- [Man] Nimbility. - Yeah.
- [Man] Is that's the word? - Yeah (indistinct).
That's a word. - [Man] Okay.
(upbeat music)
- There's been a Stumpjumper
in Specialized catalog since way back in 1981.
And while the new version doesn't look a whole lot different
from its predecessor, it's actually an entirely new bike.
Now it's 130 millimeter travel 29er,
with 140 millimeter fork.
That's designed to do everything that a trail bike should.
Let's talk suspension first and the big news here,
no horst-link suspension layout.
What's a horst-link?
It's basically a four-bar system
where that rear pivot sits below the axle.
And it's generally known to create an active and forgiving
suspension system that can provide a ton of traction.
But on this bike, Specialized ditches
that horst pivot and the sealed bearings
instead using a flex pivot up on the seat stay,
that said to be a whole lot lighter
while creating a different feeling suspension platform.
That makes this a single pivot Stumpjumper
with the linkage driven shock
to deliver that 130 millimeters of travel.
It also employs a lightly tuned digressive piston
in the shock that helps peddling performance
and a progressive rebound tune
that helps the shock rebound quickly from small impacts
in slower and more controlled from big ones.
Onto frame details
and Specialized says that a lot of what they learned
making that new crazy light Epic,
was also put to use to make the new Stumpy frame.
It's claimed to weigh 2,240 grams.
And that's about a 100 grams less than its predecessor
and about 510 grams less
than the Stumpy Evo frame.
SWAT is back of course,
with that hole in the down too being lighter
and stiffer than ever before.
And you're also gonna find all of the other trail bike
must haves including,
pass through cable routing, threaded bottom bracket,
ISCG tabs and plenty of tire clearance.
Let's talk about geometry next
and Specialized doing something called S-sizing,
that's a little bit different.
All of the bikes have pretty short seat tubes
and then they vary in wheel base and reach.
With the idea being,
that you pick a bike that best suits the handling
that you're looking for.
Sizing runs from S1
which is 410 millimeters all the way up to S6,
which is 530 millimeters of reach.
And Specialized says that if you were on a medium
on another brand spike, you might be on an S3 from them.
Now if you wanted more stability, you can move up to an S4,
which has a longer reach and a longer wheel base
or if you wanted more nimbility,
you could drop down to an S2
for shorter wheel base and shorter reach.
I'm five foot 10
and this is an S4 with a 475 millimeter reach.
The feel is pretty bang on for me.
There's a flip chip up in the rearward shock mount
and that gives you
seven millimeters of bottom bracket height change
and half a degree of angle adjustment.
All right, let's look at some other numbers
and all of these are in the low slack setting
because that's what you're gonna put it in
and that's probably where you're gonna leave it.
The head angle, 65 degrees and a 76 degrees seat angle,
which is considerably steeper than the previous Stumpy.
Let's take a look at the new Stumpjumper family,
aluminum bikes well there's two models to pick from
they're $3,200 and $2,200.
And I should mention that both of those
still use horst-link suspension.
Specialized says that it's pretty hard to make
an aluminum flex pivot down there.
Carbon bikes start at the comp model,
which is $4,000 American.
And there are a few models between that and this the S-works
$9,500 American and you get all the things.
This has an AXS drive train, carbon revolve wheels
and factory level suspension from Fox.
It also has an AXS dropper post
and all that wireless stuff
makes for a really clean, nice cockpit.
All that adds up to 27 pounds, six ounces, as you see it.
And that includes our control tires as well.
Those are all the details on the new Stumpy.
So let's jump on over and talk about how it rides.
(upbeat music)
- Let's talk set up before we talk riding
and field test means control tires.
So that's exactly what the Specialized got.
There's a DHF upfront, that's inflated at 21 PSI
and there's a dissector outback that's inflated to 23 PSI
and no inserts.
Fox factory suspension
there's a 34 with a grip to damper cartridge.
I was on the high side
of the recommended air pressures there
and I used their recommended damper settings in the fork.
For the rear,
I ended at going at 13 millimeter sag on the shock shaft
and to get that was just under 180 PSI.
One other note,
this came with the stock access shifter paddle,
but I did install that new one
that I've been liking a whole bunch.
(bright upbeat music)
Climbing comes first
and the story with the previous Specialized is that,
well, the previous Stumpy wasn't a bad climber,
it was just a bike that you would often reach down
to flick the pedal assist switch
when you want it to do some of the saddle climbing.
