Today, Zwift released a rare out-of-cycle game update (v1.116.2) for the sole purpose of unveiling one of the most anticipated new road bikes of 2026: the S-Works Tarmac SL9 from Specialized:
(Today’s release also includes the new Roval Rapid Sprint CLX wheels, which we’ll review in a separate post.)
The S-Works SL8 is already the most popular bike in the Zwift race peloton, with an impressive real-life WorldTour palmares to match. But how does the new model compare to other bikes on Zwift?
You’ll need to be updated to game version 1.116.2+ to see this bike in the Drop Shop. You’ll also need to be at level 40+ with 1,900,000 Drops to buy it. Here’s how it’s described in game:
The all-new S-Works Tarmac SL9 is the fastest road bike ever made. Not just because it’s the lightest. Not just because it’s our most aero. But because it delivers the lowest real-world Time to Finish of any road bike. Validated across real race courses, terrain, and riders. When the goal is to cross the line first, no road bike gets you there faster.
See our master list of all frames in Zwift >
It’s rated 3 stars for aero and 4 stars for weight, like other top all-arounders on Zwift. But that’s actually a sizeable group of bikes at this point. So how does it actually perform? Since Zwift’s 4-star system isn’t the most granular performance metric, we ran this frame through our precise tests to measure performance in 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 on the un-upgraded version of the frame, unless otherwise noted.
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Across an hour of flat riding, the new Tarmac trims around 1 second off the S-Works SL8’s flat time, making it the new fastest all-arounder in game.
The frame’s time puts it 63 seconds ahead of our baseline frame across an hour of riding, which means it’s just 0.5 seconds behind the current aero king, the new Cervelo S5, which was also released this week.
Note: these results will change when Zwift gives the SL9 a “polish” in an upcoming release… more on this below.
Climb Performance
The SL8 was a very strong climber – the best climbing road bike in game, in fact, when comparing un-upgraded bikes. (The Specialized Aethos S-Works at stage 5 is far and away the best climbing bike in game, though, handily beating the S-Works Tarmac SL8 at stage 5.)
While the new SL9 weighs essentially the same as the S8, we expected the SL9 would perform at least as well as the SL8, if not a bit better due to aero improvements. And it does!
The frame’s climb test time puts it 57.7 seconds ahead of the baseline frame after an hour, which is basically the same time as the Tarmac SL8 and ~2 seconds ahead of the lightweight new Cannondale SuperSix EVO LAB71 Team.
Upgrading Your Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9
Like all frames in Zwift, the Tarmac SL9 can be upgraded in five stages. It uses the Distance, High-End upgrading scheme, giving it the following characteristics:
Performance At Each Upgrade Stage
This chart shows how many seconds this frame will save across 1 hour of riding compared to our stage 0 baseline frames (Zwift Carbon or TT). This is based on a 75kg rider, 183cm tall, at 300 watts, riding on tarmac.
Upgrade Stages (Distance, High-End)
- 200km: Aero Upgrade for 100k Drops
- 260km: Weight Upgrade for 200k Drops
- 320km: Drivetrain Upgrade for 350k Drops
- 380km: Aero Upgrade for 500k Drops
- 440km: Weight Upgrade for 750k Drops
Conclusions
The S-Works SL8 was already the most popular bike among Zwift racers. I predict the SL9 will supersede it in popularity, although Zwifters will have to put in some significant miles to upgrade their new SL9 so it beats their fully upgraded SL8.
Specialized claims a 3.8-watt savings for the SL9 vs the SL8 when riding at 45kph. That may not sound like much, but it’s actually quite massive in Zwift terms. Specialized says that savings translates to 14 seconds saved across an hour of riding. In our tests at 300 watts, which works out to around 40kph on flat ground, we’ve found that a 3.8 watt difference works out to around 23 seconds saved on Zwift.
But Zwift can’t exactly set up the SL9 so it trims 23 seconds (or even just 14 seconds) off the SL8’s flat time, can they? It would blow away their game design, which has a handful of top frames performing within 1-3 seconds of each other. So instead, Zwift is looking to make the SL9 just 1-2 seconds faster than the SL8 on flats, while keeping it the same weight so its climbing performance isn’t much different from the SL8.
One interesting related tidbit: the SL9, as it appears in game today, is actually a touch slower than Zwift wants it to be. Sources within Zwift tell me the bike will be receiving a slight “polish” in the coming weeks, which will be noted in the release notes. This should make the bike approximately 1 second faster on the flats.
The long and short of it is: the new Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9 beats the S-Works SL8 on Zwift, and it will even get a bit faster in the coming weeks. With the SL8 already ranked #1 in our list of Top 10 Road Bikes, the SL9’s performance is big news for Zwift racers. And I, for one, am glad to see it. Because I’m tired of seeing so many white bikes in the peloton!
This bike has been added to the following posts:
- Zwift Shopping Guide: What To Buy from the Drop Shop at Each Level
- The Top 10 Road Bikes in Zwift
- Zwift Speed Tests: Frame Ranking Charts
- Speed Tests: Concept Z1 (Tron) Bike vs Top Performers (Un-Upgraded and Fully Upgraded Versions)
- A Complete List of Zwift Bike Frames
Questions or comments?
