This week’s big Zwift update includes the welcome addition of several new bike frames, including two versions of the highly respected Tarmac SL8 from Specialized. Today we’ll look at the in-game performance of the S-Works Tarmac SL8, since it’s the fastest of the four “production” frames added this week.
You’ll need to be updated to game version 1.86+ to see the S-Works Tarmac SL8 in Zwift’s Drop Shop. You’ll also need to be at level 40+ with 1,750,000 Drops to buy it. Here’s how it’s described in the Drop Shop:
“Nothing is faster than the Specialized Tarmac SL8 thanks to the bike’s synergistic combination of aerodynamics, light weight, and ride quality previously thought impossible. After eight generations and over two decades of development, it’s more than the fastest Tarmac ever – it’s the world’s fastest race bike.”
Those are big words, and while cyclists doubtless have differing opinions as to their veracity, what we’re concerned about here is in-game performance. Just how fast is this bike in Zwift, and how does it compare to other frames?
See our master list of all frames in Zwift >
It’s rated 3 stars for aero, 4 stars for weight, like a handful of other top newish all-arounders. But a 4-star system isn’t the most granular of performance measurements, so we ran this frame through our precise tests to measure performance at nerd-level detail. Let’s dive in!
Note: test results below are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using Zwift’s stock 32mm Carbon wheelset.
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
The S-Works Tarmac SL8 is very slippery, trimming 61.9s off our baseline Zwift Carbon frame over an hour of flat riding.
That puts it within 1.1 seconds of the game’s fastest frames, and when you consider that our tests have a 1-second margin of error, one could reasonably lump this frame in with the other fastest frames in terms of performance on flat roads.
Climb Performance
If you thought the S-Works Tarmac SL8 was fast on the flats, wait until you see how it climbs!
This Tarmac shaves 56 seconds off of our baseline Zwift Carbon’s time on an hourlong climb, which means it beats the S-Works Aethos (which was the fastest climbing bike in Zwift until this week) by 1.6 seconds.
That’s right, folks. We have a new top climber, and it’s super aero. There’s a new king in town.
Upgrading Your S-Works Tarmac SL8
Like all frames in Zwift, the S-Works Tarmac SL8 can be upgraded in five stages. As a high-end race bike, each of the five stages results in a performance improvement. The S-Works Tarmac SL8 upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 200km, pay 100,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 260km, pay 200,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 320km, pay 350,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 380km, pay 500,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 440km, pay 750,000 Drops for a weight reduction
You can expect a fully-upgraded S-Works Tarmac SL8 to be approximately 28 seconds faster on a flat hour and 36 seconds faster on an hourlong climb vs the “stock” S-Works Tarmac SL8.
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Conclusions
What we’ve seen in IRL road cycling, we’re seeing on Zwift: the industry moved away from the pure (but heavy) aero bikes and toward all-arounders that are nearly as slippery but weigh much less.
The Scott Addict RC was the first strong all-arounder on Zwift to give the Tron bike a run for its money. But in the past several months, Zwift added the Canyon Aeroad 2024 and Pinarello Dogma F 2024, which both outperform the Addict RC. And now the S-Works SL8 comes along, setting a new benchmark.
These fast all-arounders are within 1 second of the “pure” aero bikes (think S-Works Venge, Felt AR, Cervelo S5 2020) over an hour on flat ground in Zwift, but climb much faster. And that’s why we’re seeing them replacing the pure aero frames in Zwift race pelotons.
Other frames are within a few seconds of the S-Works SL8, so riders have the luxury of picking from a handful of top performers without feeling like they’re on a slow bike that will cost them the race. That said, if you want the frame that turns in the best all-around performance in Zwift, it’s the S-Works SL8.
Questions or Comments?
To answer one question: no, it doesn’t come with a color slider. (You can have any color S-Works Tarmac SL8 you want, as long as it’s white!) What other questions or comments do you have? Share below…
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
😎
Eric, thanks for all these updates so quickly. I’m actually wondering if we still get a benefit from the ceramic speed challenge a few years ago or if all these new updates overwrote the code for that. I would think those that completed get an added benefit on top of these numbers.
