling. Kinda like all the inputs were turned up slightly. The acceleration, the stiffness climbing, and the control descending. All of it made me want to push the bike faster and further into the red. Riding in Costa Brava offers beautiful landscapes and twisting, high-speed descents. I feel right at home on the SL8 railing down familiar roads and descents around the USA. However, descending in Europe, on coastal mountain roads, is different. The turns come fast, the roads are narrow, and they have an odd way of tightening at random apexes. On one review ride, I found myself alone plummeting down one of these high-speed passes. I was met with a barrage of chicane and tight turns. I learned a lot about the new Tarmac SL9 while trading pulls with Specialized Director of Road, Alex Jerome. (Photo/Specialized) I felt like I had an extra second of processing to pull myself out of peril; more clearly, I wasnt fighting the bike. It wasnt telepathic, but I felt confident in my reflexes at that point, more than I felt on road machines that I know better.The SL9 felt stiff and powerful in the turns, especially when leaning and accelerating out of turns. Everything felt a bit more on the nose than with my SL8. The handling (which Specialized calls telepathic) is very much like the SL8.(Photo/Specialized) How About Climbing?The SL9 still has that familiar Tarmac snap. Stand up, put a little anger into the pedals, and the bike moves immediately. But sit down and churn out the watts, and the bike feels stable, responsive, and, all the while, comfortable. Being comfortable on a performance bike is commonly overlooked, but when you find one that walks the comfort/performance line, you know it. The SL9 is damn near every bit as comfortable as the SL8, with a leaning toward slightly more, but a flashy paint job can play tricks on the mind.Thats comfort been the calling card of the modern Tarmac platform, and Specialized wisely didnt mess with it too much.(Photo/Specialized) The SL9 is claimed to hit the same stiffness and compliance targets as the SL8, which sounds like marketing until you ride it back-to-back with the previous bike. The new bike has more shape, more aero intent, and a slightly more serious visual presence, but the ride is still clean and familiar. (Photo/Specialized) Climbing Weight? So, the new Speicalized Tarmac isnt lighter, its actually 2 g heavier. But, as Specialized explained at the launch of the new Evade 4 helmet, weight isnt everything. For the helmet, they didnt chase weight; they chased aerodynamics and cooling all to make the rider perform better. The Tarmac SL9 operates similarly. Yeah, the bikes not lighter, but damn if it doesnt feel really good on the climbs. Because uphill performance isnt just a weight-only thing (or at least thats what I keep telling my bathroom scale), its a combination of metrics.(Photo/Specialized) On the rolling-in-the-saddle climbing efforts, the Tarmac feels planted and responsive. The bike moves with minimal input, thanks to the Roval Rapide CLX III wheels. Because the frame is only a part of the equation, bikes are systems now, and the overall performance is a better representation than the frame alone.On a climb where youre giving it the business, steep, all-out sprinting efforts, is when you notice the slight difference from the SL8. The updated frame has a stiffer, more direct feel, a more connected feel to the bike.(Photo/Specialized) Aero Gains Feel Calm No DramaSpecialized says the SL9 is 4 watts faster than the SL8 at 45kph, which is the kind of number that sounds both impressive and impossible to feel unless youre riding with a superhuman wind perception. But the ride sensation is there, just not in a cartoonish I suddenly gained 30 watts way, but a it feels faster way. Maybe its all the small things, but there is a calmness when youre high-speeding on the SL9. At speed, around 35-40kph, the SL9 feels composed. The front end is quiet, and getting in a nice aero position is effortless. The bike holds momentum well, especially on rolling terrain where youre moving between seated pressure, short rises, and fast descents. Theres a smoothness to the way it carries speed that feels more meaningful than a single wattage claim.(Photo/Specialized) The revised front end is a big part of that. Specialized narrowed the head tube with its updated Speed Sniffer shape, and the stout fork adds to the sensation. The result is a front end that looks cleaner and more purposeful, but on the road, the bigger story is how planted it feels at speed.Some aero bikes feel like they want you to stay low, stay straight, and avoid too many turns. The SL9 doesnt. It feels fast, but you can still ride it like a road bike.(Photo/Specialized) SRAM RED Is The Right MatchMost, if not all, of my drop-bar bikes are SRAM; it didnt start that way, but it seems the industry tide turned slightly, and this is where we are. The SRAM Red E1 is one of my favorite groupsets in memory. I love the lever feel, the braking, the ease of battery swapping/charging, and the power meter. The S-Works Tarmac SL9 comes in a Shimano Dura Ace Di2 version, but if I was offered my choice of the two to test (which I was), I would choose the SRAM version. The SRAM RED Quarq power meter is a big checkmark in the SRAM builds column, but the same goes for the brake lever placement, feel, and ergonomics. The shifting is crisp, and troubleshooting small imperfections in the indexing is easy to do while on the bikeYeah, the SRAM RED groupset has some faults, especially with lever slippage with certain bar combinations (especially on gravel). However, that seems to be coming to an end, especially now that Ive been put on theMotorex Carbon Paste (thanks, Steve K).Hopefully well see a new road groupset from Shimano sooner rather than later, because as of right now, SRAM is dropping them on new bike specs. Overall, the full build feels properly top-shelf, which it should. This is S-Works territory. The expectations are high, and so farmet. (Photo/Specialized)What About the SL8?The Tarmac SL8 is still excellent, and its kinda hard just to leave it in the wake of the new SL9 dropping. It reminds me of the Epic 9, and suddenly were supposed to abandon this awesome bike we have in the short-lived Epic 8.The SL8 didnt suddenly become slow because Specialized found four more watts and put a fin on the back of the new one. If you own an SL8, theres no reason to walk into the garage and apologize to it. But the SL9 does feel more complete at speed. The front end feels calmer, and it carries momentum beautifully. It climbs like a lightweight race bike and descends like a gutsy one. Its not a giant leap, but the SL9 is slightly more refined, and at this level, refinements are the whole game.(Photo/Specialized) Lasting ImpressionsThe S-Works Tarmac SL9 SRAM RED is exactly what youd expect from Specialized when its operating in full race-bike mode. It is undeniably a Tarmac, and Tarmac lovers will know that from the first ride. Is it wildly better than the SL8? No. Its gonna be pretty hard for Specialized to compete with the already great bike that they have. Is the SL9 faster, more refined, and more complete? From a handful of rides, yes, but that doesnt mean its time to take your SL8 out to pasture. The SL8 is an awesome bike, and its nearly everything of the SL9, but if youre a gram chaser and a gain maxer, youre gonna want this bike. Price: I feel like this is obvious at this point, but the S-Works Tarmac SL9 is a performance road machine, designed for the top tier of the peloton. So yeah, it has a $14,500 price tag, and its kinda lame, but its exactly what wed expect. Hopefully this tech will come down in price soon, and more can experience the wonderful ride of this machine. Full review to come. Specialized.comThe post First Impressions: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9 appeared first on Bikerumor.