What do you think of Specialized’s new Tarmac in Zwift? 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.
*Sigh* Just when it was looking like there would be some trade-offs between the top level frames, Zwift pushes an out-of-cycle update to re-introduce the one bike to rule them all *and* promises to polish it up so it won’t lose a single second to anything else…
Couldn’t have a major investor’s bikes at anything other than the top spot. Would’ve been interesting to hear the conversation when they realized it fell behind the Cervelo with its initial configuration.
Yeah it’s all very unrealistic. In the real world aero tests there’s no way the SL9 is as fast as the full aero bikes like the S5, so makes no sense to have it be the fastest bike on the flats in Zwift. Uncorrelated with reality.
It’s a shame because the game would actually be more interesting if you have to tradeoff aero vs climbing speed rather than having a bike that wins at everything
The Cervelo is the fastest bike on the flats, short of the upgraded Halo bikes. The SL9 outclimbs it and wins the all-around title.
Yeah, they should have let the new cervelo be the aero king.
now it’s just SL9 for every course.
Well, I’m still gonna grab the new Cervelo because that “Lupine” blue is just much cooler.
And as I’m not a “75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W” none of this really worries me.
Has anyone heard if Zwift is going to improve the graphics rendering on the Cervelo S5 – looking at it in the drop shop, it is hard to read the Cervelo logo.
Dropflation
Hard to tell from the pictures, is the red color about the same as the Dogma special paint scheme, or a little darker?
It’s listed as Tarmac SL9 in the drop shop at the moment. I would have expected it to follow the same naming as the S-works Tarmac SL8
I would love to see you guys test the top 10 bikes at 25 watt intervals from 150 to 300 watts, then use that data to create power curves. Seeing fully upgraded bike results on a curve may help Zwifters who fall between the 150 and 300 watt average.
Great idea
And I am tired of not being able to color these “new” frames as we were able to for all (or at least most) since thw dawn of Zwift. They all now come in one predetermined color (be it black, white or god ugly red as this one now).
Color sliders for all bikes without a theme is beyond overdue. Jerseys, helmets,shoes,gloves in drop shop as well. Make avatars truly unique.
Counterpoint: I think Zwift should make “skins” for the bikes, so users can chose between the available real-world colors for the bikes. While it would mean that the SL9 would only come in three relatively boring colorways, (pro colorways not included) it would open up for the same level of variation in the peloton because of various multicolored bikes. Some brands make really fun color schemes for their bikes that you could never make with the current color picker
It would be interesting to see what the aero difference is under a “sprint scenario”, i.e. ~300 m at 800 watts? Is that even measurable?
I think these differences are so small that you wouldn’t see anything at 300m, even if you were going much faster.
Also weird how in real life tests weight doesn’t matter, but in zwift the aethos or sl-* are worlds faster than aero bikes
So now instead of all white bikes in a pack, we’re going to have RED
At least my Dogma is RED. 😁 😁
WOW , so ride 1 month on a SL9 to reach upgrade to level 5 to gain 2 seconds over my level 5 SL8 . I’m at level 4 on the Tron and P-74 and told myself to give upgrading a rest when I get both to level 5 . Plus 300 watts steady 🤪 , I’m a high cadence rider , steady is 200 watts. Have original parts , 2 knees thanks to 30 yrs of high cadence riding . Testing needs to be little more real , than 300 watts . 150 , 175, 200, 250 , 300 . How I ride Road to Sky compared to Tempus .More important how I rode at age 28 in 1985 compared to today ? # 1 health #2 fitness
Posting when u just rode your legs off not a good idea , just wait till after a good nap . No problem with getting the SL9 and upgrading . As a young man had a nice red Nissan 300 ZX Turbo ,so will take a red bike , over white, that simple . Sorry for the rant . Appreciate Eric & James and all those behind the scenes who put in a time to make Zwift fun & challenging .
We really need zwift to add garage sorting and the ability to delete bikes we no longer need now more than ever.
Yes! And present configs for both bike and apparel.
I am curious as to how much Speshy paid to have their bikes at the top of virtually every list? IRL they are good, but definitely not the fastest.
Specialized are one of Zwifts major investors.
Also got a special release just to get it out literally the same week it released in real life. No other brand gets this treatment.
I would like to see the Colnago Y1RS at some point in my garage and also to see how it stacks up to the SL9
You will need to spend some time on MyWhoosh if you want a Colnago
Why not make the bike EXACTLY as it is in real life? Zwift is starting to annoy me with keeping the bikes all the same near the top. What is the incentive of spending these hard earned drops and miles on a bike that barely beats others? The Zwifters who have high levels and have ridden months online should have an advantage over those who have not. Also some bikes should only be unlocked at much higher levels. Same with wheels, etc. I am level 65 and there is no reason for me to care about going any higher really. Back to is it worth buying these new bikes if you already have a fast one The answer is PROBABLY NOT. Probably better to keep what you have and save for wheelsets and upgrading other bikes like your gravel setup, etc. These new bikes are actually only really good for someone who just hit level 40 and doesn’t have an elite bike yet. I would rather spend time and drops upgrading my CADEX Tri or my Gravel setup when I already have the first Lab71 bike fully upgraded. Come on Zwift! 🤣
I think there are two ways of viewing this:
If you view Zwift as a game then yes, I would agree that it makes sense that high level Zwifters should be able to get gear that gives them a decisive advantage over new “players”.