Reading back on Eric’s post about that mission, the performance boost was only for that one month and disappeared after that.
https://zwiftinsider.com/ceramicspeed-mission/
That was nuts. It was like a 1% pure power boost.
Colin is correct.
Thank you for this post. Now i only waiting for S6EVO LAB71 😉
It’s a fast bike! Just not quite as fast as the S-Works SL8. Post coming soon!
We need 1600km and 1.7 million drops to fully upgrade. That’s about two months of (winter) riding for me, and much less for the more hard-core. Not bad. Before we got the numbers, I was expecting at least double that.
Have you positively confirmed that all of the high-end racing bikes have the same cost structure and essentially identical performance improvements for each upgrade level? Like, do the Canyon Aeroad 2024 and Scott Addict RC both gain 28s on flat and 36s on climbs even though the Aeroad starts comparatively more aero and less “climby”?
Finally, thanks so much for all of this detailed content! I love the new performance charts. The “time saved per hour” metric is so much easier to think about.
trouble is, it’s no longer winter here – the good weather has arrived! So might be a while before I get anything fully upgraded, let alone even think about a Halo bike! I can see why Zwift has timed it like this though, to keep people engaged with the platform and stop them going outside 😀
Yes, all the high-end bikes have the same cost structure and performance improvements. As long as it’s not classified as a climbing bike (very few are), the upgrades for all road bikes are the same.
Is it a percent improvement in CdA/crr/weight for each frame, or more an absolute addition/subtraction to each value for all frames in a given class? I’m guessing it would be much easier to extrapolate from a limited number of test runs to all bikes if it’s the latter.
So once fully upgraded, the Aethos would regain the climbing title by a safe margin over the Tarmac SL8?
Probably. Testing to confirm!
Bought it. Go me! LOL
Oke, well follow up question … Asking for a friend who was stupid enough to spend all drops weeks before this update. How do I get 1.7 million drops as fast as possible. Climbing Alp with a robot pacer? How long would it take me :(?
Read this: https://zwiftinsider.com/how-drops-work/
In addition to the article Eric linked above, right now for the next 2+ weeks, ride as many Big Spin events/on-demand free rides as you can. Every time you get a duplicate item from the wheel when you finish a lap, you get at least 15k drops, up to 40k drops for each BMX bike landed on past your first. Can’t earn them faster than that!
Yep, where timing allows I’ve been using the Big Spin late-join “cheat” as warm-ups/cool-downs for other rides & get a duplicate on the wheel more often than not!
Hi Eric! What does “drivetrain efficiency improvement” actually mean in Zwift terms?
You get a waxed chain to put on your virtual bike instead of the filthy muc-of-drenched chain you previously ran 😆
It means a reduction of Crr.
what a croc… someone at zwift owns a tarmac, or specialized give zwift lots of $$, the brands ALWAYS been at the top of the list – when in reality they arent.
Specialized (through their venture fund) invested in Zwift’s Series C round. That has been publicly known since then.
If you check reputable cycling magazines/websites for tests of the S-Works Tarmac SL8 you’ll notice that it’s one of the top 1-3 bikes on every list. Totally different question if it’s worth a $14k investment but that shouldn’t matter here.
All true, but still just annoying to me. It is way too obvious. I mean not only does specialized sponsor the series C, they basically provided their wind tunnel to run aero tests.
Sure, wind tunnel testing is not cheap, but if someone would sit there and say that the tests where independent? That’s not even worth a laugh. And to me, to some extend they do, as they have other bikes from other manufacturers that are having way worth characteristics…
I would love to have all pro bikes being available on Zwift and all being within seconds. And sure some teams do have two different bikes (aero and climbing) but, those can be within seconds within the categorie, too.
And an pure aero road bike is and should be faster then an Allrounder, like it is in real word…
Yeah. While I haven’t ever owned a specialized bike and probably never will due to a lot of petty things, it’s a game, you know, for fun.
