Peter Sagan and Specialized launch 'Sagan Collection' - Gallery
All that glitters is gold (and silver) in five-piece collection
This article first appeared on BikeRadar.
On the eve of the Tour of Flanders, Peter Sagan, Specialized and Bora-Hansgrohe unveiled the 'Sagan Collection', which includes two bikes, a frameset, shoes and a helmet. Designed in conjunction with Sagan, the sparkly product is available for sale now.
Peter Sagan's 'Sagan Collection' S-Works Tarmac SL6 Disc
Sagan will race aboard a 'Sagan Collection' Tarmac SL6 for the Tour of Flanders before switching to an S-Works Roubaix for next week's Paris-Roubaix.
- Peter Sagan’s S-Works Tarmac SL6 gallery
- Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL6 Disc review
- Specialized revamps S-Works shoes and aero helmet
- Specialized Roubaix Comp review
All of the products in the Sagan Collection line-up come with a glitter, matt and gloss finish, as well as quotes from Sagan and a nod to each of the Slovakian's three world championship titles.
The bikes are a mix of the flat gold, glitter gold and black finishes
Specialized designed the collection with the world champion, with inspiration coming from Sagan's love of muscle cars and Americana design.
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The complete Sagan Collection includes the Specialized S-Works Roubaix, Specialized Roubaix Comp, Specialized S-Works Diverge frameset, S-Works 7 shoes and S-Works Evade helmet.
While the majority of the range showcases some of Specialized's top of the line products, Specialized offers the alternative of the Roubaix Comp to give accessibility to the range at a lower price point.
Peter Sagan's 'Sagan Collection' S-Works 7 shoes
Eric Shuda, Specialized's road category manager, said that while Specialized "and other brands have done race-winning bikes with a special paint job, we wanted to take a step back to create a bike with Peter that reflects who he is as a person."
"Art director Eric Nolan went to team camp with a swatch of colours and worked with Peter to basically create a style guide. It took six months but once we had the theme with muscle cars and a selection of colours, Eric worked with Peter on the designs," Shuda said.
"The paint was done by us at our facility, but we used special flakes [Tropical Glitz] in the paint. The rainbow flake has three different flakes in it to represent his three world championship titles," Schuda said. "Instead of just handing him a bike, this is his design."
Specialized also showcased a Diverge frameset in a grey glitter finish as opposed to gold
Excluding the S-Works Diverge frameset on display at the launch, which featured a subtler grey and silver design, each of the products on show had a heavy touch of gold in both glitter and gloss, a finish usually reserved in cycling design for the Olympic champion.
'If I don't have yellow, I have green. If I don't have green, I have rainbow'
Alongside the obvious design features, three bands on the chainstays of the framesets commemorate each of Sagan's world championship titles by location and year.
Quotes from Sagan appear on the bike, such as, "If I don't have yellow, I have green. If I don't have green, I have rainbow" and "We'll see".
Sagan's name adorns the top tube in the area usually reserved for a sticker with the rider's name.
While the clean finish may seem simple, art director Nolan spent hours refining the design to perhaps suggest an infinity symbol as a nod to Sagan's palmares.
A huge mood board went into even the design of the decals
Masking at the head of the top tube splits the gloss gold with the glitter gold and this is accentuated with Sagan's initials separated by a forward slash. Further down the top tube, the gloss gold fades to a raw carbon finish, with gloss black Specialized decals intersecting the fade.
Sagan's cockpit consists of the usual masked Zipp Sprint SL stem and either a Pro Vibe or S-Works Aerofly handlebar dependent on the frameset.
K-Edge joined the party with a matching chain catcher
American machined aluminium specialist K-Edge provide Sagan's race bikes with out-front computer mounts, and in keeping with the Sagan Collection, have also provided gold chain catchers.
The Sagan Collection S-Works bikes have Shimano Dura-Ace R9100-series components, with Roval CLX 50 wheels and S-Works Turbo tires.
Click or swipe through the gallery above for a detailed look at all on offer from the Sagan Collection.
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