Post Your Specialized SX

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Post Your Specialized SX
Author Message
flag Markus94
Posted: Mar 19, 2023 at 11:32 Quote
Hi everyone!

since there hasn't been posted anything in this thread I thought why not revive this thread with my SX build.

I still have my medium sized SX Trail 2 which I bought new in 2009. I really loved this bike for its looks and handling but in the past years I was basically not riding it anymore because with its heavy weight of over 17kg and small wheels it feels a little bit outdated compared to newer bikes.
But compared to the rather big changes for Freeride and Downhill bikes in the last years, at least from my understanding slopestyle and dirtjump bikes didn't change that much.
So I had this idea in my head of converting it to a Slopestyle bike just like it was available back then as SX Slope to maybe give it a new purpose.

This is what it looked like before:

photo

My biggest concerns were if the geometry of the Trail version is comparable with the Slope version.
So I did some research and calculation and found that the wheelbase ofmy medium sized Trail is about the same as the ones of a large sized Slope. So I did an overlay of two pictures and as you can see the shape of the two frames is not exact the same, but the 'outer values' i.e. seatstay lenght, are pretty much identical. Only the headangle is a steeper on the Slope version.

photo


For the rear suspension of course I wanted to switch to an air shock.
The original bike has a rear travel of 170mm from a shock with 200mm eye to eye and 57mm stroke.
In the graph below the blue curve shows the rear travel over the compression of the shock calculated with the real linkage geometry.
For the new shock I decided to reduce the eye to eye to 190mm to make it sit lower in the travel and get a stroke of 40mm. This results in the red curve. This means the bike now sitsaround 38mm deeper in the rear travel and fully compressed ends up at around 160mm measured in the old setup. This would result in a travel of 122mm which might be on the longer side for a slopestyle bike but can also be adapted later on by changing the air pressure.
So I decided to go for a 190 x 40mm Fox DPS shock combined with the SX Trail yoke from BikeYoke.

photo

Regarding the fork my goal was to get around 110mm of travel but since at this moment I didn't know if the bike will even work I decided to use the old 36 Fox Van and travel it.
To to this I ordered the hardest spring I could find, cut it down and added some spacers on the negative spring side.
This turned out pretty well and despite beeing quite hard, the fork still feels sensible. Only downside is the rather high weight of around 2.8kg. So there is some future potential for weight reduction Smile

The final step was to build up the bike.

photo

I really like how it turned out. The weight is now around 13.5kg with pedals which is a lot less than I expected keeping in mind the high weight of the fork and frame. The feeling of riding is seems really nice, hasn't lost its playfullness but added a more lively feel because of the changed tires, suspension and weight. The lower headangle dat the moment doesn't seem to be a problem for me but I think I have to ride it for some more time to get to know it better.
flag clapped-out-46
Posted: Mar 19, 2023 at 16:17 Quote
Markus94 wrote:
Hi everyone!

since there hasn't been posted anything in this thread I thought why not revive this thread with my SX build.

I still have my medium sized SX Trail 2 which I bought new in 2009. I really loved this bike for its looks and handling but in the past years I was basically not riding it anymore because with its heavy weight of over 17kg and small wheels it feels a little bit outdated compared to newer bikes.
But compared to the rather big changes for Freeride and Downhill bikes in the last years, at least from my understanding slopestyle and dirtjump bikes didn't change that much.
So I had this idea in my head of converting it to a Slopestyle bike just like it was available back then as SX Slope to maybe give it a new purpose.

This is what it looked like before:

photo

My biggest concerns were if the geometry of the Trail version is comparable with the Slope version.
So I did some research and calculation and found that the wheelbase ofmy medium sized Trail is about the same as the ones of a large sized Slope. So I did an overlay of two pictures and as you can see the shape of the two frames is not exact the same, but the 'outer values' i.e. seatstay lenght, are pretty much identical. Only the headangle is a steeper on the Slope version.

photo


For the rear suspension of course I wanted to switch to an air shock.
The original bike has a rear travel of 170mm from a shock with 200mm eye to eye and 57mm stroke.
In the graph below the blue curve shows the rear travel over the compression of the shock calculated with the real linkage geometry.
For the new shock I decided to reduce the eye to eye to 190mm to make it sit lower in the travel and get a stroke of 40mm. This results in the red curve. This means the bike now sitsaround 38mm deeper in the rear travel and fully compressed ends up at around 160mm measured in the old setup. This would result in a travel of 122mm which might be on the longer side for a slopestyle bike but can also be adapted later on by changing the air pressure.
So I decided to go for a 190 x 40mm Fox DPS shock combined with the SX Trail yoke from BikeYoke.

photo

Regarding the fork my goal was to get around 110mm of travel but since at this moment I didn't know if the bike will even work I decided to use the old 36 Fox Van and travel it.
To to this I ordered the hardest spring I could find, cut it down and added some spacers on the negative spring side.
This turned out pretty well and despite beeing quite hard, the fork still feels sensible. Only downside is the rather high weight of around 2.8kg. So there is some future potential for weight reduction Smile

The final step was to build up the bike.

photo

I really like how it turned out. The weight is now around 13.5kg with pedals which is a lot less than I expected keeping in mind the high weight of the fork and frame. The feeling of riding is seems really nice, hasn't lost its playfullness but added a more lively feel because of the changed tires, suspension and weight. The lower headangle dat the moment doesn't seem to be a problem for me but I think I have to ride it for some more time to get to know it better.

Markus, you are an absolute legend!!
Absolutely love what you did, and you definitely did the SX justice!
Excited to hear updates as you get it dialed in.
flag suechtiger
Posted: Jul 2, 2023 at 10:21 Quote
not that bad buddy
flag chwk
O+
Posted: Oct 10, 2023 at 15:43 Quote
Glad to have another Specialized SX in my life, although this one is my first short travel build.

Loving how it feels with the modern suspension and other components.

photo
flag clapped-out-46
Posted: Oct 10, 2023 at 19:01 Quote
chwk wrote:
Glad to have another Specialized SX in my life, although this one is my first short travel build.

Loving how it feels with the modern suspension and other components.

photo
Sick as!
flag clapped-out-46
Posted: Dec 22, 2023 at 19:28 Quote
An update photo; kind of considering stripping the paint and polishing, given how good chwk's frame looks...
photo
flag andreDHlive
Posted: Jan 30, 2024 at 8:34 Quote
Well, I finally put my hands on a fox x2 for the SX, but oh surprise It wont fit the normal way (reservoir on the front side) , I hat to put it "backwards" I have read shock orientation doesn't matter, but now I am waiting for the bike yoke to arrive hope it works... Madder

 


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