@Eric Schlange does the type of upgrades change from bike to bike? I ask that because in your thread of March 18 about bike upgrades you mention 5 types: CDA, Weight, Drive train, XP and Drops. But this bike gets 2 CDA and 2 weight upgrades as well as 1 Drive Train (same as the holo bikes).
My second question is that the Aethos for pure climbing is still the option, at least with the info you provide. Yes is 1.6 s slower without upgrade, but while the Tarmac SL8 improves 36 s on clibing at level 5, in the case of the Aethos (and using the chart in your thread of march 18) it should improve 60 s on climbing. This mis that when both are fully upgraded, the Aethos would become 22 s faster (aprox.).
And thanks for your hard work.
More details on bike upgrades coming in a post in a few days.
Craaaap, just managed to squeeze out enough drops for a Dogma, and then this comes around. Well, at least I got some motivation to ride with the bots in the coming weeks…
The Dogma is still a weapon.
Continue with it as one of your three upgraded Pinarellos for the Espada unlock.
Hopefully they add color slider sometime.Otherwise we only have white bikes in the game 😂
Right after the Dogma came out last fall, the next monthly zRacing series offered a new paint job for those that completed the series. That was the first timein a while I’d completed one of their zRacing series (also the last), but I really liked that paint job. Missing now now after having stared at this all white thing for the last 280 km.
No point to owning any other bike. Still don’t understand why zwift does this? Wouldn’t they want variety out on the road. Especially during races?
It would have been cool if every fully upgraded bike yielded around the same performance. In other words, the stock Zwift Carbon bike is slow compared to the stock SL8 but a fully upgraded Zwift Carbon would be just as (or nearly as) fast as a fully upgraded SL8.
Of course, Zwift could make the requirements to upgrade the Zwift Carbon far more difficult (more miles, more climbing needed) but then you’d have a choice: either spend drops for the SL8 or put in many more hours to upgrade a cheaper bike.
A system like this means you could choose the bike that matches your real world one without being penalized in speed and also that every race wouldn’t be everyone riding the same white SL8.
I completely agree. Have a few high level lock bikes have the same top end to get more variety on the roads.
Agree it’s pointless. They have all these other bikes in the game, but they’re basically saying if you choose ANYTHING else you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. So for people who take racing seriously it’s the only option. Fortunately, I don’t take it too seriously, so I have gone with the Cannondale instead – it’s only slightly slower, and I really want to unlock the Roller Blade!! 😅
Do these, improvements give an edge in races? Or just free riding? I was told bikes are neutralized in races.
Bikes are typically only neutralized in top-end elite races. Standard community races not so much…
Yet the Pinarello Dogma won the last stage of Paris Nice. SL8 is not the fastest bike in the pro peleton. Look at what Pogi rides. That should be the fastest in game. Colnago.
I’m not sure you understand how winning IRL bike races works… 😆
I do since I’ve been racing outside for 32 years now. It takes the rider and machine. And much much more Eric. How many years have you raced outside?
An SL8 won stage 1 and 2. That’s twice as many wins in the race that you mentioned. I’m not following your logic too well, but that must mean it’s doubly gooder than the Dogma.
I’ve been racing since 93, which has nothing to do with anything.
I’ve been racing since 93 as well. And I know there are faster bikes than the SL8 is all I’m saying…
I’ve been racing since 86 and that doesn’t mean I’m riding the downtube bike on Zwift – It does mean I’m riding one IRL though 😉
One could argue that it is more a Point to Eric than to you if you have been racing for 32 years and didn’t turn pro. But I’m not doing that since you probably had other priorities in life ✌️
I have seen quite a few people try to start a heated argument with Eric. From three years on the site I can safely say: he doesn’t take the bait … why should he.
I seem to recall the guy on the Cervelo taking the overall title…
And let’s not forget what hair color pogi has. He is blond, so if your in-game avatar has any other hair color you are basically throwing away free watts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOqs6dLdhI
This is the fastest bike!
Fastest rider, sure. Fastest bike is up for debate, even according to Colnago.
What about Ganna’s Track Bike @ 56 kph
Any difference in game between the S-Works SL8 and the ‘standard’ SL8 other than one is white and one is black? (And a million drops between them)
Yes, S-Works is faster. That’s how all the S-Works frames are in Zwift…
Thanks, Eric.
