After I raced the 2014 Leadville 100 aboard the fully revamped S-Works Epic, I rode away saying that Specialized had finally reached this race bike鈥檚 pinnacle of design. A year later, the company is still tinkering鈥攁nd the bike just keeps improving.
On the face of it, the new 聽is not a major overhaul from past versions. Last year鈥檚 iteration made the most significant development by shrinking down the cam size on the shock and bumping it up to make room for two full size water bottles in the main triangle. No other full suspension bike has that sort of space, and the fact that the company even packed their SWAT box storage solution into the frame kind of seems like they were thumbing their noses at the competition.
However, a closer look reveals a development this year that鈥檚 almost as interesting as last year鈥檚 frame configuration. For the first time ever, the Epic is equipped with a dropper post. The new 聽has only 35mm of travel (as compared to 100mm or 125mm on their trail-oriented Blacklite and Command Post IR), which critics will inevitably bellyache isn鈥檛 enough. It definitely feels pretty diminutive when you first ride it, but that鈥檚 partly because I鈥檓 used to more space. Once I got used to it, I started to appreciate the short-travel design. It鈥檚 important because Specialized has developed the post just for XC use (as well as their adventure road bike the Diverge), and they鈥檝e done it without increasing weight.
The weight is the other shock about this year鈥檚 Epic. Despite the new dropper, this bike is over two pounds lighter than last year鈥檚 model. It tipped my scale at a whisker over 21 pounds, and that was with two cages, the SWAT box, tools, spare tube, inflator, and air canister still on the bike. With those things removed, this new bike would surely dip down near鈥攐r under鈥20 pounds.
Yep, the $12,000 price tag is astonishingly high The only rebuttal: this bike is the pinnacle of design and continues to push the boundaries of what's possible. It should be expensive.
Part of the weight savings comes from the fork, which pairs the benefits of the inverted design (added stiffness, lower weight, small bump compliance, and better durability) with Specailized鈥檚 proprietary Brain system. The idea of the latter is to keep the platform on to prevent bob, but allow the fork to open fully for big hits. This version of the design is the best I鈥檝e seen as there are five separate settings, accessible from the riding position, for fine-tuning the platform. So far, the RS-1 feels like the perfect complement to the Epic鈥檚 hard, fast, racy feel and will hopefully alleviate some of the clogging issues the company had with last year鈥檚 SID World Cup design.
The other notable change is the new Shimano XTR, which finally takes the Japanese company to 11 speeds in the rear. Interestingly, Specialized has gone with the two-ring configuration in the front (36/26). I imagine some 1×11 devotees will complain about this, and it鈥檚 true that losing a ring and front shifter would have shaved more weight.
It鈥檚 worth noting, however, that Shimano is advocating the 2x setup for 95 percent of the population, excluding the strongest racers, as they feel the 1x leaves most riders with too few gears. I tend to agree. I don鈥檛 mind the 2×11 for the endurance races I do, as the longer you ride the more you want smaller grannie options to keep your legs fresh. But the good news for anyone who wants a single is that, unlike SRAM, the new crank can easily shift from one to two to three chain rings. In any case, the XTR components work as beautifully as ever.
I can already hear the howls of outrage over the $12,000 price tag. Yep, it鈥檚 astonishingly high, and few people are going to pay full price for this bike. The only rebuttal is that this bike is the pinnacle of design and continues to push the boundaries of possibility鈥攊t should be expensive. Moreover, Specialized has eight models of the bike all the way down to $3,100. And the more they pour into research on these halo bikes, the more innovations that trickle down to those more affordable rides. You and I might never afford (or even want to afford) a $12,000 mountain bike, but the ones we pay a quarter of the price for benefit from the S-Works design team.
Now if you鈥檒l excuse me, I鈥檓 going to go ride this Epic before I have to return it.