Before the start of the presentation on the Epic, I noticed a blacked out carbon hardtail frame sat on top of a table with a set of fish scales next to it. Scales at a product launch are a sure bet that weight is going to be one of the main talking points of a new bike. And in the new Epic hardtail, weight most certainly is one of the talking points.
There are actually a load of other significant changes over the previous Epic, all of which are designed to make this a more comfortable and capable race bike for taking on modern World Cup XCO courses.
We'll get onto those nitty-gritty details shortly, but first let's take a closer look at that stunning carbon frame and the headline-grabbing weight figure.
Now the previous Epic S-Works frame wasn't exactly a heffalump, given it only tipped the scales at 845g. Not content on resting on one's laurels though, Specialized decided it could do better.
How much better? The new 2020 Specialized Epic S-Works frame comes in at a claimed weight of just 775g (+/- 15g) for a medium. Yup. Seven hundred and seventy five grams. At the time of writing, the new Epic is (as far as we're aware) the lightest mass-produced mountain bike frame on the market.
Believe it or not, that weight figure is actually a bit conservative. According to Specialized's carbon whizz, Peter Denk, about 50% of production frames are actually coming in at 760g. That is insanely light, particularly when you factor in that the new frame is quite a bit longer in the front end, and it's still hitting all of Specialized's strength, fatigue and stiffness targets.
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