# Can you choose frame when you order S-Works



## trickyfishy (Dec 31, 2014)

I was wondering if when you order an S-Works can you choose any paint scheme offered in the frameset lineup or are you stuck with the paint job shown on the web site?

It seems other markets (European) have some of the other paint jobs as the primary so I'm wondering if I can get it in the US.


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

You'll be limited to your market. They have markets for a reason. If you want an EDM frame, you'll need to order from an EDM dealer and have them ship it to you. The USDM shops have access to the USDM inventory only. If a local shop would get you one, they would just do what you would need to do. Contact a dealer abroad and arrange the deal and shipping.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

trickyfishy said:


> I was wondering if when you order an S-Works can you choose any paint scheme offered in the frameset lineup or are you stuck with the paint job shown on the web site?
> 
> It seems other markets (European) have some of the other paint jobs as the primary so I'm wondering if I can get it in the US.


Why not just buy the frame set you want and build it up yourself (heck, you could even have a shop build it)?... it'd be cheaper than buying a complete. I really don't understand why anyone would buy the complete on an SWorks bike... An SWorks Venge with DA9000 is $8000... but the frameset is $3500. DA9000 is $1400 from Merlin, so you're at $4900, another 2G's for a decent wheel set (of your choice) still only puts you at $6900. You're not gonna spend another $1100 on the other misc. parts.


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## OldChipper (May 15, 2011)

TricrossRich said:


> Why not just buy the frame set you want and build it up yourself (heck, you could even have a shop build it)?... it'd be cheaper than buying a complete. I really don't understand why anyone would buy the complete on an SWorks bike... An SWorks Venge with DA9000 is $8000... but the frameset is $3500. DA9000 is $1400 from Merlin, so you're at $4900, another 2G's for a decent wheel set (of your choice) still only puts you at $6900. You're not gonna spend another $1100 on the other misc. parts.


Ooooh I don't know about that...

Carbon rail saddle - $250
Carbon seat post - $200
Carbon bars - $250
Stem - $90

That'll put you in the ballpark of what you'd *actually* pay for an assembled Venge with a little bit of bargaining. 

I mean you could cheap out on any one of those (or spend even more!), but why when you're building up an S-Works Venge?!


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## Duke249 (Apr 4, 2002)

OldChipper said:


> Ooooh I don't know about that...
> 
> Carbon rail saddle - $250
> Carbon seat post - $200
> ...


The S-Works Venge frameset comes with a carbon seatpost.


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## OldChipper (May 15, 2011)

Oh FFS fine! My point it that it's not hard to spend a grand or more to finish a build once you include all the "accessories." If you want to pick nits and browse the interwebs for once in a lifetime deals on each of these and other components, YES you could buy a frame and build it up for a bit less than a complete bike, but how much is your time worth. If you can afford a $6,000 - $8,000 bike, my guess is a LOT!


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## Dunbar (Aug 8, 2010)

Yes, if you don't own any of those parts already it changes the value proposition. Many people spending $5k+ on a bike will be replacing the stock bars, stem and saddle before they take the bike out for the first ride. In that case the stock parts hold little to no value. The same thing is true of the medicore wheels that come on many bikes. In any event, Specialized clearly prefers to sell complete bikes vs. frames and their pricing structure bears that out. Many other brands offer their frames at a much bigger discount to a complete bike using the same frame.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

OldChipper said:


> Oh FFS fine! My point it that it's not hard to spend a grand or more to finish a build once you include all the "accessories." If you want to pick nits and browse the interwebs for once in a lifetime deals on each of these and other components, YES you could buy a frame and build it up for a bit less than a complete bike, but how much is your time worth. If you can afford a $6,000 - $8,000 bike, my guess is a LOT!



My example also makes the assumption that you're paying retail for the frame... who does that?


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

I'm just saying... I built up a Venge Pro Race frame set for WAY less than the MSRP on the Venge Pro Race complete... and my bike is Dura-ace 9000, while the complete is Ultegra 6800...


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## OldChipper (May 15, 2011)

TricrossRich said:


> My example also makes the assumption that you're paying retail for the frame... who does that?


Troll.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

OldChipper said:


> Troll.


Not trying to troll, seriously. I literally don't know anyone that paid MSRP for a bike. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some people that do it, but I've never heard of it personally. Here in the NJ/NYC area, most bike shops will wheel and deal and its my experience that they wheel and deal a little more on frame sets than they do on completes..... unless its a complete that has been sitting in the shop more more than a year, than its game on.


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## tom_h (May 6, 2008)

TricrossRich said:


> My example also makes the assumption that you're paying retail for the frame... who does that?


Agreed. 
Not unusual for a cycling club to have worked out member discounts with specific bike shops.
IME, 20-30% discounts may be available. Specialized typically provides a narrow window of opportunity with authorized shops, wherein group orders may be placed late in the calendar year (eg, 2014) for delivery of 2015 models in early 2015.


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## tyrich88 (Jul 12, 2013)

TricrossRich said:


> I'm just saying... I built up a Venge Pro Race frame set for WAY less than the MSRP on the Venge Pro Race complete... and my bike is Dura-ace 9000, while the complete is Ultegra 6800...


Your calculator is wrong. If you add up the parts on a Venge pro race, before you even get to the drivetrain, with the same build, you're at $6k... and I didn't even add bar tape into that! 

