New Gear: Specialized’s All-New 2019 Stumpjumper

Here’s what Specialized have to say about their latest trail weapon!

THE ULTIMATE TRAIL BIKE

The new 2019 Specialized Stumpjumper is the ultimate trail bike. Seriously, the damn thing rides like it’s on rails. It’s the most versatile trail bike we’ve ever made.And yeah, we’re stoked about that, but we’re even more excited about how well it’s tuned to you. We’ve said goodbye to proprietary bullshit, focussed on your needs, and made, what we feel, is the new benchmark in trail bikes.

REAL-WORLD TESTING

We loved the last Stumpjumper, but we can admit that it didn’t want to party when situations got a little hairy. We wanted to push it harder, and after identifying that this was really the result of a lack of stiffness, we developed our own mountainspecific stiffness test that examined the connection between a rider’s hands and feet. When each get different signals, you get confused. Extensive field testing was performed in order to fine-tune the front-end stiffness. Our team would go ride a working version of the frame, provide feedback, and then we’d overwrap the frame with carbon plies, test it in the lab to record the stiffness values, and then give it back to the rider. We did this exact fine-tuning process over and over until we hit the perfect balance of stiffness and handling. And the result is a bike that feels like it’s riding on rails. Point it where you want, and you’re going there. This is Rider-First Engineered™ for mountain, and it delivers the ultimate trail ride—regardless of size.

“IT’S LIKE YOU’RE IN THE BIKE.” – Matt Hunter

ALL-NEW SIDEARM FRAME

We pulled out all the stops to lighten and stiffen up the frame, and what we arrived at was a vastly more efficient structure with a new sidearm design. The sidearm design directly connects all three mounting points of the rear-end and shock to the frame, and this creates a significant increase in both stiffness and performance over bumps. More explicitly, frame flex has been minimised when the rear suspension is active. In CAD, we were able to put the new 3D shape against the last iteration of the Stumpjumper, and with Finite Element Analysis (FEA), we were able to prove that the new layout was 20% more efficient. At the end of all of this, we’ve ended up with one of the lightest trail frames on the market.

A NEW FRAME YIELDS A NEW APPROACH

With over two decades of experience with FSR, we refined our proven design. We love it, because FSR allows us to tune every part of the suspension with the least amount of compromises. Bike suspension is a marriage between the frame kinematics and the shock, after all. And given that we have our own Suspension Team, we had them working hand-in-hand with the frame engineers on the bike design from day one. Because of this union, we’re now able to rely more on the frame kinematics and less on the shock damper. What does this mean for the ride? Well, it’s now supple for the small bumps, with a firm mid-stroke and exceptional bottom-out support. This is the suspension that makes the Ultimate Trail Bike!

RX TUNE

Every shock and fork gets a custom tune. Our in-house Suspension Team adjusts every shock to ensure that it’s perfectly paired for the specific kinematics of your bike, so it’ll ride in the sweet spot with an ideal range of adjustability. We do this by adjusting the shim stacks for both compression and rebound, as well as by adjusting the air volume ratios. The aim is to land in the middle of the adjustment spectrum, so you can still fine-tune to your heart’s content.

WOMEN’S RX TUNE

We’re confident that female riders won’t get a better tune than what’s on offer, here. Female riders are typically lighter, so we adjust the volume, compression, and rebound accordingly for every frame and wheel size. The goal is for the rear shock and fork to perform the same as with our men’s Rx Tune at lower pressures.

ULTIMATE ADJUSTABILITY

This is the best mountain bike we’ve ever made when it comes to customising it however you want. All of the configurations use standard stroke and eye-to-eye metric shocks, so you won’t find Shock Block anywhere. So yeah, if you want to swap shocks—be our guest. You won’t have any problems from us or the Stumpjumper. We’ve also ditched the PF30 bottom bracket of yesteryear in favour of moving back to a threaded BB system, and both 27.5 and 29 frames can fit up to 3.0” tyres, now. You’ll still want to check with your fork manufacturer to make sure a high-volume tyre can fit, but this should be music to everyone’s ears.

FLIP CHIP

The Flip Chip allows you to change the frame geometry with ease, all to support your riding style. There are two settings, High and Low, and when you “flip the chip,” you effectively change the bottom bracket height by 6mm and the head tube angle by half-a-degree.

IMPROVED CABLE ROUTING

We seriously couldn’t make cable routing any easier on carbon models. Full tubes can be found throughout the carbon frame, so all you have to do is push the cable housing and it’ll come out the other end. No more lazy loop, hidden stashes of magnets, pokey spokes, or pillows to cry in.

SWAT™ DOWN TUBE STORAGE

The new SWAT™ Down Tube Storage takes everything we loved from the last generation and makes it sleeker and lighter, while also adding 20% more volume.

QUIETER DRIVETRAINS AWAIT

The revolutionary new chainstay protector makes drivetrains virtually silent and pretty much makes chain slap a thing of the past. Here’s how it works. Imagine doing a belly flop into a pool, that’s how any current chainstay protector works. The chain just slaps flat onto a flat surface. But if you add large waves to that pool, you won’t feel the sting—you’ll just gently splash into the water. The nubs on this protector disrupt the slap of the chain, and this reduces the overall chain movement due to the nubs/waves breaking down the “frequency” of the chain.

YOU CAN’T LOSE

We’ve made three versions of the new Stumpjumper to give every kind of rider the best bike imaginable. The Short Travel (or ST) is snappy and nimble, while the Stumpjumper rides fast and planted. And for anyone that eats and sleeps gravity riding, we’ve brought
back the EVO in all its slacked-out glory.