Guess who rushed and bought the wrong frame? 🤔
I just realized I bought the wrong one too and raced with it over the weekend. I blame my poor performance on it!
If Zwift want’s to be realistic, which from my understanding was the goal of the recent performance changes for frames and wheel, it should have the same aerodynamics as the sworks but be heavier.
And I’m heavy to start with! 🤣
No worries, only wasted 700k drops.
I’ll start again tomorrow on the S-Works
The non Sworks model being a bit heavier would account for some of the very small difference in their flat performance.
As I understand it, real world there would be more difference as the Sworks model ships with an integrated bar and stem which Specialized say provides half of the aero upgrade over the SL7.
Zwift need to hire some people who understand game balancing. This is just broken. Especially the upgrades.
Come on @Eric Schlange, share some of those 97m drops, pleeeease?! Lol 😀
So if I have well understood, it’s already a winner for flat and climb with 0 upgrade, and it’s a monster with all the 5 upgrade ?
I need this bike (but I’m only level 30)
I would like to see a chart listing all the stages for upgrades for all bikes, what they are for, what level of effort they require, and how many drops. For example –
Stage 1 Aero unlock, 200k, 100,000 drops.
Stage 2 Weight unlock, 260k, 200,000 drops
ETC
Watch for a post next week.
@Eric Schlange Zwift have really done you dirty. Releasing enough content for 6 months worth of game update articles in one go. 😂
You’re not wrong! 😀
Ughhhh, I literally just got the Pinarello like an hour ago… Wondered why it cost more than the unlock guide said.Wouldve loved to have the Specialized instead. rip.
Pricing changed with the last updade. Most frames got more expensive. Maybe the guide you’re referring to hasn’t been updated yet.
SW SL8 is 1.7 million drops and the upgrades to level 5 are another 1.7 million + the miles.I picked up the SW frame in the dropshop and am now almost 60 miles toward the level 1 upgrade. But the funny thing is that I don’t feel any faster. However, my ego is massaged when I watch the screen. Now I need to sell back my other bikes in the garage ‘cuz I won’t be riding them anymore.😀
With this sudden urge to spend Drops I would love to see the long-requested option to sell back old bikes or at least retire them out of my garage. The new ordering is fine but let’s leverage some of these old investments to help finance this new hardware.
The lack of color choice feels real sad…
Big time
Upgrade 6: color slider! Upgrade 7: remember my color choice!
50 shades of white…
My IRL SW SL6 is chameleon green/deep purple and is a beautiful bike. Kind of a downer to go with white/white.
Don’t send your Drops on anything now at the end of the (northern hemisphere) indoor season. Zwift may introduce something faster before November. Or nerf the SL8. Or revamp all the performance parameters of every frame and wheel (oh wait, they just did that.)
Prob wait two weeks for the next update, that’ll have any obvious mistakes fixed, but I have too many drops anyways, and with the amount of time it takes to unlock new upgrades/halo bikes etc I’m sure I’ll have enough drops to buy whatever I am able to unlock when I unlock it.
If you ride with pace partners the drops come much faster
Update paths for each bike with unlocks by km/distance is excellent.
But 90% of the joy is defeated if you make 1 bike better then every other one for pretty much every race. Such a weird decision on an excellent big development update.
I agree, I like the update but we’d need to make strategic decisions about what bike to upgrade. With this SL8 clearly dominating everything else (apart from a couple halo bikes), there’s no room for diversity.
Here’s hoping the Zwifter bikes site gets an update to cover all these new changes, that’s my go to for choosing the right bike and wheels for each event. 🤞
Zwift doesn’t do anything important. They don’t catch a cheater. It’s the biggest problem in the race.
I should have read this article more carefully before mistakenly spending my drops on the old SL8… wish there was a return policy! Anyone interested in a mint condition SL8, I’ll give you a good deal!
I did the same!
Only wasted 700k and 40kms before I realised.
So grateful to Eric, it could have been a couple of days before I realised!
Onwards and upwards!