It was fairly active, but it gave you a ton of traction.
Now that the horst-link gone
is it a different story with the new Stumpy?
And the answer, very much is yes.
I would describe the new Stumpy
as a bike that rewards your hard efforts.
When I was riding this bike,
when I was out of the saddle working
the bike felt like it wanted to go forward fast as well.
You don't want some of those bikes,
you get at the seat and you're peddling hard
and it's just like, yeah, we'll get there.
The bike is saying like, yeah,
we're gonna get there we'll get there.
You get at the seat on this bike pedal hard,
and it just goes, it's full of energy and full of life.
And that means that I also feel like I was full of energy
So, does it come down to that digressive piston
or is it the layout change?
I'm not entirely sure, but one thing that I do know,
is that people who love to climb,
people who wanna be rewarded for their hard efforts,
well, the Stumpjumper, this latest one,
it's gonna do exactly that.
Far better than its predecessor.
Let's talk about traction,
especially, common knowledge would have you believe
that a four-bar horst-link bike
would provide more of it than something like this.
And you know what?
That might be true.
That previous Stumpy with the horst-link layout,
yeah, it might provide a bit more traction in this bike,
but I never spun out, I never dabbed.
That's not true (laughs).
I dabbed a couple of times, but it was always my fault.
Dabs are, they're usually rider air.
They're not down to the bike.
And I didn't feel like I was being held back
anymore on this bike
when traction was the deciding factor
compared to the old version.
Now, a lot of my climbing,
when I was on the Stumpy was fairly technical,
fairly rudy and fairly wet, pretty slow speed
and some of it was steep as well.
It's been a very wet fall here so far and no,
I didn't really have any trouble on this bike
and I didn't dab any more than any others.
So there you have it.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, it's time to talk about going back down.
And if you read the PB comments,
when this new Stumpy was released,
you might be under the impression
that if you didn't have a horst-link suspension
that you literally can't ride the bike down a hill.
the suspension won't work,
you're gonna to flip over the handlebars.
And that'll be that.
That's not the case at all.
I felt the 130 millimeters was relatively active
and while it wasn't nearly as supple as bikes,
like the P-Train that uses a coil sprung shock,
or like that Salsa Blackthorn
that has an extra 10 millimeters of travel,
it's still very supple and very forgiving.
Now I was a bit concerned about that digressive piston,
which is why I wanted to mention
how supple and active the suspension feels.
That digressive piston provides
a little bit extra low speed compression damping
at the top of the travel,
that really gives the bike a little bit of life
to the peddling,
but it doesn't seem to detract from the suspension action
on the trail.
No, it doesn't feel like it has more than 130 millimeters,
but it definitely doesn't feel like it has less
than 130 millimeters of travel
and at the opposite end of the stroke.
Well, the story is pretty much the same.
I used all the travel
a handful of times smashing into things
that I probably shouldn't have been hitting that hard,
but it was never a giant clang.
And I never felt it through my ankles.
Specialized also pointed out that the shock tune
is right in the middle.
So if you're a bigger guy than me,
I'm only about 155 pounds or so,
you could put in a larger volume spacer
and have a more progressive stroke for more ramp up.
But as it sits for my 155 pound weight
and riding those fairly aggressive trails in Squamish,
I was super impressed with how the suspension performs
relatively active at the start of the stroke,
plenty of support,
and then plenty of bottom resistance at the opposite end
when you're riding with your eyes closed
and just smashing into things.
Bottom line, the new Stumpy's 130 millimeters of travel
felt impressively capable and well-rounded,
but especially well suited to someone who wants to ride
a short travel bike hard on aggressive terrain.
Is the bike less active though
without that horst-link suspension,
do I notice the rear end firming up under braking?
Well, to be completely honest with you,
it's just 130 millimeters of travel
and no, I didn't the backend felt like it worked
just fine at all times for me.
If it was a longer travel bike,
if this was 160 or 170 millimeters, it might be more obvious
that there's been a drastic change
in suspension layout,
but Specialized has done really well here
to create something that's still active
and still works quite well.
This 130 millimeter Stumpjumper,
well, aside from the P-train,
it was actually the bike
that I was most comfortable with on the dissents
even when they got rough, fast and scary.
And that's despite the fact
that the stumpy has 140 millimeter fork,
and some of the other bikes have 150
and 160 millimeter forks.
There's a big difference there.
But I seem to really gel with the Stumpy
when it comes to handling.
