SPECIALIZED S-WORKS EPIC 8
£12,000 The easiest-to-ride bike we’ve ever tested
Specialized have upped the travel of their top-flight race bike, to ensure it’s capable of hitting the gnarliest cross-country lines. It retains some of the more progressive geometry in the XC field, too. New for this year is automatic, wireless suspension adjustment courtesy of RockShox’s new Flight Attendant-equipped SID fork and SIDLuxe shock, co-launched with the bike last month.
THE FRAME
The frame of this top-end S-Works model is built from Spesh’s high-modulus ‘FACT 12m’ carbon fibre. A single-pivot swingarm delivers 120mm of rear-wheel travel – 20mm more than on the previous Epic – with flexstays used instead of a rear pivot to drive the shock-actuating rocker link. The chassis has a new steering block and updated down tube storage, but grams have been saved, via features such as a moulded-in (not bonded-on) upper shock mount.
With the geometry flip-chip in its ‘low’ position, the bike has a slack-for-XC 65.9-degree head angle and 75.5-degree seat tube angle. Both can be steepened by 0.6 degrees. The large size we tested has a 475mm reach.
THE KIT
Roval carbon rims fitted with Spesh’s Renegade and FastTrak tyres create a lightweight wheelset, and SRAM’s wireless XX SL Eagle AXS Transmission continues the theme, as does the one-piece Roval bar/stem. The RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post is heavier than some, but ties in with the rest of the electronics.
The big news is the Flight Attendant system. This links the accelerometer-equipped SID Ultimate fork and
