- It's the golden retriever of mountain bikes.
- Everybody loves golden retrievers, right?
- Except Kaz.
- Yeah, Kaz hates dogs everybody.
(all laugh)
- It's like a nice cat of mountain bikes.
(all laughing)
(upbeat energetic music)
- 12 Months ago,
we said that our mountain bike of the year
was Specialized, very capable and very adaptable,
Stumpjumper EVO.
Now, that brand is aiming to bring those same traits
to an aluminum version of that bike.
I'm Mike Levy here at the Fall Field Test
in a very rainy Pemberton.
And this bad boy is Specialized, appropriately named
Stumpjumper EVO Alloy.
150 millimeter traveled trail bike.
Rolling on 29 inch wheels
and sporting a long list of interesting features.
All right, we're gonna talk geometry next,
because that is probably the biggest selling feature
of this bike.
You could take the head angle anywhere from 63 degrees,
which is pretty slack for 150 millimeter travel bike,
all the way up to 65.5 degrees.
And that makes the Stumpjumper Alloy extremely adaptable.
The way that they're doing this is by adjusting the geometry
in two different places.
The big thing is up at the head-tube,
where there's an insert that you can change
the changes that head angle.
The other thing is a two position chainstay pivot.
You could also change that to affect the geometry.
Now, if you're like me and get confused by numbers over 10,
Specialized also offers a geometry calculator
on their website.
This is a pretty neat little thing.
You can either select the geometry for your terrain
or by the numbers you're looking for.
So if you're riding more smooth trails that are more level,
you can tell the geometry calculator that,
and it'll suggest the numbers for you.
Tell you where to make those changes.
Or, you can select the numbers you want and go from there.
Now, one last thing before we move on from geo,
Specialized is also selling something
that they're calling, the "Mullet Link".
It's exactly like what it sounds.
If you like small wheels,
you buy this aftermarket suspension link.
You put it on and it preserves the geometry,
so you're not lowering and slacking the bike out
more than you want to.
This link, it's $79 American,
and that includes the bearings.
So that's a pretty neat little upgrade.
Speaking of links,
let's talk about what's going on at the back of the bike.
Now, that is where you're gonna find
a Horst Link pivot
to help deliver 150 millimeters of travel.
The shock is a Fox Float X with the gold treatment,
and it gets all the usual adjustments.
There's gold upfront as well,
with 160 millimeter factory level, Fox 36.
Now all that adds up to 34.3 pounds.
But something tells me that most EVO Alloy owners
aren't really gonna be too concerned about weight.
For some perspective,
the Carbon S-Works version of this bike,
well it costs just a little less than twice as much,
and it weighs about four pounds less.
So you do the math there and figure out
if that's worth it for ya.
All right, I have blabbered on long enough
about all the details.
It's time to talk about how the new EVO Alloy
performs on the trail.
- It's time to talk
about how the new Stumpy EVO Alloy rides.
Of course, we're gonna talk climbing first.
Kaz, what's the story?
- Yep. I've spent a lot of time on the carbon version of it
and this one climbs just as well.
Maybe not that much as well,
because it is a little bit heavier, 34 pounds for this bike.
The carbon one is obviously gonna be lighter.
But weight aside it's a pretty efficient climber.
It's not as soft as previous generations where.
You know, Stumpjumper's used to sit a little bit deeper
in their trail.
That's my kind of tune doubt.
There's a custom tune on that shock,
so it feels pretty good.
You don't have to flip that climb switch.
We should also note that this has the most suspension travel
out of all the bikes in our aggressive trail category.
It's got 150 millimeters of travel.
And some people probably say, "It's not a trail bike".
And I would kind of agree.
You might call it an all mountain bike.
But we wanted to bring it in
because it was our bike of the year,
in the carbon version.
And it seems like it kind of slots into this category,
'cause it's not an Enduro bike.
- [Mike] Yeah - [Kaz] So I'm wondering.
That's why this bike got here and want to see out stack up
against these other ones.
- So when you're on the trail and it's wet,
and let's just pretend that it's wet and rudy
just for a few-
- Imagine that. - Just imagine.
What is traction like from the back of that bike?
It obviously pedals better,
but does that come with the cost of traction?
- For this particular bike, no.
It doesn't seem like it does.
I was honestly really impressed by this bike as a climber.
It is a little heavier than some of the bikes on test.
And we didn't have it spinning out
just because it feels super planted on the trail.
And so they have managed to balance
finding the suspension to be a good climber
without tuning it too much to be overly efficient.
- Alright, Kaz you mentioned something interesting there,
this is the longest travel, so-called trail bike
that we have here on test.
Does that work against the Stumpy EVO Alloy
when you're doing that slow technical tight stuff?
- I think it sort of can, but then we also have to mention
the crazy adjustable geometry,
[Mike] Right? - You can make this bike
have anywhere from a 63 degree to a 65 and a half degree-
- [Mike] 63! - Yeah.
Which is a lot.
And I've experimented with those in the past,
on the carbon version for this one.
