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Omg that dog is fast

Phil, how/where did you get a 210 x 57 shock? A Trek take off? Sounds awesome. I'd like to try that...

It’s basically a 216x63 with a 6mm top out spacer fitted...

I actually ended up liking that DPX2 more and more, and I had the opportunity to test a few "special" shocks on that bike. There is room left on the table here, but maybe see if you can't slap a cheap coil on (with the right spring of course) as that might be a better option.

Perhaps saying I disagreed with your take on the rear suspension wasn’t the correct wording. You are probably able to push the bikes much harder than I can so I’m sure you are noticing something I can’t make the bikes do. My comment was just meant to explain that as a similar weighted but slower rider, I didn’t notice what you discribed. I haven’t ridden the EVO on a trail so I couldn’t comment on any flex it may have. On the same trails I didn’t notice much of any diffenence between the carbon and alloy frames. But again, I’m...

Totally agree, as well as the other site of the. north shore...

Curious, does yours have a squeak to it?

Everything about the EVO looks great except for that BB height. I own a Jeffsy 29 which is a full 1cm higher, and depsite running 160mm forks, 2.6 tyres, low rear sag and 170mm cranks, it is still too low. I have smashed my cranks/rotor into rocks multiple times resulting in broken cranks, broken rotor and broken bars in 3 separate crashes, I had a huge crash just the other day, same problem as usual. Low BBs feel great, until the bike come to a stop while you continue at 30km/h... Definitely going back to something around 350mm.

One thing to remember, the Specialized Factory Boys (TM) ride the regular stumpy. I know video never communicates how gnarly EWS racing is, but I promise you its mind blowing how hard a lot of the stages are these days. My point is, the bikes really DO have a lot of overlap, and it really is closer than maybe this review makes it seem. Parts swapping, damper swapping, offset and fork swapping could all yield a normal stumpy that is closer to the Evo or vice versa. Heck, just going to a reduced offset 36 or Lyrik and a better...

I recently picked up a Stumpy 29 alloy comp after demoing the regular stumpy and the ST. I gave an EVO the old parking lot test but it did not feel immediately comfortable compared to the ST or regular stumpy. I attribute some of this to the stack height. I really like the higher stack of the standard stumpy and from a looks standpoint I don't need a bunch of spacers. And being honest with my local trails the HA and overall length of the bike could not be justified. I would probably be better served locally by the ST...

Yeah it's an adjustment for sure. My last bike was at 339mm (2016 SJ 27.5 - 335mm with the standard 150mm fork. I ran the bike at 160mm) and I had no issues with it at all, even with 175mm cranks. The Evo 29 is 328mm in low mode, 334 in high mode, and now 338mm with adding 10mm to the fork and in high mode (HA went to 63.5ish with the added travel). When I bought the bike I figured a bb that was a few mm lower wouldn't be a huge deal, but I quickly learned that wasn't...

I have a 29er with a 160mm fork and its great. The 29er has a shock stroke of 50mm, it will clear a 52.5mm giving it a rear travel of 150mm and from the looks of it will clear a 55mm stroke giving it 160mm rear travel, but im not sure about how low that will put the BB at full compression. Pretty damn low I would imagine.

just a bunch of bike fans :D

Totally unrelated, but I just realized how positive of an environment the vital comments section usually is. I wonder why that is..sure would make social medias more fun if it were more often like this.

Honestly, I don't know why I felt what I felt from the rear of the bike. The usual suspects are absent when looking at the kinematics. Maybe it was the wheel path, but I've ridden other bikes with very similar wheel paths without noting this sort of anemic-ness (its a word) from the bike's suspension action. Realize, it wasn't "bad", it just felt like less travel. Harsh for a 140mm bike. About what you'd expect from a 110-120mm bike. I know I'm supposed to be reviewing a dead stock bike, but for a period of time I had the opportunity...

I weight 180 and race Masters 40-50, but would have been 4th in Expert at my last race. Have been top 5 at National Championships in the recent past. Also top 5 on almost every Strava segment locally against fast Pro's. I live in San Diego which has a crazy amount of high speed chunk on the local trails. Chris Powell in the Jeremy McGrath video posted up a few days ago is one of my teammates and I am usually 5-10 seconds behind him on DH segments for comparison. The trails in that video are some of the smoothest...

This is such a great comparative review. Thanks Mr. Brines!

Jeff - I ride the mountains of northern Utah mostly, with some southern Utah desert riding thrown in a couple times a year for good measure. Lotsa pedaling, lotsa searching for fun dh lines. I demoed plenty of bikes last year and the 140r/160f(ish) 29ers are my sweet spot. I'll do the occasional race for fun but on the dh am just racing myself and my crew, no stress. I currently ride an XL 2017 stumpy 29 with Topaz rear and dual position Lyrik (160-130) up front and am digging the steeper STAs and slacker HTAs on the newer bikes...