When you get on that tamer terrain
is when the specialized can really come into its own too,
and that's exactly what it makes those bigger trail bikes
feel a whole lot slower.
If your rides are all the way up and all the way down,
that's one thing.
But if your rides cover a whole bunch of ground
over rolling terrain, you've got climbing, descending,
it's all mixed in there, the Stumpjumper,
well, it feels like it's made for that sort of terrain.
(upbeat music)
Let's move on to timing
and we're gonna talk climbing first.
Our climbed section was mixed, smooth,
and technical single track
with the top part being extremely tricky,
full of roots and rocks up to a good viewpoint.
Most importantly, a good descent after all that.
The Stumpy it was third, 33 seconds behind the giant,
over about 12 minutes.
Our time descent was full of roots and rocks,
and it had a few good steep sections
to test the bikes in that regard.
It also had some traversing stuff
and some tricky sections because
well, trail bikes have to be good at everything.
Now over about four and a half minutes,
the Specialized Stumpjumper had the second fastest time.
It was 11 seconds behind the Actofive P-train
and one second ahead of Salsa's Blackthorn.
(upbeat music)
Lets talk about component highs and lows,
we'll cover the good stuff first.
This is an S-works bike.
So it comes with some high end stuff,
including an AXS drive train.
That was absolutely flawless
during my time riding the bike.
I also have to say,
I love how clean the cockpit looks with matchmaker clamps.
There's only one clamp on each side of the handlebar
and a brake hose on each side and nothing else.
It's beautiful.
It also comes with a Fox 34 fork with a GRIP2 damper.
Now there are lots of trail bikes out there
that come with a FIT4 damper,
and that gives you a three position pedal switch.
So if you're the kinda rider
who likes to get out of the saddle a bunch,
maybe you are gonna do some racing on your trail bike,
you might prefer that FIT4 damper
because you can flip the switch
and then the fork isn't going
(imitates bike's sound)
as you're out of the seat sprinting.
The GRIP2 damper, it's much more adjustable
and it offers more performance,
but it doesn't have that pedal assist switch.
Last thing I wanna point out these carbon wheels.
The carbon revolve wheels, they're 29 millimeters wide,
and they're still super, super light.
These ones have a new four millimeter wide
flat top rim bead.
The reason that I mentioned that is I bottomed out the tire
on this bike a whole bunch of times on pointy rocks, roots,
all sorts of stuff, and not only did I not damage the rim,
I also didn't cut the tire.
So there's something to that four millimeter flat top rim.
(upbeat music)
Pros and cons are next.
Pros first, this new Stumpy is impossibly well-rounded.
You wanna peddle all day, do big miles?
Sure go ahead and do that.
You wanna ride some sketchy stuff?
If you're smart about it, you can do that too.
The next pro well riders who like a fast energetic bike
are gonna love the new Stumpy.
And I point that out
because that's not what the last Stumpy was.
Lastly, it's crazy what these modern trail bikes
are capable of.
This is 130 millimeter traveled trail bike
with 140 millimeter fork.
And I was blown away by the suspension performance
and how well-rounded it is.
Not only does the bike pedal extremely well,
it absorbs all the small stuff,
it handles the big stuff fine
and gives you plenty of support.
(upbeat music)
The cons,
well, if you're really pushing the limits on rowdy terrain,
there are probably other trail bikes
that you would rather be on than the stumpy.
Now that's assuming that you really wanna be on a trail bike
instead of an Enduro bike.
And if that's the case bikes like the Salsa Blackthorn,
the P-train,
or the Stumpy Evo are gonna make a better choice for you.
Lastly, well I'm a big fan
of the new Stumpy suspension layout.
Riders who prefer that gooey, active
four-bar horst-link system,
well, they're probably gonna be a fan
of something that uses that like the Stumpy Evo.
(upbeat music)
So where does put us with the new Stumpy?
Well, I think we're seeing all of these new trail bikes
with things like 160 millimeter travel forks
and longer rear ends
because people want their trail bikes to be
the most capable ever.
But at some point we may be missing the plot a little bit.
If you're looking for a trail bike that's well-rounded
that can do everything and still feels like a light, fast,
energetic trail bike,
the Stumpy is worth putting on your short list.
There you have it.
That's my take on the all new Specialized Stumpjumper.
Let us know what you think in the comments
and make sure to subscribe
so you don't miss any upcoming field test reviews
and all those round table discussion.
(upbeat music)