Hey everyone welcome!
Not too long ago I shared with you guys our race weapon for the 2023 season,
we started with a base Specialized Epic EVO Comp and today we have it fully built
actually you'll see all the dust the bike collected over the weekend racing at the highest level
so why don't we take a closer look and see exactly what kind of parts I used to bring the bike to what it is today.
And I thought I would start with something that you guys would be very interested in
and that is the weight of this bike that's 10.5 kilograms which is 23.15 pounds.
This is together with the XT pedals, two bottle cages and all the dust that we've collected on it over the weekend.
How did we get to that kind of weight?
Cockpit is built around 740mm bars that are almost flat, 5mm rise, we have a 50mm Shimano stem
and you see the PNW grips that my son loves a lot, they provide good dampening and really really good grip.
XT brakes and these are the 2-piston brakes, not 4, and we have used them with a 180mm disc up front
and 160 millimeter in the rear.
We're using an XTR shifter and here you're on the frame you're going to see this big mama rubbery protection because
as you rotate the bars you are going to hit the frame with the bottom of that shifter.
The remote - this is the little Shimano remote that goes back to the Selle Italia lightweight saddle
and this is a dropper that provides us with a 160 millimeter drop and this is quite lightweight in its current 30.9 configuration.
I know this is the first time you guys hear about the TurnOn Components, Bunker dropper post
but I do have all the raw footage stored well I will get to edit that video at some point and post it online.
All in all we're very happy with the way it performed so far we've been using it for a few months in
all kind of conditions all kind of rain, mud and dust and it's still working like day one.
I have reused the top FSA headset bearing because it's taller on the Specialized
and I have a Cane Creek 40 at the bottom and
here is a Rockshox SID Select, this is the Charger damper, 120 millimeter fork with 35mm stanchions.
In the back you have a FOX Evol series shock and that provides 110mm of travel.
As you guys probably remember bike came with a RockShox shock and I actually did a video on how-to look for a replacement from FOX
I'll list It up in the corner. Why did we choose the FOX shock instead?
For 2 reasons: number one - it provides that Pedal damper setting in between fully opened and closed,
and two - it saves about 70 grams if nothing else!
The flip chip is set to the High position and that gives us 75 degrees seattube angle
and 67 degrees head tube angle and also about 6mm higher BB than the Low position of of the flip chip.
You have three bosses here for the bottle cage, we have used two,
and the 2 bottle cages are pretty much appreciated every time you take this on longer training rides.
By the way frame size is a Medium and the bottom bracket is GXP,
some might say it's the best bottom bracket that SRAM has ever designed.
In the back we haven't added anything but protection on the frame
and if you look here right behind the main pivot
that is where you get the little gap and the little rubber transfer of your cables
between the down tube and the chain stays.
This area here is pretty tricky actually you can see all the mud that it collected in one of the early races of the season.
We're planning to use one of these, this is called the Dirtskirt.
In this current form, version 1, only works on the previous generation Epic EVO
but I'm actually waiting for them to come up ith version 2 of this and that's going to cover properly this current version of the Epic Evo.
In my early video I didn't have this rubber insert here that holds the cables together, I have it now
but as you can see it comes out really really easily so
I don't know if this is as effective as some people might think for me it's very frustrating
because I have to push it back again and again again, it will come right out next opportunity for sure.
Drivetrain is a bit of a mix but not that big of a mix
we're using an XTR and XT drivetrain and the cranks are something that we had around
so you can see the XX1, GXP, 24mm spindle, and these are 175mm because we are all legs1
I'm using these with a Garbaruk oval 32T that has a slightly taller teeth.
This chainring actually works with the new T-type SRAM flattop chains as well.
Chain is XTR, the cassette is XT, and you see the XTR derailleur.
Pedals we use are XT SPD from Shimano,
I did review for you guys the XTR M9100 a couple months back but in use we found the XTRs not to be as consistent
so we pretty much went back to the XT pedals even though we sacrificed about 35 grams.
When it comes to wheels and tires you guys have actually seen both of those in different videos.
First of all the DUKE wheels are the lightest that I've ever built with BERD spokes.
The lightweight is definitely felt when you're accelerating on this bike.
That is coupled with the Pirelli Scorpion XC RC, I have introduced them to you folks last year and this is the second year when we're racing those tires.
They are absolutely amazing, amazing grip in a wide variety of terrain and there are lightweight so
for us there's no question: these are the best XC tires that we've ever used!
In its current form it's fairly easy to drop another pound off of the bike, you can install the lightest fork from FOX or RockShox if you want
you can install a lighter cassette, we have used Garbaruk but we didn't quite like it as much as the Shimano so we went back to an XT as you can see
and finally you can install foam grips just to save a couple more grams but what do you guys think about our current build?
Would you use it the way it is? Would you you spend the money to lighten it up a little bit?
Let me know in the comments below. Hope you found this useful and if you did
don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment, and until next time
I'll see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!