Was in the LBS yesterday getting the finishing touches put on my new S-Works SL4 when something caught my eye. There in all its glory was the first customer delivered S-Works McLaren Venge in Australia.
Pictures just don't do this bike justice. The neon orange-esque hue of the McLaren colour scheme really pops when you are looking at in the flesh with your own eyes. I saw one in the wild earlier in the week being piloted up a hill by a certain Saxo Bank professional and the orange stuck out like Darth Vader's light sabre in the dim light of a grey overcast morning.
This is the first of only a handful of McLaren Venge's that will make it to Australia; so fresh out of the box was this one that it had only built the night before and hadn't even had the tyres glued yet.
I'm sure you've read-up on the specs of this bike, but in case you have been living on Mars the McLaren Venge comes with the Zipp 404 Tubulars, Zipp SL Speed Stem and Vuka Aero Sprint bars. Not to mention Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 group and EE Cycleworks brakes mated perfectly to the uber-chic Mclaren frame-fork module.
I was speaking to the owner of Total Rush and he was saying that despite the $18,000 price tag; he had enough interest to easily sell out his allocation more than two times over.
As a first hit-out of the Specialized - McLaren collaboration the Venge is a massive winner; especially if you consider how much press this bike has attracted since it was announced earlier in the year and the win on its debut under the legs of Matthew Goss at Milan San Remo.
I for one am really excited to see what they roll out next; especially if it includes the rumoured S-Works McLaren SL4!
~VL
