The new Specialized Fuse (men’s) and Ruze (women’s) trail hardtails are built from ground up for their 27.5+ (6fatty) wheels and tires, tailoring the geometry to the new tire size and introducing new parts and frame designs to go along with it.
Both bikes will come with new Ground Control 27.5 x 3.0 tires that tip the scales around 900g, and they’ll have Purgatory 27.5 x 3.0 (around 1000g) available separately if you need something more aggressive. Both have a 60tpi folding bead tubeless ready carcass, and the Pro model will have them wrapped around new 38mm wide (inside) welded alloy Roval Fatty rims laced to Boost 148 and 110 hubs.
The tires may have inspired the new bike, but it’s the unique design that makes them fit…
With a 3.0 tire, there’s not much room left for the chainstay to fit between the tire and chainring. Trek solved this by raising the chainstay above the chain on their Stache+. Specialized created the Diamond Stay, which split the tube above and below its usual position between the tire and chainrings, letting them keep the tire tucked in tight for better handling and maintaining normal chainring sizes.
It’s one large forged piece that includes the cable touting guides.
All have three water bottle bosses, and the top of the line Pro model comes with their SWAT tool carrying bottle cage…
…and and top cap kit.
All use a four piston front brake and two piston rear, a combination Specialized folks said balanced the braking properly for these bikes. The top two get SRAM hydro, comp gets TRP Slate.
All of them get a 1x drivetrain, and the Expert and Comp models use a 1×10 group pairing a 11-40 10-speed Sunrace cassette with GX/X7 derailleurs respectively. The cranks are new Specialized Stout crank with 76BCD cranks and designed for Boost-spaced chainrings.
A slacker 67° head angle adds trail and makes it a more aggressive all-mountain hardtail. Chainstays are 430mm. They chose this tire size because the outside diameter is the same as a 29×2.3, so you could run this as a 29er, too. The Pro is using those new Roval rims, the Comp and Expert get wider WTB Scraper i45 rims.
The women’s Ruze uses a dropped top tube for better standover clearance. The components use the same quality level of spec, but the travel and dimensions are changed a bit. The Ruze uses a narrower handlebar, and the fork and dropper post have different travel. The suspension fork is 120mm on the Fuse, and 100mm on the Ruze.
Three models will be offered: Pro ($3,100), Expert ($2,100) and Comp ($1,600). Available mid May with the Pro following in June.
All come with the a dropper post, with the two lower levels getting a TranzX post that is custom tuned for Specialized. The Pro gets the new Command Post IRCC dropper post (Internal Remote Cruise Control). The Command Post uses several indexed positions in its travel, unlike the infinite positioning of something like a Reverb. The “CC” addition to the acronym refers to a series of 12 additional indents placed in rapid succession in the middle position. While they mentioned it allows more positions in the “cruising” height, the effect is really that it’s just much, much easier to get it to stop at the intermediate positions without dropping all the way past it. In my experience riding a Command Post, it was all too easy to blow right past that first stop, but these additional positions spread across what felt like about a 2.5cm section, gave the tactile feedback needed to stop it before it blew past. For those that like a stepped dropper over infinitely variable, this is a win.
The remote lever can be mounted to a standard SRAM shifter/brake clamp. The new Command Post IRCC will be available with 75, 100 and 125mm drops. On the Ruse, small frame sizes get the 75mm, others get 100mm. For the Ruse, small gets a 100mm and the others get the 125mm.
The new Specialized Rumor 650B gets an all new frame to use the mid-sized wheels. It joins the current Rumor 29er, offering a full range of frame sizes (s/m/l) in both wheel sizes.
A bump stop added to Small/Medium frames keeps the fork from knocking the downtube and over rotating.
Travel is set at 130mm front, 125mm rear, with suspension custom tuned for smaller, lighter riders.
A slacker 68.5º head tube angle gives it more trail-ready handling, and some of these changes are likely to make their way to the 29er Rumor soon. Chainstay length is obviously shorter than its larger wheeled sister, and stand over is a bit lower at 695mm for the Small.
The Rumor also gets the new IRCC dropper post and adds internal routing to the frame, and it’s accessorized with the SWAT bottle cage and top cap.
It uses aggressive Purgatory / Ground Control 2.3 tires (F/R) on Traverse wheels with 29mm inside rim width. Cockpit has 700mm wide bars with Myth saddle. Cranks are 165/170/175 millimeters long depending on frame size.
Available now in three models: Base level Rumor FSR ($2,200), Comp ($2,700) and Expert ($4,800).
On the apparel and accessory side, the Ambush helmet is a new full coverage trail helmet that’ll come in men’s and women’s colorways. Weight is 279 without visor and uses a new retention system that pulls the cradle al the way around the head:
The small silver dial at the pulls the thin plastic retention straps, which wrap all the way around the inside of the helmet (under the pads up front) before connecting to the cranium cradle in the back. The effect is that it constricts in 360º rather than just pulling the rear cradle tighter. It’s a pretty clever design.
Not shown, there’s a new women’s SWAT vest that’s a thin material with extra pockets and storage in the back, and a new MTB Pro men’s SWAT bib, which upgrades to the SL Pro chamois and wider shoulder straps. I’ve ridden some of the standard SWAT bibs and they’re pretty comfortable.
