It’s that time of year again, with the return of professional bike racing thanks to the Tour Down Under, when we start to see the first glimpses of new products that some bike brands have been working on over the winter.
Specialized has just announced it is set to launch all-new S-Works 7 shoes and S-Works Evade aero helmet next month, with this teaser image on its website. If you’ve been paying any attention to that race, you’ll have noticed some of the Specialized sponsored riders using what appears to be new shoes and helmets already.
We don’t know anything about the new products yet. The new shoes do appear to be very similar to the 6th generation S-Works shoes I reviewed a couple of years ago, with the same twin Boa dial setup, single velcro strap and reinforced heel cup. I thought those shoes were brilliant and I’m not sure what I would change in them, but obviously Specialized has made some improvements. Less weight and more stiffness perhaps?
The new Evade aero helmet has been a long time coming. The original was launched in 2013, which in the bicycle world is a very long time. Other helmet brands have been much faster paced with their rollout of new and improved helmets.
As with the new shoes, the new Evade helmet retains the key styling and overall shape of the original, but we’re guessing they’ve improved the aerodynamic performance especially now the company has its very own wind tunnel. Ventilation will likely have improved as well to make it more usable in a wider range of weather conditions.
We'll hopefully know more about these new products next month. Stay tuned.
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