Long Term Test: Specialized Enduro Pro Carbon

Genetic Mutant

Price as tested: $5500 Weight: 28.69 lbs

If the Enduro Pro were a teenager, the little punk would live on synthetic energy drinks, and walk the halls wearing a flat brimmed hat, baggy pants, and an mp3 player streaming Kid Cudi. All the while, still pulling off a top spot on the honor role.

In the ever-broadening category bike manufacturers like to call All Mountain trail bikes, the Enduro unabashedly secures a position from the top looking down. In this case, the view from the top is one of twisted singletrack scattered with big drops, big rock fields, and potential for big air.

A quick run through of the Enduro Pro’s geometry and build reveals a bike that is best described as the genetic mutation of Rebecca Rusch’s Epic 29er and Sam Hill’s Demo 8, only the Epic’s genes are mostly recessive. It has a carbon fiber frame but the bone structure of a moose. The XC genes only manifest as subtleties like the Fox RP23 rear shock, or as geometry twists like the steeper XC inspired 75 degree seat tube angle and longish cockpit. Other than that, the Enduro has the eyes, ears, hair and teeth of the DH bike.  One look at the bike’s 66.5 degree headtube angle, dinner plate sized brake rotors, and chain ring guides and you’ll know who the daddy is.

Of course the stated point of this bike or any other trail bike is to create a bike that can be ridden on epic rides, raging up long climbs with various levels of efficiency, and transforming into a rock-drop eating ogre for the descents. This sounds fun and it is. But anyone who expects it to feel just like an XC bike during vertical gain is going to be disappointed. The Enduro’s design is more about making it possible for mortals to climb hills on the bike without needing to get off and walk.

The main factors that aid in this ability are weight and pedaling efficiency. Saving weight starts with the frame.

Don't let the Endro's carbon frame fool you, it has the bone structure of a moose.	The Enduro's unique frame design allows the shock mount to be tucked into the frame brace, giving it extra strength and a clean, linear travel.	One look at the Enduro and you know who the daddy is.

FACT Carbon Frame Specialized has certainly invested time and capital into their carbon production techniques and has several years of success under their belt to prove their mettle. Like other big brands they have trademarked and patented their technology to make it stand out as their own. Specialized's version is called FACT: Functional Advanced Composite Technology. It's a fancy way of saying they did their homework and it's not just s basic tube set. On the Enduro - where durability is a concern - they use their top quality 10m carbon fiber tube set for the front triangle and a stout M5 alloy rear triangle. The whole structure is bound together with sealed bearing pivots.

Don't let the carbon fool you, the bike is built to take the abuse with reinforcements in all the right places and a plastic frame guard on the down tube to deflect rock chunks flying off your front wheel. The result is a 6.17 lb frame built to be hucked off boulders.

Still, making a 160mm travel bike pedal efficiently enough to keep the hills rideable requires great engineering and components, and a salty dash of compromise. The real wizardry is performed on the suspension linkage design, the tuning and workings of rear shock, and the performance of the front shock.

Linkage and Rear Suspension True to their heritage, Specialized went with what they know works and utilized a four bar Horst link rear end, a linear shock path, and the old standby Fox RP23 shock. Here lies the only combination of compromises in the system. The four bar linkage is proven and rides fantastically - wide open - downhill. The suspension is fully active even when braking. But without platform shock attributes, it doesn’t climb as well as other, newer linkage designs like the DW link.

To improve the climbing capacity, the standard Enduro comes with a Fox RP23. The pro pedal option on the RP23 affords decent seated climbing although it's still active enough that getting out of the saddle isn't a viable option. But it does achieve its purpose.

The real compromise created by the RP23 is that, while being a reliable performer, for XC use, it's still minimalist for a 6-inch travel bike. Its small air-can just can't take the abuse the Enduro’s frame begs a rider to throw at it. It also tends to ramp up at the end of the stroke. Granted, this is alleviated by Fox’s boost valve damping: a damping valve circuit that is position sensitive vs. velocity sensitive.

Previous versions of the RP23 shock adjusted damping based on how fast the shock moved through the travel. Boost valve provides different levels of damping throughout the shock stroke as you don't need as much damping at the beginning of the stroke for small bumps. With boost valve, damping increases the more travel you use.

During long rough descents on the Enduro, the RP23 began to loose performance as the air can heated up to the point of being hot to the touch. Six months of this abuse ultimately wrecked the RP23, leaving it with a noticeable dead spot halfway through the travel.

Overall the RP23 is still a good choice for the All Mountain bike when weigh and pedaling efficiency are a concern For 2011 Specialized is offering the Enduro EVO model with a Fox DHX RC2 coil-over shock, 750mm bars, and a 170mm Fox Van fork for those wanting a more aggressively gravity focused machine.