I own the SL8 pro IRL (no way to pay the price for an S-Works…) and man, it is a fast and light bike. Just pure perfection. Can’t wait to ride it in Game. Thx for the Test Zwiftinsider!
So all we’re going to see during races now is white bikes everywhere. No variety again. Coooool. 🙄
So everyone on zwift will be now riding the same coloured bike! I like the Trek Madone as I can have that in pink to match my socks. 😁 Will zwifr ever let us change the colours of the locked bikes?
I agree totally.
Best wheels to pair with this at the old prices (I haven’t upgraded yet)?
Zipp 454
Anyone Know how this will impact ZwifterBikes? That’s been my go to for bike selection for a while. I’m curious if it will be able to factor in updgrades.
I’d personally like to see each brand have parity across the board once a top tier aero, climbing, TT bike is fully leveled. This would allow folks to ride whatever they want and the races would look like actual events we see outdoors. For pros and for Mamils we see too often that the bike really doesn’t matter and it’s all bling unless that is you are the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. For a game that is so concerned about membership be it quintuple records or zwift power rangers I don’t understand why they just don’t make it so an SL8 fully levelled is the same as a AeroRoad CFR is the same as a Dogma. At least then the events like WTRL, zwift games (to an extent) wouldn’t be about who has the best Makita or the most resonable spouse to let us spend all our time in imaginary bike land (or not if you’re name is Bosch or Makita). Thanks for all you do though, the game wouldn’t be the same without this site.
Yeah, it honestly makes no sense to me why they do this. Who wants to see everyone ride the same bike in every race.
Are the upgrade distances per stage or cumulative? Is a stage 2 upgrade 260km total or 260km after the 200km for stage 1?
I’d assume they’re per stage. It wouldn’t make sense much to have the first unlock after 200km and the next only 60km later.
My question is do you have to upgrade your bike first before accumulating progress toward the next stage, or does the counter start again as soon as the threshold required is reached? Meaning, I guess, do I have to stop mid ride to upgrade before work toward the next stage is counted?
wondering the same. I’m at 100k rt now and am doing a 160k ride in the AM. I’ll prolly have to drop from the fliers and manage the bike then start riding again 🙁
Per stage. Each stage takes more work to upgrade than the one before.
If you achieve the upgrade mid-ride, you can wait until the end of the ride to purchase that upgrade. Your banked distance (or duration, or elevation) above and beyond will be applied to the next stage. But ONLY if you do this during the same activity, before you save the ride.
Otherwise, if you save the ride without buying the upgrade, you’ll lose the extra work you did.
Good to know!
This is good to know.
Also – I think I’ve seen others mention this – but you must come to a stop before you can purchase the upgrade that is available (Guessing this is because upgrading the bike is similar to changing bikes. Can’t be done on-the-go). So, unless you like chasing really hard to catch your group ride, it’s best to wait until the end. Stop, buy the upgrade and then save the ride. No effort toward next upgrade is lost.
Don’t forget the teleport function.
I did it today (although now I see that I didn’t need to) when riding with Coco.
Immediately stopped, did the Upgrade (first aero, 100k) then teleported back to Coco.
Not sure if the bike felt faster though.
ooh that’s interesting!
Cheers, Eric. You can have some crisps with that pint 😉
That is incredibly important to know. Thank you. I doubt an upgrade mid-race would be worth stopping to buy, but if a weight reduction came right before an AdZ attempt…
I feel like the different attributes should require different challenges/quests. Weight always uphill, aero always distance or time, etc.
Whoa — I almost bought the “SL8” by mistake. It’s the S-Works SL8. Don’t make that mistake.
Interesting that Zwift went the the Specialized WinTunnel and the conclusion was they should make the Specialized the fastest overall bike in the game.
For pure climbing, will a fully upgraded SL8 beat a fully upgraded Aethos?
Well as the unupdated one beats the Aethos so I would guess yes.
No. The Aethos will win. More on this soon!
The Aethos is purely a climbing bike… therefore it will get more weight reduction upgrades vs. the SL8 getting a much more general spread of upgrades. Therefore, a fully upgrades Aethos will beat a fully upgraded SL8 in terms of climbing.