However, if you view Zwift as a cycling platform then you could easily argue that it is unfair someone who has the time to sit on Zwift for hours and hours, and grind upgrades gets a decisive advantage over someone who is a much stronger cyclist, but can’t spend as much time on the platform.
It is a very hard balance to get right, and whatever approach Zwift take one group of people is going to be salty about it.
I would love to have every bike in Zwift perform exactly how it does in real life. There’s one simple reason why that won’t happen: because it’s cost-prohibitive to get those real-life performance metrics for each and every bike.
You can’t rely on the bike makers to supply accurate data, as they don’t all have wind tunnels, and the testing they do varies from one test method to the next.
So Zwift would have to do the testing themselves. And that’s just not gonna happen. They’re not going to book Win Tunnel time at Specialized for every bike they want to add. I’ve been there with Zwift staff… it’s a major proposition!
Understandable. At my age and performance level (70+ and 2.0 watts catagory D). IRL I have an SWorks SL6 and am kind of silly brand loyal in Zwift. I am not racing but still want to have a classy looking avatar for my own self gratification. A faster bike really won’t benefit me but I’ll look alot cooler on an SL9! So I probably will end up with one in the next couple of days and then spend 3 months or more upgrading again. 😁
Think I’ll just wait for the SL10. 2million drops to purchase + 2 million drops to upgrade + 40 hrs work. All that for 2 seconds which is less than 0.5w… The whole point of all these bikes being so close together is so you don’t get too penalised in upgrading the bike you like. Surely the peloton will be more multi-coloured with all these releases, not all red now…
@Eric Schlange Any news of the new Shiv TT showing up in Zwift?
Came here to ask the same thing😀
I would like to return the bikes i have purchased in the past
Like a trade in some are slightly used and some have never been rode
My garage is getting full of bike
Just a thought
I hate when they do this. Just make every company have a top performing race bike so we don’t have to see the same bikes during races.
This isn’t anything original, but I would really like to see a neutralization amongst the top-end/Pro level frames. Whilst I can appreciate an increase in performance from the standard SL8/9 to the S-Works version, when compared to like for like with other brands, like in the pro peloton, there’s little or no discernible difference.
It would be better to see a tier system for frames, e.g. entry, intermediate and pro, and categorized by Aero, Climbing, TT, Gravel and MTB with the same performance for each frame across the tiers, that way people can ride whatever frame they want instead of putting time and effort to buy and upgrade only for it to be superseded when the next shiny new frame comes along.
I ride a Canyon Aeroad in game, because I ride a Canyon IRL. I have no desire in chasing after the latest, fastest frame because, well my FTP is below average and am not bothered by marginal gains at my level! But I imagine it is very frustrating for those where those things do matter.
This is a good and rational take.
The reality at high end racing is that people are generally wasting more effort than necessary and generally going faster than the 300w 75kg test. The routes are mostly flat. So a wider range of bikes are faster and bike choice isn’t deciding races.
Neutralizing tiers would stop the distraction and constant conversation about it… people could focus on more efficient drafting and tactics.
TT and TTT with a level 5 Cadex however…
Luckily the difference of the top performers is almost within the margin of error.
It is getting ridiculous how much new bikes and wheels are flooding Zwift. I am not motivated to ride more and gain more drops to buy new stuff that is marginally better just because it’s better.
Rather getting frustrated because I’m not riding enough online to keep Zwifts pace and not less enough to not care at all. Still working on gaining the level I should be. Currently level 70 with 550k exp…
better all-rounder than Level 5 Tron?
In my circumstances the only real legitimate reason I can come up with for purchasing the SL9 is that I can get a red bike. 😃
The description for the game update 1.116.2 in iOS says that the Drop Shop now has new frames from Specialized and Canyon. Where’s the new Canyon bike? Is that coming in the next regular update?
Yeah, that’s my bet.
If you get the SL9 now, before the “polishing” will it automatically become “polished”when they do the “polishing” upgrade? Or do you have to wait until the polished version comes out, in order to get the final version?
It’ll be auto polished while in your garage. You can buy it now.
Polished yet?
In the Drop Shop it is listed as just Tarmac SL9 and not with “S-Works” is this the correct bike
Yes. It says S-Works on the frame.
How come the Zwift Drop Shop only calls it the ‘Tarmac SL9’ and not the ‘S-Works Tarmac SL9’, or is the S-Works edition yet to be released?
Did the SL9 get the little performance boost yet? I haven’t seen any note about it yet.