Sneak peeks »
2007 Specialized short travel mountain bikes
For most of this week, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts over the announcement that Specialized’s is moving into the oem suspension marketplace.
The decision could be seen as a way for the company to move further into the top-to-bottom ‘customer experience’ thing that goes along with the dozen or so Specialized ‘concept stores’ currently in operation around North America. The move could also be an attempt by Specialized to foster the kind of brand loyalty that Cannondale established with its Lefty and Headshock lines of front suspension products.
There’s also the whole ‘integration’ thing, which is in full swing at companies like SRAM, whose Avid brakes, SRAM shifters, and RockShox are designed to work best with one another, something that market veterans Shimano learned was a key strategy years ago.
Whatever the reasons for the decision, the fact that Specialized looks ready to release its own set of forks and its own rear shocks means that the mountain bike market will look a little different starting in 2007. Specialized isn’t the largest manufacturer out there but I’m sure that the ‘biggies’ are watching this foray carefully. Similarly, it’ll be interesting to see how the major suspension manufacturers react to this shift — unless the product features Fox or Manitou internals (like Cannondale’s Leftys), at least one company might take a hit on its bottom line.
2007 Specialized Enduro SL, Stumpjumper FSR, Epic S-Works
Some of the the short travel mountain bikes in the 2007 Specialized lineup were revealed overseas this past week.
Aside from the shocking news mentioned above, the company’s short travel bikes for ‘07 look great. According to the UK mountain bike mag Singletrack, Specialized brought Mike McAndrews (who’s worked for Fox, RockShox, and Maverick, and designed the ‘Brain’ shock used on the Epic) back into the fold to “help them with their suspension and, inevitably, to produce Specialized-brand rear shocks and a new fork”.
Enduro SL. The company’s frame development team was busy too, completely redesigning the Enduro and using a set of rocker arms to connect to the rear shock. That, and the fact that the bike will be spec’d with a lightweight dual-crown fork with a non-standard 25mm thru-axle, and you’ve got a sub-28lb. rocket of a trail bike.
Epic and Stumpy. You can check out the details and some good pics over at the Singletrack and BikeMagic websites, but know that the bikes look great, with nice swoopy lines and lots of shiny bits.