And for this test,
we just kept it in the middle neutral side,
which is still a 64.5 degree head-tube angle.
So it's still fairly slack.
And I'd say kind of has climbed neutrally
compared to the Propain,
We keep going on about how that Propain feels so efficient.
And even that score.
I think both of those feel a little bit quicker,
just a little more energy there.
But the Stumpjumper, it's not sluggish I wouldn't say.
Just might not quite have the same snap
as that Propain does.
[Alicia] It's really, I think the most agreeable by contest,
it was the one that I could get on and feel right at home on
pretty much immediately.
And with all those adjustments we were just talking about,
it's not gonna be too anything really,
unless you're really meticulous about weight.
- Uh-hm.
Now we're gonna talk about one more thing
before we move on from climbing.
That's the efficiency test.
And these results, I'm not gonna lie I'm sort of surprised.
I wouldn't have bet that the Specialized would be in-
- [Kaz] First place tied with the Raaw Jibb.
- [Alicia] Yeah, that was a shock. (laughs)
- [Kaz] I don't know, it's science.
You can't argue with science, right?
- I don't believe it one bit.
- Well, it happened. - That Propain had to win.
- Yeah, we've got it on video.
And we cut the power down.
Same power, same climb.
- The video is doctored, it's not real.
- Maybe. I don't know.
(all laughing)
Got some conspiracy theorists sitting next to me.
But, either way it did tie for first place for efficiency.
- The climbing is behind us.
We're gonna talk about descending.
First things first, let's go back to that suspension.
Alicia, what did you think of it?
- I thought it was pretty well supportive.
I mean, it's hard to review this bike,
because it's just so middle of road and so agreeable
and so well done.
But, it seems like it does tick all the boxes
for something that's gonna absorb small bumps really well.
It's gonna absorb big hits really well.
It has good bottom out resistance.
It does kind of...
- All the things. - All the things.
- Yeah. - Yap!
Kaz, do you have any critical words about the suspension?
- Not any harsh, critical words.
I think if I was gonna be hitting more jumps
or more kind of smoother flowy trails, a lot of G outs,
I might put a larger volume spacer in the rear shock.
But that's an easy thing to do.
I'm not sure what's in there right now,
but you can put a bigger spacer in there.
Give you a little more bottom out resistance.
- [Mike] Were you using up to much shovel.
- Sometimes it just felt like
it was going a little bit deeper only on bigger hits.
Like it was fine,
I didn't have any harsh bottoms out bottom outs,
but you know, depending on the terrain,
I think the way that it comes stock
is a good starting point for most riders.
- Right.
Alicia, I know that you could set this bike up
with a super low bottom bracket if you wanted,
but I think you guys are riding it
in the neutral position all around.
- Um-hm.
- Tell me about cornering.
- I think it could definitely corner a tiny bit better
if you did ride it in the low position.
And you could make it a super aggressive,
almost Enduro bike, if you want it to.
And that's the thing about the bike.
It can be pretty much whatever you want it to.
It's really versatile.
It can be a good climber.
It can be a good descender.
It can be neutral, neutral, neutral.
- With the 63 degree ahead angle,
you could take it all sorts of places Kaz.
- Yeah, and I've done that with the carbon one.
But even in this position,
in the neutral 64.5 degree head-tube angle,
we definitely took in some trails that again,
probably not for trail bikes necessarily,
but they're so fun that we had to go ride them
because it's for our job, you know.
- [Mike] Right. - [Kaz] Yeah.
- [Alicia] This is a kind of bike too we just forgot about
when we were riding the gnarly stuff.
We weren't thinking about what the bike was doing
because it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
- Which really underlines a lot of Specialized bikes
for the last few years.
Is, to be honest with you guys,
they get hard to review
because they kind of do all the things well
where we get some bikes in
that have some outstanding traits.
That's not the case with the Specialized.
It's kind of just good in all the places.
- [Kaz] Yeah. And it's not boring either.
You can have bikes that are good, but they're almost bland.
But this bike, it's just super fun to ride.
And I think that it has that little bit extra travel.
You know, 150, the other ones are 140.
And I think that gives you that little extra edge
to get out of times when you make a mistake, you know,
get a little offline and there's some chunky rocks.
It's a little bit easier to correct your mistakes basically.
- Right.
Before we move on from descending,
we have to talk about timed testing.
Alicia, how did this bike do on the downhills?
- [Alicia] So the Stumpy was actually fourth place
out of six for both Kaz and I.
Interestingly, we had the same ranking for all the bikes,
but the first four bikes were really, really close.
So it's hard to differentiate on our test track,
which is one lap per bike,
which of those is actually the best.
Because it was about separated within a second and a half,
but fourth place for both of us.
- [Mike] So even though this bike
didn't have the fastest time,
is this still one of your top bikes that you would choose
if you were riding around and stuff?
- Yeah I think so.
Especially for rowdy stuff.
You know, just because again,
you can make it slacker and it has a little extra travel.
And we kind of talked about, with some of the other bikes,
whether you would want to potentially race an Enduro race,
even though they're not Enduro bikes.
