It's pretty cool that the day I started creating this blog that Specialized has released information on their new triathlon bike, the Shiv, which for a quite a while is going to get confused with the Shiv TT (which used to be called just "Shiv"). To me what's the most exciting about it isn't that it's a super fast time trial/triathlon bike (there are quite a number of them on the market), but this is a strictly designed as a triathlon bike and takes an aspect of completing a triathlon that has largely been ignored, or disregarded in bicycle design . . . HYDRATION.
For many if not most triathletes that are going to $3000 or more on a bike they are looking to at some point do a half ironman race or a full ironman race. This means at a minimum of two and a half hours of riding, one waterbottle mounted to the downtube just isn't going to cut it. The new Shiv will store water in bladder (similar to a Camelbak) in the down tube of the frame. A hose extends from the bladder up to the handlebars, near the end of the hose is a magnet which attaches the hose to the extentions when not in use, keeping it out of the wind and improving wind resistance. Keeping the hose out of the air might not seem like a big deal, but the straws that extend out of front mounted waterbottles are terrible for aerodynamics. They have also set it up so that you can refill the bladder from a waterbottle during the bike. This may seem trivial but if you looking to get a really fast bike and them you have to throw 2, 3, or more water bottles on the bike, it's certainly not going to be as aero as you'd like.
For many if not most triathletes that are going to $3000 or more on a bike they are looking to at some point do a half ironman race or a full ironman race. This means at a minimum of two and a half hours of riding, one waterbottle mounted to the downtube just isn't going to cut it. The new Shiv will store water in bladder (similar to a Camelbak) in the down tube of the frame. A hose extends from the bladder up to the handlebars, near the end of the hose is a magnet which attaches the hose to the extentions when not in use, keeping it out of the wind and improving wind resistance. Keeping the hose out of the air might not seem like a big deal, but the straws that extend out of front mounted waterbottles are terrible for aerodynamics. They have also set it up so that you can refill the bladder from a waterbottle during the bike. This may seem trivial but if you looking to get a really fast bike and them you have to throw 2, 3, or more water bottles on the bike, it's certainly not going to be as aero as you'd like.
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