Specialized Rumor Expert EVO 29 - Review

Specialized have been catering to the fairer sex long before the recent renaissance took hold of the market, and with a history dating back to 2002 that includes the 120mm Safire and the 100mm Myka, it was only a matter of time before a competitive 29er would be added into the mix. In 2013, around the peak of wagon wheels' popularity, Specialized took the DNA of their successful Camber and give it a sister. The Rumor was born as a 110mm bike intended for cross-country use, but with feedback coming in from the field that told Specialized that the ladies were looking for something with a little more chutzpah, the Rumor Expert EVO took shape. Adorned with a 120mm RockShox Pike RC Solo Air, a 120mm FSR rear end, slacker EVO geometry and a badass looking matte black paint job, the Rumor Expert EVO will have heads turning no matter what your gender.







Frame Details

Specialized have taken the frame design of the Camber and re-jigged it to suit smaller riders, and the similarities between the two bikes are visibly clear. The most notable difference, however, lies in the front triangle. Taking the technology they had developed over the years from the Safire, Specialized uses a two-piece forged aluminum top tube which allowed engineers to lower the standover height of the bike by over an inch. Our medium test bike came in at 710mm, and to give you a bit of a comparison, a medium sized Camber would measure in at 741mm. It should be noted, though, that the Rumor's frame sizing is smaller than the standard line of Specialized bikes. When designing the front triangle, the team were adamant that no features would be lost when going to the smaller sizing, right down to the bottle cage. So, despite the seemingly tiny area left to work with, they managed to include a bottle mount, leaving hydration packs optional instead of mandatory.



The Rumor features a tapered head tube, and does include some internal cable routing for the rear derailleur and Command Post. The rear brake is routed through a fork bumper which sits on the under-carriage of the down tube, placed there to keep the handlebar from spinning around in the event of a crash. Each size of the Rumor comes with different sized components to further accommodate the rider - our medium had a 70mm stem, 100mm dropper post and 170mm cranks, and weighed in at respectful 27.25 pounds with a tubeless setup.



Suspension Design and Geometry

The EVO designation basically means the bike has more travel and that the geometry has been relaxed. Our medium sized test bike has a 68.4 degree head tube angle, a 330mm bottom bracket height and a top tube length of 582mm. The other sizes keep the same bottom bracket height and head tube angles, but vary in top tube length. The FOX Float has been custom tuned for the Rumor, but Specialized aren't providing specifics about the tune other than saying they look at optimizing compression and rebound valving, as well as overall compression ratio. The shock features Specialized's patented Autosag technology, which is a nifty feature that lets you set the sag that Specialized deems optimum for the Rumor with the press of a button. Specialized was the first company to spec the fabled RockShox Pike RC at 120mm on the Camber EVO, and that same bump gobbling spec is found on the front of the Rumor.

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Specifications Price $5000 Rear Shock Custom FOX Float CTD Fork RockShox Pike RC 29 Solo Air Headset Stock Internal Cassette SRAM XG 1195, 11-speed, 10-42 Crankarms SRAM S-2200 30T Bottom Bracket SRAM PF30 Rear Derailleur SRAM X01 11 Speed Chain SRAM Shifter Pods SRAM X01 Handlebar Specialized XC Stem Specialized 70mm Grips Specialized Women's Enduro XL Brakes Shimano XT Wheelset Roval Control 29 Hubs Roval Control 29 Spokes DT Swiss Revolution Tires Specialized Butcher Control 2.3 Specialized Ground Control 2.1 Seat Specialized Women's Myth Comp Seatpost Command Post BlackLite Compare to other All Mountain/Enduro/XC

Body Geometry Fit

My journey on the Rumor began with a Body Geometry Fit (BGF) at Pro Cycling in Colorado Springs. BGF is a Specialized proprietary fit method that many of their dealers are trained in. Generally, when purchasing a new bike, a store will get you set you up with a basic fit before rolling out the door. The BGF, however, is a two-hour session that will cost somewhere between the $200 and $300 for a comprehensive tip to toe fit.

I got started with a discussion about the type of riding I do and what my riding goals were for the coming months. Once these were determined and my specialist Branden had a good idea of what type of rider I am, we moved onto a series of mobility tests on the floor and the physio bed. Once a series of notes have been taken, and some initial adjustments were made to the bike, I jumped onto the Rumor which has been mounted in a trainer. As I spun rotations, Branden looked at the contact points: my hands, feet and seat. Brandon and I both felt that a slightly shorter stem would be optimal, but we left the 70mm stem and 700mm bars on for the purpose of the test. The first adjustments we made were to the handlebar roll and to lever reach on the brakes. We then moved on to seat height and saddle position fore, aft and tilt. With the laid back construction of the Command post's head, we weren't able to get the saddle as far forward as we would have liked. I continued spinning and Brandon observed me from the front, rear and side.



He wasn't happy with my hip, knee and foot alignment, so we adjusted the cleat position in my shoes and also inserted a new set of foot beds which have lower arch support than the stock ones I was using. Once this was sorted, and I appeared to have a clean alignment, we moved onto suspension. We set the FOX Float Autosag by pumping the rear shock up with a whole lot of pressure before I sat on the bike and then pressed the red valve that releases air only until the shock hits its sag point. We then set the pressure for the RockShox Pike according to the chart recommendation and I was advised to get out and ride and see how the settings work for me. Branden also made it abundantly clear that I can always check in with him for advice, or come back if things don't feel like they are working out for me.

