This Just In: The Specialized Amira
For a many years when women walked into a bike shop ready to purchase a new bike they looked at a bunch of bikes designed by men, for men, and had to hope they could find one in their size. Recently it seems as if manufacturers have discovered women ride and have some money to spend. So they have started to market directly to women which, more often than not, has meant adding some softer tones to the paint job and that’s about it.
But these women don’t just ride, they ride fast, and they have their own definition of what makes a bike right for them. News flash: It isn’t that same thing that makes a bike right for Tom Boonen, or even the local guys on the Cat 5 team.
Specialized, a long time leader in the field of Women’s Specific Design, has acknowledged this for 2010 with the all new Amira. The Amira is a pure performance bike with the female racer in mind. It is not simply a
Tarmac with a different name and paint job, although it’s clearly benefited from the engineering that has gone into the Tarmac. The Amira gets a tapered steer tube to ensure a stiff front end and razor sharp handling, but instead of a 1 1/2 inch bottom race it gets a 1 3/8 to better balance a Women’spower output with compliance. Tube diameters are slightly smaller
and the layup has been tweaked to give women riders a Stiffness to Weight ratio that makes more sense for them. Geometry has been slightly tweaked as well with slightly lower stand over heights and longer wheelbases when compared toTarmacs of the same size.
Specialized offers the Amira in 5 sizes, from 44 to 56 and in four specs:
S-Works Amira $7200
S-Works Amira Module $3100
Amira Expert $3300
Amira Comp $2700
Testrider.com is also happy to announce the arrival of our very own female Testrider to put these new Women’s specific designs to the test and her very first assignment is the Specialized Amira Comp. Look for a full video review from our newest Testrider very soon.
Click next for pictures of the new 2010 Specialized Amira
line.