2018 Specialized Epic Comp Carbon Mens Mountain Bike - Black

Race courses have evolved over the past few years. They are more technical, steeper and simply more challenging to ride. Specialized siezed this opportunity to make something special - something that both World Cup athletes and XC riders alike can instantly feel the benefit from. Specialized looked at the sum of parts that make a bike handle well like the head angle reach stack chainstay length, fork offset, etc. and re-evaluated all of it. Increasing the reach made a bike that was more stable at speed and generally more comfortable to ride. Dropper posts? Yep those fit and not just a short-travel XC option but full-length droppers that fit in the 30.9mm seat tube. Head angle? Specialized slacked that out but not without evaluating the overall handling package. It now lands on a custom offset 42mm fork that works with the slacker head angle in order to behave itself in tight corners and through switchbacks.

Next comes the redesigned Brain technology Brain 2.0. The Brain changed the way the bike world looked at suspension both its inefficiencies and benefits alike. And oh was it good. It won races and put a flag in the ground for us as a true leader in innovation and suspension development but Specialized knew they could make it better. Simple physics told them that by moving the Brain closer to the rear axle it would be in the most sensitive spot. After countless hours with the RockShox team the new Brain became more than just a slight upgrade. It's totally new. Now it reacts seamlessly to bump forces it has much more consistent damping performance and finally it integrates the hoses into the suspension links. This in turn improves oil paths and it creates an incredibly sleek package that outperforms anything on the market.

The new Epic also gets a serious upgrade in the stiffness department. The Rider-First Engineered tubes place complex carbon pieces in all the right places which greatly increases stiffness in the front end for a vast improvement in ride quality and control. To go along with this each frame size has size-specific tubes that result in the stiffest best riding XC bike Specialized have ever developed no matter the frame size.

• Full fact 11m carbon fibre frame combines stiffness, strength, and light overall weight to deliver an off-the-hook race bike. Meanwhile, the new geometry, RockShox Brain shock, and 100mm of travel, make the Epic the best handling, fastest XC rig you've been on.
• A RockShox Reba RL fork soaks up the bumps up front, and features both compression and rebound adjustments.
• An 11-speed SRAM GX groupset handles shifting duties, bringing the convenience of one-by to your XC rig.

With the goal of the new Epic to be the fastest XC mountain bike, weight was at the top of the priorities list. Specialized started with an efficient frame layout and tube shapes that feature clean cable routing integrated channels through the shock extension straight tubes with less curves and optimised torsion profiles in every section. This weight savings is equivalent to shedding a chainstay and shock extension from the previous Epic nearly 525 grams.

The build of the Epic Comp is value-packed featuring an 11-speed SRAM GX groupset SRAM Level TL brakes and a Roval Control alloy wheelset. Get ready because this is going to be Epic.