Well, Specialized did, and it's called the S-Works Stumpjumper. Unrivaled handling and stiffness, sublime suspension kinematics, and a complete abandon of proprietary nonsense - it rides like a dream. And with 27.5-inch wheels, this model blends responsiveness with stability to create the pinnacle of trail performance.
The design goal for the new Stumpjumper was simple - to build the ultimate trail bike, one that feels telepathic. It turns out that this feeling all comes down to stiffness. Think of it this way: when the frame's telling your hands one thing and your feet another, your brain gets confused with the imbalance and the bike feels unstable. In order to fix this, Specialized had to get to work on dialing-in the materials, shapes, and the layout.
They started by creating their own mountain-specific stiffness test, and then looked at the layout with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to see where the biggest stiffness improvements could be made. This led to a big discovery: The Large and X-Large frames needed more front-end stiffness while the Smalls and Mediums were just fine. Specialized were able to create a frame design that was 20% more efficient. In the end, this proved to be one of the lightest trail frames on the market, today.
When designing the frame with the stiffness targets being a main goal, a radical new sidearm design was developed. The front-end and rear-end are connected at three points, and the sidearm helps keep all these points super stiff and connected, all while taking about 100 grams out of the rear-end. More explicitly, this minimises frame flex when the rear suspension is active.
Specialized continued down the suspension path with a custom Rx Trail Tune on both the fork and rear shock. Suspension performance is highly dependent on frame, wheel, and rider size, so Rx Tune was used to get each bike to land in the middle of the adjustment spectrum, and this gives you the biggest possible range to fine-tune your ride. Another focal point of the tune was matching the suspension characteristics between wheel sizes - a specific Rx Tune was developed for each platform. So, no matter what wheel size you prefer, you’ll get perfectly linear suspension.
Steps were also taken to make this bike easy to live with. Threaded bottom brackets make a triumphant return, and room was made for up to a 3.0" tyre. You're also free to run whatever aftermarket rear shock you want, since they're using standard metric shocks. The SWAT™ box was also revamped, making it sleeker, lighter, and with more volume. Customisation is furthered with a Flip Chip that lets you to dial-in your Stumpy to your riding style. Switch it from High to Low and it drops your bottom bracket 6mm and slackens the head tube by half-a-degree. Little details also jump out to surprise you, like a newly designed ribbed chainstay protector that makes chain slap a thing of the past and nearly silences the drivetrain. Lastly, Specialized seriously couldn’t make cable routing any easier on carbon models. Full tubes can be found throughout the carbon frame, so all you have to do is push the cable and it’ll come out the other end. No more lazy loop, hidden stashes of magnets, pokey spokes, or pillows to cry in.
As with every S-Works build, this S-Works Stumpjumper comes with only top-of-the-line parts, like a full SRAM XX1 Eagle drivetrain, SRAM Guide RSC disc brakes, FOX Factory front and rear suspension (150/150mm respectively), and the best carbon wheels money can buy, the Roval Traverse SL 27.5s.
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The Stumpjumper's asymmetrical, FACT 11m carbon fibre construction is lightweight, stiff, and ready to take on the trail. It's built off 27.5 Trail Geometry, so it's just the right amount of both capable and comfortable. And with SWAT™ integration in the down tube, a threaded BB, easy cable routing, and an all new chain silencer, it's ready for anything the trail, or you, throw at it.
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FOX FLOAT DPX2 Factory has three modes - Open, Trail, and Firm - that control large compression adjustments on-the-fly. There's also a tool adjust compression adjustment that allows for fine-tuning of the compression in Open mode.