James Huang over at BikeRadar captured some pics of a prototype Specialized ‘Project Black’ bike that’s looking to be a 2011 S-Works Roubaix, likely with the SL3 moniker. They’ve got a full gallery of photos (including both of these, which are ©James Huang/BikeRadar) and speculation, but here are the Cliff’s Notes on visible improvements and changes over the current SL2 version:
- Internal derailleur and rear brake housing with caps that should make it Di2 internal wiring compatible.
- Larger Zertz damper inserts in both the seat stays and fork legs.
- Seat tube gets much wider, squarer toward the bottom bracket.
- Huge downtube flows more consistently (smoothly) under the BB for larger overall cross section.
- Thinner seatstays, but HUGE chainstays.
- Miniscule alloy rear dropouts.
Specialized has hinted they’ll be showing a couple new items, including at least one frame and some tires, at Sea Otter, but I doubt they’ll be showing this bad boy off so early. The Paris-Roubaix is this coming Sunday, April 11, and the bike you see here will be piloted by Saxobank’s Stuart O’Grady. Watch the race on Versus at 6pm EST.
