Interbike 2011: Specialized Fate 29er Especially for Women...

Those of us who are vertically challenged (okay, we’ll just say “short”) have been watching the 29er movement grow quickly, not quite jumping on board based on the assumption that the huge wheels would throw us completely off balance and be too much to handle.

I’ve been proven wrong by the Specialized Fate Comp Carbon, which we tested at Outdoor Demo in Boulder City, Nev., this week.

The Fate is a carbon hardtail 29er designed for women, and Specialized offers two models: the Fate Comp Carbon and the higher price point Fate Expert Carbon.

This bike was everything us short folks have been reading about but afraid to believe would work for us. Once you get pedaling, the momentum is fluid and big, and the bike just keeps rolling. The Fate was snappy and ate up stretches of contouring, rocky singletrack, making the trail feel less rugged, even though the bike is a hardtail. The real test came when I dumped into a hairpin, but the turns were manageable and the bike handled better than some “26ers” I’ve been on.

Specialized attributes that great control to the women’s-specific, stiff-but-lightweight carbon frame. Beyond taking the men’s bikes and painting them a different color, the company builds its women’s bikes from the ground up based on women’s average arm lengths, torso sizes and stand-over heights. (The company has been designing women’s mountain bikes for eight years and, in 2012, will have nine offerings, including another new hardtail 29er called the Jett.) The Fate Comp additionally has a tapered head tube and low front-end stack height for solid cockpit control. It is available in 15, 17, and 19 inch.

The Fate Comp retails at $3,000 and comes stock with an 80 mm-travel RockShox Reba RL fork, SRAM’s X9/X7 2x10 drivetrain (22x36 configuration), and custom Avid Elixir 5 SL brakes. The higher-end Fate Expert retails at $4,000 and ships with the 80 mm RockShox SID Brain fork and Avid X0 World Cup brakes.

Already, the Fate Expert has become the bike of choice for top female athletes such as Rebecca Rusch, who won her third Leadville Trail 100 title (and broke her own course record) this season, and Lene Byberg, who earned a podium spot at this year’s World Cup cross-country race.

If you’re of a shorter breed (male or female) still attached to your 26-inch baby but wanting to get into the 29er market, the Fate Comp Carbon 29 is a viable choice. Short people got no reason now to get left behind in the two-niner world.

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