And this this is the bike
I could roll up to an Enduro race and just be fine.
- I think that's saying a lot Kaz.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Let's talk about component highs and lows,
things that we'd liked about the spec.
But first, what didn't we like about spec?
Didn't it go wrong?
- Nothing went terribly wrong for us.
But when Matt had the bike before
he did have the star ratchet in the rear hub blowout,
to some extent.
and that's less than ideal.
I don't think we have quite an explanation
for why that happened.
- No, I think they had a bad batch this year.
We've had a few bikes with DT Swiss star ratchet rings
they kind of slipping past each other.
It seems like a manufacturing thing.
Hopefully they can address- - Seems like a bad thing.
- Yeah, 'cause in the past
they've always been, you know, relatively bomb-proof.
But in the last year or so there have been some issues.
But put the placements in,
definitely put them on some steep,
crunty climbs around here and they've been holding up.
But something to consider.
Hopefully they could sort it out in the future
- Another thing Kaz, that you mentioned to me,
is that the bike was almost unrideable with a 50 mil stem.
You had to put a 40 mil on it.
- So hard to ride.
(all laughing)
No, but in all seriousness, the size large,
as for one that we have, does come with a 50 mil stem.
It's gonna work for some riders,
but these kinds of bikes, just personal preference,
but I prefer a 40 mil stem.
And most bikes these days
do seem like they're kind of gravitating towards
that 40 mil option.
Easier swap out,
but it's nice if you don't have to swap it at all.
So, I'd like the 40,
50 is not the end of the world though.
- Yeah.
What are some other stand out parts on this bike?
- I have to mention the swat box.
This is the first Alloy bike from Specialized
that comes with that.
And we had a few bikes here on Test
that had little storage compartments,
but the swat box is still, by far, the biggest and the best.
It comes with really great suspension on it,
just to start off.
especially on the model that we had.
And then there's that OneUp Dropper post,
which gives 180 millimeters of drop.
compared to some of the shorter ones I've seen
specked on trail bikes.
And bikes, they have such short seat-tubes at this point
they might as well put long droppers on.
These are large bikes, let's get a good drop.
- We're gonna talk models,
pricing and value next.
now with Specialized, there are whole models to chose from.
Alicia, which bike are you picking
if you're spending your own money?
- Using my own money, honestly the base model
is such good value.
And that's why I think the EVO Alloys represents.
it's good parts, it's a great bike.
You can upgrade things one by one,
rather than having to start with say,
an $11,000 Carbon S-Works version, which is, you know,
triple the price of the entry-level one.
So I would go with the entry-level from 3,800.
- Kaz? - We can go a little higher.
I'm gonna stick with the model we have again,
but you know, $5,600,
It's not cheap, but it's also not crazy expensive.
And you know, you get a good value.
You get those Code RS brakes,
GX Drivetrain, just kind of work course components.
And good suspension, which, you know,
that's the important part.
Good brakes, good suspension.
The other stuff can get upgraded further down the line
if you wanted to.
And it's something you can just roll off
the showroom floor with and not need to switch things out.
- We're gonna start with the good stuff first.
Kazimer? - Yeah.
We keep saying lots of good stuff about this bike-
- I know - But there's a reason.
I think the number one thing is that adjustable geometry,
just because the adjustments are effective
and you can really customize the bike to how you'd like it.
So anywhere from kind of more moderate trails,
but still aggressive.
We have to stress it is a 150 bike.
You shouldn't be getting this
If you're gonna go ride super chill, cross country trails.
But if you want to do a mix of everything,
this bike can do it.
Or if you want to ride some more gnarly stuff,
it's 63 head angle, it's pretty slack.
It is downhill bike territory for that head angle.
So it's nice to be able to adjust that
without needing to buy anything extra.
- Alicia, I'm gonna make you be super critical here.
You've got to think of something critical to say
about this damn bike before we get out of here.
What is it?
- [Alicia] I'd have to say that it's not as snappy
as some of the peddlers out there.
The Propain, for example, has so much get-up-and-go
that this bike can't a hundred percent compete with.
- Who would best suit this type of thing.
- I think it is that person
that's looking for that elusive one bike
that does everything.
We'll never say the other word that people use to say,
that bike that has everything 'cause I hate-
- What bike, what was that?
There's like two words, It's like a key-
- With a hyphen?
Yeah, we're not gonna say that.
But it is a good bike if you wanna have the one bike
for riding a bunch of trails.
And say, you want to mix it up,
hit the bike park every once in a while,
maybe toss some shuttle laps in there,
maybe do a race here and there.
This bike can handle that.
- [Mike] All right. And that is it
for Specialized, new Stumpy, EVO Alloy.
Let us know what you think of this thing in the comments.
Does it make sense?
Do you like how adjustable it is?
Would you take the head angle down to 63 degrees
or would you keep it steep at 65 and a half?
And remember to like and subscribe,
so you don't miss any Field Test videos,
especially the Huck to Flat that's coming up soon.