Hands On: Not Off-Camber with this Bike

Is it about time that your current mountain bike needs to be upgraded? Are you looking for a full suspension bike that has decent travel, but is also a bike that you can ride all day, all over the mountain? Like most people, IS money the object (to save)? If you answered ‘yes’, the Camber line of bikes from Specialized might be for you.

The Camber line of bikes is touted by Specialized as being “The best high-performance, high-value trail bike. Perfect as a first ‘fully’ or hard-earned upgrade.” On a recent trip to Northern California, I was able to throw my leg over one of these bikes and hit some familiar trails. I signed a Camber Elite 29 out from the Tam Bikes’s ‘Test’ fleet in Mill Valley and hit some trails on Mt. Tam.

I spend most of my mountain bike days on a 26-inch Moots YBB so I was looking forward to having 4″ of front and rear travel along with the larger 29-inch wheels. We rolled out of my friend’s place and had to ride the pavement for a few miles before hitting the trails. The previous day I had test ridden a Specialized Epic Comp 29, so I was used to some of the features on that bike like the automatic lockout of the rear shock. The Camber is not meant or designed to compete with the Epic line…the top of the line Camber is about $100 less than the bottom of the line Epic 29. Continue reading Hands On: Not Off-Camber with this Bike

Hands On: Epic Comp 29

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. Continue reading Hands On: Epic Comp 29