Recently I mentioned the demo day and test bike programs that bicycle retailers and manufacturers have in place so that the consumer can really test drive a bike before purchasing. With bikes costing several thousand dollars, it only made sense that the customer would really want to make sure that their new bike investment was the right one. Out of all of the mountain bikes that I have, only one is full suspension and it only has a little over one inch of rear travel. Since my days of racing for Pro-Flex in the late 1990s, I have been turned off of full suspension bikes. Realizing that there have been many advancements in bike technology and now that I am a little old (translated…more body pains), I think it might be time to add a full suspension bike to my fleet.
My wife and I used to live in California, north of San Francisco. I am familiar with the trails so on a recent visit, I stopped by Tam Bikes in Mill Valley to utilize their test bike program and take out a few of their Specialized ‘Test Bikes’. I signed out a Specialized Epic Comp 29 and my friend and I headed up to Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa to do a few loops. All of my other mountain bikes are 26-inch wheeled bikes so it was going to be a real treat to ride some of my favorite trails on a 29er with 100mm (approximately 4″) of suspension travel.
The loop that we chose started with an immediate climb out of the parking lot on pavement for a few miles. The Epic Comp 29 is equipped with a RockShox Reba RLT fork up front with a lockout feature that has the lever on top of the fork, not a remote lever mounted to the handle bar. This is how my current Fox forks are setup, so I am familiar with the lockout process – reach down, twist the knob and the fork is locked out. The Reba RLT does not have an automatic lockout, so the the fork did ‘bob’ on the climb until I manually locked it out. The rear end was another story.
The Epic Comp 29 uses the FOX/Specialized rear shock with remote Mini Brain to control the travel of the rear end. This shock is a joint development from both Fox and Specialized specifically for Specialized’s bikes. On the pavement climb, I was expecting to have to reach back and lock out the rear shock so that it too did not ‘bob’, but this was not the case. The rear end remained locked, even out of the saddle, and I could not notice any real loss of input from my pedal strokes. This was all due the the Mini Brain in tied to the rear shock doing its job to control the flow of fluid through the system.
Once we were off of the pavement, the climb continued on the dirt for a few more miles. I unlocked the Reba fork and continued climbing through the moist, sometimes slick dirt and rocks. Both the front and rear end of the Epic Comp held the trail and there again was no loss of traction with help from the Mini Brain in the rear end. The trail leveled off, but the terrain remained rocky in sections. The 29er wheels made it easy to climb over the rocks and remained extremely stable, but the one thing I noticed was that it did not feel like a bigger bike due to the wheels.
Typically a 29er frame will feel overall like a bigger bike than a comparable 26-in bike. Since the 29er wheels are bigger, the frame geometry needs to be adjusted to accommodate the larger wheels. With the Epic 29 line, Specialized lowered the center of gravity so that the rider sits deeper in the bike – it has the same center of gravity as their 26-inch bikes. Since I do not ride 29er bikes that much I thought it would take a lot longer to adjust to the different wheel size, but Specialized did an excellent job on the geometry so I immediately felt comfortable on this bike.
We hit the top of the downhill portion of the loop and I was excited to really see how the Epic Comp would handle. The model that I was on is the only one in the Epic 29 line that the main frame is not made from carbon fiber – Specialized uses their proprietary aluminum alloy tubing, M5, for all of the tubes in this frame. From my previous experiences with aluminum, I was expecting a rough ride on the downhill and loss of traction through the turns. Once again I was proved wrong…the Epic Comp 29 descended like a dream. Over the fast sections, both the front and rear ends held right to the trail. When approaching the turns, the Avid Elixir R SL brakes had no problems when reducing speed and did not lockup unless I really intended to lock them up. My real amazement came during the turns. I was expecting the 29er to understeer through the turns and possibly over shoot a few of them, but that was not the case. The bike went where I pointed it and the only real issue that I ran into was when a laid the bike down on an off camber wet section of the trail. This same problem happened to my friend that day and we both attributed it to not having the right tires for the terrain.
The Epic Comp 29 retails for $3100 and is the entry model in that family of bikes. It is the heaviest in the line (mid 20s), but that was not really noticeable on the trails. The shifting and drive train is a mix of SRAM S-1250, X.7 and X.9 which performed flawlessly on our day out on the trails. The other parts on the bike are either no name or Specialized branded which others have complained as low quality, but can always be upgraded down the road. The Epic 29 line of bikes is marketed towards those who want to ride and race cross country trails so the travel is only 100mm.