Specialized

Every build starts with a question, and mine was blunt: could I put together a trail bike I’d actually trust on the descents, keep running for years, and not spend carbon-flagship money to get there? This series is the long answer, broken out from the full build video below into a few focused posts — I’ll walk through the suspension, the drivetrain, the routing that nearly broke me, and the final setup and weight. But before any of that, it’s worth explaining why I landed on this frame at all. Parts come and go. The frame is the one decision everything else has to live with. ...

Three weeks ago we walked through the leaked images of a new Tarmac and made the case that Specialized wasn’t about to blow up a proven formula. That call held up. The S-Works Tarmac SL9 is now official, and it’s exactly the kind of update the leaks suggested: real, measurable, and nowhere near as dramatic as the marketing copy wants it to sound. The headline numbers Specialized is calling the SL9 the fastest road bike it has ever built, and the case rests on three figures: a claimed frame weight of 687 grams, complete builds as light as 6.5 kg, and a 4-watt aerodynamic saving over the outgoing SL8 at 45 km/h in the wind tunnel. A dedicated Alpinist climbing build reportedly comes in at 6.1 kg. None of that is a leap. The frame is actually 2 grams heavier than the SL8’s, and 4 watts at 45 km/h is a number that matters mostly to WorldTour sprinters and time trial specialists chasing marginal gains, not to the rest of us. ...

Something is coming from Specialized, and the cycling internet has been trying to figure out exactly what since May 12. That’s when side-profile images of what appears to be a new Tarmac surfaced on Instagram, posted by an account called @czice_. The shots spread quickly — to BikeRadar, TrainerRoad forums, Weight Weenies, and everywhere else road bike obsessives gather to argue. Two weeks later, a second piece of evidence landed: video footage apparently showing Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe rider Florian Lipowitz aboard the same bike in Spain’s Sierra Nevada, with the person who posted it writing plainly in the caption, “Yes, that’s new S-Works SL9.” ...

The Crux 5 launched today, and most of the coverage is focused on what it means for gravel racing. Fair enough — that’s what Specialized built it for. But I keep staring at the spec sheet thinking about a different question: at what point does a bike like this make a dedicated road bike redundant for most riders? I think we’re getting close. The Weight Argument Is Real The S-Works Crux 5 frame weighs 789 grams. The Tarmac SL8 frame — one of the lightest road frames ever made — weighs 685 grams. That’s a 104-gram difference. For context, that’s roughly the weight of a CO2 inflator and a folded tire. It’s real, but it’s not the kind of gap that changes your life on a Saturday morning ride. ...

Specialized dropped the Crux 5 today, and it’s a bigger departure than most people expected. The round tubes are gone. The cross-racing DNA is largely gone. What you’re left with is essentially a fat-tire Tarmac built to win at Unbound — and honestly, that’s probably the right call for where gravel racing is in 2026. From Cross Bike to Pure Gravel Weapon The original Crux was always a little weird in a good way. It came out of cyclocross, landed in gravel, and held onto that lightweight-above-all-else philosophy while the rest of the industry started chasing aerodynamics. For a while that positioning worked. But gravel racing has evolved considerably — races like Unbound reward sustained efficiency over 200 miles, tires have gotten bigger, and nearly every serious gravel brand has run their bikes through a wind tunnel by now. The Crux had to evolve or get left behind. ...

Let’s be honest: nobody should be surprised by the Crux 5. The moment gravel racing started generating real prize money, media deals, and WorldTour-level athlete contracts, the clock started ticking on the genre’s “just ride your bike” ethos. Aero gravel bikes were inevitable. The only question was who’d get there first and how far they’d go. Specialized went pretty far. The Purists Will Complain. They’re Also Wrong. Every time a bike category gets serious, the same conversation happens. Road cyclists complained when aero road bikes replaced round tubes. XC mountain bikers complained when 29ers replaced 26-inch wheels. Gravel riders are now complaining that the Crux 5 looks too much like a Tarmac. And just like those previous arguments, the complaints will fade once people start seeing finish times. ...

The Specialized Epic 9 dropped today, and if you’re already riding an Epic 8, you’re probably asking the same question: is this actually a significant enough jump to justify the upgrade? The short answer is that the Epic 9 is a genuinely better race bike in almost every measurable way. Whether that matters for how you ride is a different question. Here’s everything that changed. Frame Weight This is the headline. The Epic 9 frame weighs 1,589 grams in size medium — that includes the shock, seat collar, axle, and all hardware. Compared to the Epic 8, that’s a 179 gram reduction. Specialized claims it’s the lightest full-suspension XC race frame ever made, 129 grams lighter than the nearest competitor. ...

The Epic 9 dropped today. It’s lighter, it’s faster, and Specialized will tell you it’s the best XC race bike ever made. They’re probably right. I’m still not buying one. I’ve been riding my Epic 8 Evo for a while now and it’s genuinely one of my favorite bikes I’ve owned. Around 26 lbs with my setup — Fox Float SL fork, Fox Float rear shock, OneUp V3 dropper, and tires with enough meat on them to actually handle trail riding. It’s not a race build. It’s not trying to be. It’s a lightweight XC platform that I’ve set up to ride real terrain, and it does that really well. ...

The current Specialized Crux has been around in essentially the same form since 2021. That’s a long time in a category that’s been moving as fast as gravel. Aero gravel bikes have gone mainstream, tire clearance expectations have climbed, and integrated cockpits are now table stakes at the top end. The Crux, for all its strengths — and it’s still one of the lightest gravel bikes you can buy — is showing its age. ...