Besides Ned Overend’s race 29er Epic, Conrad Stoltz had his Specialized 29er on the workstand.  The Xterra World Champion had some interesting parts spec, like some virtually square chainrings a la bio-pace shapes.  Seriously, they’re crazy, and they look like they’ve seen a ton of wear.
Hit “more” for lots of photos and some more views of the frame.  For the “official” run down, check the video from our other post…
Click on any of the images to enlarge.  Check the chainrings:
These are O Symetric.  Funny, because I thought the Specialized team had a sponsorship deal with Rotor.
SRAM XO twister shifters, Avid Ultimate levers and Titec bar.  The Specialized / RockShox fork is the same as the other bikes we’ve covered.
This part is a little concerning…having the cables run along the bottom of the BB shell and hanging so far down seems like a recipe for disaster.  I did see some R&D looking folks talking about this and mushing the cables around as I photographed, so perhaps this will change for production models…although given the number of frames on demo, my guess is they’re pretty much just waiting around for the SRAM XX stuff to start shipping them.
The front derailleur mounts to the swingarm.
Both Conrad’s and Ned’s bikes had “Epic Comp” on the top tube.  Our conversations indicate the Marathon will be the top of the line Epic 29er at launch, though Specialized’s marketing guy Nic Sims did indicate there will likely be an S-Works trim level in the not-too-distant future.  Considering these won’t really get into the retail stream until just before Interbike, the S-Works model may debut there for release early next year.  If the Marathon ships with the carbon-crowned fork and SRAM XX, though, there’s really not going to be much else to top it short of a carbon frame. Hmmmm…..
Note the recess in the seat tube to give the front derailleur room to move forward and back with the rear wheel’s travel.