The Enduro utilizes solid, sealed bearing linkage points for reliable strength and smooth actions.	The rear pivot on the Enduro is solid.	A bottom view of the cable routing, which also helps protect the frame from stray rocks.

Travel Adjust Fork Another card Specialized played to improve the climbing on the Enduro Pro was spec’ing the bike with dual position 160/135mm travel-adjust fork. Notably the fork is Specialized designed and branded. The decision to design their own fork rather than use a name brand like Fox or Rock Shox could have been financially motivated or it could be because they were not satisfied by what was available.

Specialized doesn’t mess around so when they jumped back  into the fork making game (they tried this before back in the 90’s with limited success), they took in Mike McCandrews and Brian Lampman: veterans of the industry dating back to the very beginnings of Rock Shox. These guys are dedicated, experienced, and creative.

What they came up with for the Enduro is dubbed the Future Shock E160TA. It's got a tapered carbon steerer/crown, rebound and compression adjustment, and a 20mm Maxle Lite thru-axle. The E160TA fork utilizes what they call the L-Vas, or Large Volume Air Spring and a Spike Valve. The high air volume helps improve sensitivity on smaller bumps and reduce any tendency to bottom out the fork and the Spike Valve controls the shock compression damping over smaller bumps and allows increased compression for high-speed hits or big drop offs.

Specialized travel adjust Future Shock	A tapered headtube on the Enduro ads stability and strength.

Overall Ride We rode this bike to hell and back and looked for every opportunity to suffer up long climbs and happily accepted the fruits of our labors during every second of every descent. We hit local desert and alpine classics: Free lunch Trail, Grand Junction, Colo.; Crest Trail, Salida, Colo.; and Doctor Park Trail, Gunnison, Colo. We hit purpose built gravity trails at Keystone, Colo. (see video below) and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

Climbing on the bike was… tolerable. Any attempt to standup was answered with punishment but if you stayed in the saddle you could make your way up anything. Pedal smooth and round and without bursts of power and the rear end will stay put. I rode it to the top of Keystone Resort, Twice in one day. It’s an hour-and-a-half climb but fully worth it.

Descending on the Enduro was predictably awesome. It was plenty of bike and took on the Free Lunch Trail’s big drops as well as the long and technical alpine gravity trails at Keystone resort with confidence and stability at speed. It also handled tight technical sections with precision you can’t find on a full DH bike.

Specialized’s E160TA fork performed well with great small bump sensitivity and it stood up to a full six months of abuse. Dialing in the rebound and compression took some trial and error as the fork did have a different feel than other similar forks.

The travel adjust feature worked flawlessly and dropping it to 135mm of travel for the climbs was critical to climbing performance. Fully extended, the fork romped through big hits and rock gardens with accuracy and control.

There is no doubt the Enduro will reward you with good times. Its distinctive mutations of XC and DH create a bike that is not the ultimate machine for any one discipline but it can take you places a DH can’t access and an XC bike can’t handle. If all your riding buddies are on long travel bikes, you'll have a blast. If your riding group mostly rocks XC bikes, you'll be doing extra work on the climbs and laughing on the decents.

Each time a spent a long weekend riding binge on the Enduro, going back to a 4 or even a 5-inch travel bike made me feel like a super hero on the climbs and I admit the efficiency was a welcome thing. But the feeling of dropping 3000 vertical feet on the Enduro is tough to replace on a lesser bike.

Video: Riding the S-Works Enduro at Keystone, July 2010

Enduro Pro Spec For $5500 the Enduro Pro comes well built for torture with a solid mix of Shimano and SRAM standards like Shimano XT cranks, SRAM X-O shifters and X-9 derailleur, and Avid Elixir brakes. The Specialized Roval alloy tubeless ready wheels are solid and the Specialized Command Post 3 position travel adjust seatpost makes dropping the seat for safer and better descending quick and easy.

In line with it’s gravity focus, The Enduro comes with integrated roller chain guides. This does not help the pedaling efficiency but kept the chain on the rings through pounding descents.

With the Pro build the bike tipped the scales at just over 28lbs. Additional weight savings can easily be bought with good money and specialized offers the Enduro at various price levels and the weight drops along with your bank account.

Climbing on the Enduro is tolerable... aided by the travel adjust fork.	Riden like it's meant to be, the Enduro eats up rock gardens for breakfast.	Jumping on the Enduro is a pleasure.
The Enduro's slack head tube, big brake rotors, and fat tires will give you extra confidence on steep rocky terrain.	Big air on the Enduro is no problem. It's nice jumping a 28lb bike.	Send it.

2011 preview For 2011 Specialized made no categoric changes to the Enduro line. And they didn’t need to: it’s a great bike. The did, however, make nice improvements to their components, dropping weight in unlikely places and improving stiffness to boot. The 2011 Roval wheels are impressive. You can check out the bikes Here.

2011 Enduro Pro	2011 Enduro Expert EVO	Roval Carbon Wheels