2013 Specialized Mountain Bike Highlights – New S-Works Enduro XX1, Camber, Carve, More!

If the 2013 Specialized Road, Cross and Commuter bikes didn’t light your fire, here’s the new mountain bikes.

Where the original Enduro was more a freeride bridge between their Stumpjumper and the Demo, the new model nods toward “enduro” racer as well. The 2013 Enduro gets an all-new frame with “all-mountain” geometry that’s a bit more spritely and responsive when you hop out of the saddle. New suspension kinematics and linkage positions don’t let it sit quite as far into the suspension travel, which they say makes it feel more lively.

There’s now 165mm of travel (up from 160mm) using a new shock linkage that pivots on cartridge bearings rather than DU bushings, and it drives into the shock directly rather than mounting one end on another pivot. Other features are a PFBB30 bottom bracket, 142 rear thru-axle and ISCG05 chainguide tabs on all models.

On the S-Works Enduro, you’ll get the new SRAM XX1 1×11 group and a chainguide. It’ll ship with two chainrings, letting your tune the gear ratio to your local rides.

Not just for free riding anymore. The frames drop about 120g on the carbon models and 80g on the alloy ones, all while maintaining the same stiffness.

The S-Works model uses a custom Cane Creek Double Barrel Air shock (others will come with Fox AutoSag self-setting valve), their Command Post Blacklite dropper seatpost and tubeless ready Roval Traverse SL carbon fiber wheels. Note the slim new linkage arm rotating on bearings at all points. Lower models will all come with the Fox AutoSag shocks, making set up quick and easy.

S-Works model gets an e*thirteen chainguide…just in case.

The XX1 Horizon rear derailleurs horizontal parallelogram up close.

A couple angles on the XX1 rear derailleur.

Internal cable routing even for the dropper post.

There will be various carbon and alloy frames throughout the price range. For those looking to get a little more, um, specialized, they’ll offer the 180mm coil-spring EVO models and an all-new 100mm Enduro SX slalom race frame. Claimed weights for medium are 25.9lbs for S-Works, 27.5lbs for Expert Carbon and 29.7lbs for alloy Comp. These are photo sample weights and may change in final production.

CAMBER 29

The Camber gets a new M5 alloy frame and the AutoSag shocks. The goal was to improve the overall XC/Trail performance and let it fit a broader range of riders. On size small, there’s a 23mm lower stand over height, putting it within 1mm of the 2012 26″ Camber. The large is 26mm lower. In order to do that, the top tube has to get lower, which means the downtube has to get lower. To prevent the fork crown from crashing into the downtube, the Small frames get a Crown Stop rubber bumper that bolts into the tube.

The suspension gets an entirely new linkage system similar to the Stumpjumper but with one less pivot. The upper pivot at the end of the seatstays is a concentric pivot that doubles as the pivot for the lower shock mount. It not only simplifies things, but they say it adds about 10% stiffness and saves weight.

It’ll have the “widest spec range of any FSR trail bike”, which should put the Camber in reach of more riders. The current Camber Comp 29 at $2,750 is a pretty solid deal for a 110mm travel, so it’ll be interesting to see how much lower they take it…there will be at least one model under $2,000 with Shimano Deore and a pretty decent wheel/tire combo (wheel system weight on it is the same as last years’ entry level 26″ model). All models get either Fox or Rockshox shocks with AutoSag. They also use a modified Fox shocks on bikes spec’d as such, which uses Fox’s new lighter lowers with the long travel stanchions.

Claimed weight range goes from 31.5lbs for the base model down to 25.8lbs for the Pro. An Carbon Evo model will get carbon cranks and a SID fork and is aimed at the marathon racing crowd.

Oh, and there’s no more 26″ Camber, it’s a 29er only platform now.

CARVE 29er HARDTAIL

Privateer racers will like that the Carve M4 alloy hardtail 29er has lost some weight for 2013. It maintains features like the shaped bridgeless seatstays, tapered seat tube and 27.2 seatpost that add a bit of compliance, but gets a shorter headtube to accommodate a 100mm fork and a slightly higher BB for better maneuverability while still having mostly race-oriented geometry. All models also get an air-sprung fork and a lighter wheelset.

DEMO, STUMPJUMPER & EPIC NOTES

The Stumpjumper hardtail and Epic FSR bikes will get a SRAM XX1 drivetrain option at the top end, and both will ship with two chainrings for tuning the gear ratio.

The Epic FSR bikes all get the new Solo Air Rockshox forks and AutoSag shocks with a new air can that’s tuned to be more sensitive to small bumps. More of the bikes will get decal-only graphics, which saves upwards of 80g over fully painted models. A new Epic FSR 29er Marathon settles in between models for someone looking between the Expert and S-Works bikes.

The Stumpjumper 29er EVO gets the same decals only treatment, and there’s a new rigid carbon fork called Chisel. It’s a full carbon monocoque fork that comes in at 580g. The fork works with their OS28 front hubs, but you can run standard QR wheels, too. It’ll be available aftermarket, too, but pricing isn’t set.

The 2013 Carbon Demo 8 was unveiled earlier this year, but they wanted to reinforce that they were able to drop a full pound out of the frame and add adjustability. Full post on that here. Some of the highlights are the 9T special Shimano cassette on custom DT-Swiss freehubs. It uses fewer cogs, which let them make the rear axle spacing 135mm wide. This narrower stance improves heel clearance, and the smaller cassette lets them run a smaller front chainring, which reduces the likelihood they’ll case and destroy it mid-run. This is only found on the S-Works Team Edition frame, others use a more standard cassette and 150mm rear spacing. It’ll come spec’d with a Vivid rear shock out of the box and a certificate for the prototype shock that their team’s riding when Rockshox makes it official later this year.

Below that, the new Carbon Demo 8 1 uses the same front carbon fiber triangle with an aluminum link rather than magnesium and the 150mm rear spacing. It’s a more affordable build, but maintains a high end DHX RC4 rear shock. Two alloy models remain in the line, and claimed weights are all under 40lbs, with the S-Works Team Edition coming in at a claimed 35.8lbs.