Specialized goes colourful - for the gods of sport

The cycling competitions at the Olympic Games are coming up - and Specialized is lifting the curtain on which bikes the athletes will be competing on. With the "Torch Collection", special painted bikes will be at the start in Rio, which change their paint color when the temperature changes, the wind blows, water or skin comes into contact with them.

"3,000 years ago, it was customary for the Greeks to celebrate sporting highlights with a fire. With our Torch collection, we pay tribute to the gods of sport and literally take the fire into the competition," says Sebastian Maag from Specialized.

The Torch collection looks almost alive thanks to its special transformative paint finish: Due to temperature changes, wind, water and skin contact, the bright orange changes to a torch-bright neon yellow on the bikes, helmets and shoes of the pros who compete on "Big S" bikes. Of course, the metamorphosis should also work the other way around - the paint returns to its original color.

Specialized is launching this technology with the Evade road racer and the S-Works Epic Frameset marathon bike. Other products in the Torch collection come without color-changing paint, but with an Olympic torch look.

And who will be riding this transformative paint job at the Olympics? Mountain bike athletes Jaroslav Kulhavy, Annika Langvad, Simon Andreassen, Same Gaze, Peter Sagan, Lea Davison and Howard Grotts will be rolling up to the start line equipped in this way.

www.specialized.com