I do like the the reviews and compares Eric. Could you remind me please why you choose 300w which is 4w/kg. Is that close to the majority or Zwifters power output? I’d love to see a version with a couple of frames at say 2.0 or 2.5w/kg for us on the lower grades.
With the upgrade of wheels aswell in an all rounder situation is the 1100 discs the best wheels to have with the SL8?or is 7.8’s better
Thanks for the all the new speed test combinations. Of course I bought the SL8 right away to start logging km’s for upgrades.
However, could you tell me which of the bikes have a in the speed test have an XP upgrade? I am looking to get that Level 100 kit most efficiently (presently 90 with acceleration to 99). Does the XP bonus apply when doing a workout?
I can think of a whole other set of comparisons to make. A minute or two penalty per hour on the flat using a slower bike seems to be less than a 5% boost to XP. However, there would be some break even point for distance I had to ride to earn a XP boost when I could have accumulated some extra km’s on a faster bike. Could you put bots to work finding XP rate per hour on different frames?
Yeah this! Also what’s the fastest bike with boost to drops? (For drops farming). =)
I’m also about your level. I’m going with the SL8 first. But, if I want to get the Specialized Halo bike, I might just get a low level bike that allows me to farm XP at the same time as I level it up for my 3rd Specialized bike (probably going Aethos as my 2nd Specialized after doing Cadex Tri as my 2nd overall).
I love all this discussion, truly. But don’t get hung up on all this technical stuff.
If you’re not able to hold 300 watts for one hour and weight less than 165 pounds,
The aero benefits and lower weight won’t work for you. Zwift is just messing with
you. Relax, Do your miles, benefit from the indoor training. The road beckons. Thank you Eric and Zwift.
@eric, any idea if maxing out upgrade on the SL8 or Aethos is the better bet for the lightest climber? trying to figure out how to spend my next 100 hours lol
Aethos will be the better climber when maxed out.
ty ty, zwift support just concurred this
I am a bit confused about the upgrades, ride 200km for the first unlock and then 260km for the next… Does that mean I need to ride 60 more km or an additional 260km after getting the first unlock to get the second?
How much of a difference would the results be if you weighed 65 kgs with say 160 watts, would the SL8 still be the winner (specifically on the flats)?
Thank you for all the info!
They really need to start coming up with interesting paint schemes as unlocks. White and black bikes are so boring. Otherwise pretty cool they’re changing things up some.
I like the idea of upgrading bikes. However, the problem is this is essentially double-counting. On one hand, they have different levels of bike in the shop, so you can get your regular SL8 or your S-Works SL8. The performance difference between those options IRL would include lighter components. But then you can upgrade the bikes on top of that.
Also I would prefer transparency on performance. Bikes with the same star ratings should have exactly the same performance. So then users can pick which brand they happen to like. Maybe I have a Colnago and would love to ride a Colnago. That shouldn’t be punished. Obviously Colnagos are capable of top-level performance, as are Specialized, as are Cervelo.
IRL bike choice is complicated. Xavier Disley said, on Escape Collective Performance Process, that his favorite frame was his 3T Strada because he could get his position dialed in on that bike. That’s not something you measure in a wind tunnel comparing different frames: it’s about the interaction of the bike and the particular rider. So a general rule that Specialized performs slightly better than Cervelo which performs better than Trek, etc, is unrealistic. It depends on the rider. So Zwift shouldn’t give preference to individual brands. Just let brands have bikes at different star ratings and leave it there.
Then you can add stars to your bike based on whatever incentive program Zwift chooses.
hi, i am level 75, have 20mln drops and only now looking into frames. 🙂
thanks for the side. if i go to the garage i only see one Specialised Tarmac (1star aero, 4 star weight). How/when can i select the SL8 or Aethos?
Biggest difference btwn tarmac SL8 and s-works tarmac SL8
I’ve been upgrading my std tarmac SL8 and don’t know if I should purchase the s-works and start over.
thanks
Biggest difference? Well, their color. 😂 And also their performance! https://zwiftinsider.com/charts-frames/