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Climbing / Handling

So, why go through the Body Geometry Fit? Specialized was keen for me to have the best possible ride experience, for obvious reasons, but also to show the different factors that are taken into account. Either way, I was eager to get riding after the fitting session. The very first ascent aboard the Rumor was a steep, loose fire road that had me feeling like I couldn't get enough weight as far forward as I would have liked, which may have had something to do with the position of the seat overtop the Command Post and its laid back head. This is the one thing that I weren't able to overcome during the Body Geometry Fit session. The seat height also felt a touch low, but bumping it up by a few millimeters made all the difference in the world.

The Rumor turned out to be a good climbing companion despite the seat position, and I found it quite east to settle into a comfortable pace during long and arduous fire road grinds. Mountain biking isn't all about spinning up gravel roads, though, and it's the more technical sections that really saw the Rumor come alive. The large wheels absolutely eat up the bumps, as we all know they do, and traction was never in question. In fact, the bike felt more and more like a little rock rock climber that was hanging onto roots and rocks better and better as things got tougher and tougher, and the confidence that came from that saw me scale all sorts of questionable pitches.



The Rumor comes stock with SRAM's X01 single-ring drivetrain and, for those who might be intimated by the perception that it's going to be harder to get up those big hills, don't be. The crank comes with a 30 tooth chainring installed, and for the bike's intended use I would say this gear range is bang on - enough bottom end to make some serious walls a reality, but not tall enough that I found myself only using the larger cogs all day long. The position of the thumb lever on the Command post felt really intuitive - that slightly dropped middle position is actually great for short, sketchy climbs that may require a dab - and the absence of the front shifter means that there's quite a lot of room to adjust the lever into place. Dropping the post was a little hard to initiate, though, and I had to apply some good force to get it to go down at first. Conversely, the post's return speed is a bit startling at first, but I quickly began to appreciate how it was back up to full mast near instantaneously. For riders who find the return speed to be too fast, this can be tuned by changing the amount of air pressure in the post.



Descending

When thinking of a 120mm travel bike we often defer to assuming that it will be a skittish, sharp handling handful on rough or fast trails, but the Rumor is certainly not any of those things. The bike's active suspension tracks impressively well over chunky ground, especially relative to other bikes in the same class, and it feels more like a long-legged trail bike than anything with deeper cross-country leanings. This was most apparent on steep terrain, a setting where the Rumor performed above par. The Pike felt near bottomless here, and the fork's rigidity at 120mm is likely class-leading. Being a lighter weight rider, I usually find that I'm forced to tinker with a bike's rear suspension but that I'm often compromising something, although the Autosag function on the FOX shock is really a set-and-forget type of thing that made for a bang-on spring rate for me. The shock didn't feel over-damped, either, which is probably what Specialized alludes to with their custom tuning: lighter damping that better suits the lower spring rates that female riders will likely be using.



The stock 70mm stem did feel a little long for me and how I ride, but I didn't want to further compromise the bike's climbing by fitting anything shorter, and the 700mm wide handlebar just seemed too narrow for my liking. It's almost like the bike's cockpit is a bit under-gunned compared to the rest of the EVO spec, and I don't believe that women will always want a narrow handlebar. Anyway, we do know how to work a hand saw if a wider 'bar needed to be cut down... Generally speaking, I was pleased with the 2.3 front / 2.1 rear tire combo, even after initially thinking that I might want something a little beefier out back. I did have the opportunity to get the Rumor airborne on several jumps and drops, and the bike handled surprisingly well. However, if being playful on the bike and getting air is your true focus, a smaller wheel sized machine might be a better choice. The one situation I noticed the larger wheels having an adverse affect was in pulling the front-end up when going over a drop. Here, the bike felt big and hard to leverage.


Technical Report

• Shimano XT Brakes: Although the XT's worked well, I did have too much dead band on the rear brake, something that was likely due to a bad bleed. It sure would be nice if there was a way to adjust the lever's free throw, wouldn't there?

• Specialized Women's Myth Comp Saddle: This saddle actually worked quite well for me, keeping me comfortable on long climbs in the places where it matters.

• Specialized 700mm Bar and 70mm Stem: Did I love this combination? No. Did I hate it? No. Do I think this bike warrants a slightly more aggressive set-up to match the rest of the EVO spec? Hell yes. A good bike shop will sort you out with your preferred cockpit before you leave the store.



• RockShox Pike RC 29 Solo Air Fork : I felt really at home with the Pike on the front end of this bike, and it always felt bottomless and responsive, even when steeper terrain threatened otherwise.

• SRAM X01 Drivetrain: The X01 group may not be the top of the line, but it's damn close in terms of weight and construction. There wasn't a single issue to report, with flawless performance all around. The key with a single-ring drivetrain, as always, is to make sure the chain ring is suited to you and your terrain, which the stock 30 tooth was for me.

• FOX Float CTD The Autosag worked well and I was able to set it and forget it. That might not mean much to someone who takes the time to try out different shock settings, but it's especially important for a rider who may or may not even own a shock pump to begin with. After all, the first step to getting your suspension running correctly is to set the right amount of sag, which is exactly what Autosag accomplishes.

• Body Geometry Fit I can't compare what the bike would have felt like if I had set it up first, but I do think that the Rumor was made as comfortable as could be before hitting the trail. I did do some minor tweaking, but I hear this is pretty common. However, I couldn't get the saddle far enough forward due to the construction of the Command Post, so the smaller rider may struggle here as I did. My knees and I are grateful for the relief that the bike fit provided and this alone made the experience worth while.




Pinkbike's Take:

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