July 24, 2013 (Durango, Colorado) – This year’s Specialized 2014 Global Product Launch once again sees us well above the 2,700 metre mark in the thin air of Copper Colorado. This well-known ski destination, high in the Colorado Rockies, and only a short distance from Vail, offered the perfect location for Specialized to showcase their 2014 product line.

The whole area is a biker’s paradise, granted an oxygen-deprived paradise, but a location that has access to some of the most amazing mountain bike trails, such as the 800+ kilometer Colorado Trail, and one of the most extensive, well-engineered and maintained series of bike paths we have ever seen! It’s as if the entire region was designed and developed with cycling as a priority.

Not only did we have access to incredible alpine single track and ripping chair assisted descents that allowed us to test Specialized’s 2014 line of off-road offerings, we had 100’s of kilometers and thousands of vertical meters of road to experience their cool road line, including the famous Triple Bypass, or Copper Triangle which offers a stunningly beautiful 128k ride with 2,286m of climbing.

Of course before we even made it up to Copper we spent an adventurous three days in Durango, testing the all–new Specialized Epic line, with local legend Ned Overend as our host and guide.

Epic
The Epic was first introduced back in 2003 and not only did it raise some dust encrusted eyebrows it changed the face of cross-country mountain biking forever. Admittedly, presenting a full-suspension race bike into an almost religiously hardtail dominated race culture was risky but it paid off big time by becoming the first full-suspension bike to win an XC World Cup and XC World Championship.

Of course a lot has changed since the early days of XC racing. The trend has be away from those 3 to 4-hour circuit courses, that Ned Overend dominated in the 80s and 90s, and towards all-out short course, lapped events and full-on endurance events, lasting 24 hours to multiple days. These two camps of racing seem to make up the majority of the race calendar these days and while the general needs of these two styles of riders may be quite diverse their core need for speed is shared passionately.

For this reason Specialized assembled the largest team of engineers, project managers and designers ever, to create a new Epic that would cater to both of these speed dominated disciplines.

For 2014, and after two years in development, Specialized introduces the redesigned Epic and the brand new Epic World Cup. While retaining the core features of the Epic, including 29″ wheels; the Brain; FSR linkage tuned for competition; and race oriented geometry, there are some significant tweaks to the bike you have come to know as the Epic.

While the new Epic is engineered to fit the needs of the endurance XC rider and the World Cup Epic that of short-track riders, both models share a completely redesigned FACT IS 11M carbon frame with sealed cartridge bearing pivots on every FSR point; 142mm dropouts; FOX/Specialized remote Mini-Brain inertia-valve shock with AUTOSAG, Carbon hookless Roval Control SL 29 142+ (1370 gram) wheelsets; and custom RockShox SID World Cup 29 fork with Brain.

Of course there are differences between the Epic and World Cup Epic in that Epic riders demand speed on all conditions with a wide range of gear options where as World Cup riders cherish explosive power, tight geometry and light weight. For this reason Epic models are built around double-chainring chassis with 100mm of travel and a 70.5° head tube angle. The World Cup Epic is built with a dedicated SRAM XX1 x 11 single-ring drive train on shortened 439mm chainstays (10mm shorter than Epic), a 2mm higher PF30 bottom bracket, a head tube angle half a degree steeper than on the Epic, and weighs in at an incredible 8.9kg!

The Epic and the World Cup Epic offer uniquely tuned and designed bikes for competitive XC racing and endurance XC racing but they also offer some very well thought out, and very cool features for 2014. Specialized has eliminated 16mm off the width of the back end of the frame (seat stay width) to allow for more ankle clearance during pedalling and greater stiffness; it has a new XC tuned mini-brian rear shock: and they added an incredibly stiff, and light S-Works crankset designed with a one-piece integrated carbon spider designed with 104mm spacing and an 8mm self-extracting mount system.

The new 2014 mini-brain has all-new internals and a 20% smaller reservoir than last years; makes use of a Kevlar hose; and now only requires four clicks between Firm and Open.

Both frames offer internal cable routing with hood-scoops, that allow for simple routing of 1,2,3,or 4 cables; Churro tubes internally to prevent those cables from rattling in the frame; and room in the main triangle for TWO water bottles and the all-new S.W.A.T kit. SWAT? you say! Yes. S.W.A.T or the Storage, Water, Air, Tools kit is a fully frame integrated emergency repair kit that allows riders the ability to solve minor mechanicals trail side without having to carry a pack.

The mini-muliti tool slides easily and snuggly under the top tub just in front of the shock, while the tire repair kit, including lever, tube and CO2 with adapter fit firmly in the S.W.A.T box just below the downtube water bottle cage. But that’s not all! There is a very cool chain tool, with magnetic link retention (to hold a few spare links) hidden in the head tube!

Very cool and very useful on our rides throughout Durango during this year’s launch. While the SWAT kit is standard on Expert Epics and up it is optional on the World Cup Epic.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming up…