2024 Specialized

Epic 8 EVO Pro

Goodbye Brain, hello SWAT and Flight Attendant

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Specialized’s cult favorite rowdy XC winner jumps up a whole weight category to burly downcountry, but does it still have the race speed our expert tester loved before?

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We tested the 2024 Specialized Epic 8 EVO. But what is the big brother of the XC race bike capable of? Read on to find out.

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The new Epic 8 Evo isn’t the pumped up race machine it once was, weight and stiffness are no longer the driving forces any more and really it’s impossible to call it an XC bike. Instead we’re looking at potentially one of the best down-country mountain bikes on the market, a short-travel trail bike with 130mm travel, sticky tyres and proper dropper post. Sure it still gets a modestly lightweight frame and flex stay suspension, but this is now a bike that’s built to shred. If this is sad news for you there’s an XC race alternative in the Specialized Epic 8 that hasn’t abandoned its uphill prowess, and you can read all the stats, design ideas, range focus, sizing and details on the two new Epics right here. Need to know Superlight 120mm travel XC frame with trail hungry geometry 130mm fork, big brakes and sticky front tyre are ready to riot Efficient and effervescent rather than smoothly damped High volume internal storage, and SWAT multitool in the steerer tube Full Fox Factory suspension, with Roval carbon XC wheels and trail bar Epic 8 Evo Pro frame and geometry With its top tube shock placement and flex stay rear suspension design the Epic 8 Evo looks very like the previous generation bike, but there’s a whole lot going on here under the surface. The mainframe is 10mm longer in the large I tested, and slacker by over a degree in the low flip chip setting. The fresh rear end also uses a longer stroke rear shock for 120mm of travel. Anti squat values are also increased for “20% less bob,” Spesh says. The bigger down tube gets SWAT internal storage and the internally plumbed cables/hoses are all threaded through the head tube front, and not the headset. There’s a steering stop to prevent the bar rotating into the frame and you also get rubber armour on the belly and chain stays. That leaves limited rear tyre room as the only obvious gripe. The composite lay up is all new, with a focus on vibration damping – Specialized claims a 12% decrease – as well as low weight. A hollow in-moulded front shock mount also saves 24g over the previous solid, bonded on mount. But the use of Spesh’s heavier 11M carbon, extra length and strength, steel fixtures, internal storage and 75g of rubber armour means claimed frame weight is now 2,105g, some 446g heavier than the old S-Works Epic 7 Evo. Components It’s not just the frame that’s burler than previous Evos, the components are too. The RockShox SID is out and instead the bike uses a 130mm travel Fox 34 Factory fork with GRIP damper. You get a 970g Purgatory front tyre in sticky T9 compound and the Code brakes run extra thick, extra powerful HS2 200mm front and 180mm rear rotors. The rear shock is a Fox Float with oversized EVOL can and you get a fully adjustable Fox Transfer Factory dropper post rather than the two …Continue reading »

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Specialized presents the new Epic 8, and with it the Evo version, i.e., the one with more travel. The number can only bring to mind the Tarmac 8, unveiled last year, effectively aligning two of the California brand’s most beloved models. Once again, the race version of the Epic differs greatly from the “downcountry” version, but, contrary to what happened in 2020, the Epic 8 Evo is unlikely to be used in competition instead of the Epic 8, which you see in the photo below. In fact, the latter already has 120/120mm of travel, forgoes the Brain in favor of

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