And the reality about shops giving discounts off of retail means that you could possibly get those discounts off of retail on those parts as well, but the complete packages come in cheaper than someone buying each part separately. that's kind of the point. Otherwise companies would only sell frames, because people change out parts all the time anyways.


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## Dunbar (Aug 8, 2010)

tyrich88 said:


> If you add up the parts on a Venge pro race, before you even get to the drivetrain, with the same build, you're at $6k... and I didn't even add bar tape into that!


The frame and wheels come to $4700. I'm not sure how you get to $6k without the drivetrain. It's also about getting a complete bike with the exact equipment you want on it rather than what Specialized specs on a particular model.


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## tyrich88 (Jul 12, 2013)

Dunbar said:


> The frame and wheels come to $4700. I'm not sure how you get to $6k without the drivetrain. It's also about getting a complete bike with the exact equipment you want on it rather than what Specialized specs on a particular model.


Frame: $2500
Wheels: $2200
Aerofly bars: $300
Turbo tires: $80
Romin Evo saddle: $130
Sworks Crank Arms: $300
Sworks Spider: $160
Sworks Chainrings: $225
Total comes to $5,715
Thats without adding the ultegra components and it's $215 over the price of the complete for the same EXACT build. 
Yes i know the cranks are part of a drivetrain, but they are a specific specialized product. Dura ace cranks run in the mid $400 range so yes that will save money, but every part on that bike is a premium part. So adding up the price of that bike at retail with Ultegra adds about $500 (online and discounted), which puts you at $6215 for the EXACT same build as the factory build. 
Dura ace 5 piece group is $925 (cheapest quick internet price i could find), so add $425 to that build. $6640 for a dura ace build. If you were to use dura ace cranks and BB, BB is lets say $100, cranks are ~$400. Saves you $285.. still at $6355.


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## tyrich88 (Jul 12, 2013)

Now, if they are used parts, that's a whole different ball game. Cheaper wheels will make a difference too. But i'm speaking in terms of THE SAME build. It doesn't make sense to piece a bike together. Easier to order a complete and sell the parts you don't want right off and put your preferred stuff on. You come out in a lot better shape money-wise.


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## Dunbar (Aug 8, 2010)

I guess those prices speak more to how overpriced some of the Specialized parts are (at least list price.) Ribble had a sale (ending today) where Ultegra was $556 and Dura Ace was $1181 with crank. Assuming an Ultegra build the frame and groupset would still leave you with $2450 for wheels, bars, stem, saddle and tires which is a pretty healthy budget. The other thing is a lot people already own nice wheels and/or use a different saddle/stem/bar so the stock parts don't hold much value to them.


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## tyrich88 (Jul 12, 2013)

Dunbar said:


> I guess those prices speak more to how overpriced some of the Specialized parts are (at least list price.) Ribble had a sale (ending today) where Ultegra was $556 and Dura Ace was $1181 with crank. Assuming an Ultegra build the frame and groupset would still leave you with $2450 for wheels, bars, stem, saddle and tires which is a pretty healthy budget. The other thing is a lot people already own nice wheels and/or use a different saddle/stem/bar so the stock parts don't hold much value to them.


Yeah. At least their cranks are pretty pricey, however, I have one ride in on my new set of them and i will say they feel pretty awesome so far. Their carbon handlebars actually aren't too bad compared to a lot of brands like Ritchey, Fizik, and 3T just to name a couple... I mean, $400+ for handlebars is kind of crazy.


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## tyrich88 (Jul 12, 2013)

Here's a suggestion for all of those wanting to customize a Venge. Buy the Venge Elite 105 and have that as your starting point. Here's why:
The frame is EXACTLY the same from the Elite all the way up to the Pro. The Pro frameset is $2500 and the Elite complete is $3000.
You can strip it down to the frame. Keep the parts you want and sell the rest. 105 should get you maybe around $400 or so, those cranks will get you a couple hundred as well. Once you sell off all of that, I would assume you would be sitting real pretty. And it has the same bar/stem combo as the sworks and everything else in between.


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## Dunbar (Aug 8, 2010)

tyrich88 said:


> Their carbon handlebars actually aren't too bad compared to a lot of brands


I could've sworn the Aerofly bars were $200 last year. They are good bars but at $300 they're getting into Zipp/Enve price territory.


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## spdntrxi (Jul 25, 2013)

229 was first MSRP


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## taodemon (Mar 17, 2014)

tyrich88 said:


> Here's a suggestion for all of those wanting to customize a Venge. Buy the Venge Elite 105 and have that as your starting point. Here's why:
> The frame is EXACTLY the same from the Elite all the way up to the Pro. The Pro frameset is $2500 and the Elite complete is $3000.
> You can strip it down to the frame. Keep the parts you want and sell the rest. 105 should get you maybe around $400 or so, those cranks will get you a couple hundred as well. Once you sell off all of that, I would assume you would be sitting real pretty. And it has the same bar/stem combo as the sworks and everything else in between.


Assuming you like the colors of the entry level frames and aren't getting an S-Works this is definitely the way to go. Shame that for me the color design on the venges seem to have gotten progressively worse each year. I really liked the 2012's, the 2013's were ok, 2014 meh, 2015 even ugly for some.


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