Product news: Hot news from Specialized! With the Stumpjumper 15, the Americans are presenting a bike for all riders and all trails. Equipped with GENIE damper technology and Ride Dynamics Tune, the new Stumpjumper is designed to combine the strengths of bikes with a lot and a little suspension travel, and all without the respective disadvantages. What a big announcement that we obviously don't want to keep from you!
Once upon a time…1981
In 1981, a small brand called Specialized launched a bike that would drive the world into the woods and the press crazy: The first Stumpjumper marked the birth of an entire scene - and an icon. Because 43 years later, the Stumpjumper is more alive than ever. Full suspension, now in its 15th iteration and better than ever. Four decades of optimization, innovation and fine-tuning; always with the same goal: to bring more control, performance and fun to the trails and into the hearts of riders. And with every leap in its development, every breakthrough by the Specialized Ride Dynamics Team, every landing on the trail got a little better. Smoother. Faster. Safer.
The latest trick: GENIE
The GENIE air damper technology that fulfills the three biggest wishes: an almost "unbreakable" air damper with the smooth ride of a steel spring - plus ultra-fine adjustability. Whether on rocky trails or in washboard-type off-camber curves: with high-frequency impacts there is no smoother ride than with a "soft spring" - until now. Because GENIE combines the ground-contact characteristics of the good old steel spring with the strengths of an air damper. With 57% less traction loss time than the latter. Simply put: the bike presses itself to the ground faster and for longer, offers more traction and therefore more potential for riders to ride trails faster, harder and with more control.
Less is more
In the past, the rule for full suspension bikes was: more travel equals better. Today we know: if you want to develop a chassis for the best trail bike in the world, you have to think beyond the shock absorber - holistically. That's exactly what the Specialized Ride Dynamics team did. With a chassis concept that handles difficult terrain with ease, but still maintains the firm and lively ride feel of a bike with less travel. The Stumpjumper 15 remains pleasantly supple on small to medium bumps, almost swallows up sharp hits, but surprises with what feels like endless travel on hard drops. The crazy thing about it: As a platform, the bike is always firm and stable - with incredibly direct acceleration. Sounds paradoxical? It rides like that too.
Big jumps: Always welcome with the new Specialized Stumpjumper 15
The new Specialized Stumpjumper 15 manages all of this with 25 mm less travel than the in-house "Bike of the Year" Stumpjumper EVO - and is on par with it in terms of the actual travel used in relation to the impact force in the "bump zone". The "bump zone" is defined as the spectrum of the most frequently occurring impact forces on a trail - for a 70 kg rider, this would correspond to the range between 700 and 1200 Newtons. How does this work? Thanks to the holistic GENIE Shock Tech formula, which takes leverage, kinematics and damping curve into account.
In detail: How GENIE works
The simple but ingenious functionality can probably best be described as a "chamber play in two acts": Divided into two separate positive air chambers connected by channels, the larger air volume offers a soft damping characteristic on the trail in the first 70% of the suspension travel. If the damper compresses beyond this threshold, the special band from GENIE closes the openings to the outer air chamber, thus reducing the air volume and reacting much more progressively in the last 30% of the suspension travel. This massively reduces the likelihood of bottoming out compared to conventional air dampers. The perfect balance of air and steel spring damping - and individually adjustable too.
Trail frame made of FACT 11M carbon and M5 aluminum
Made from FACT 11M carbon and M5 aluminum, the bike is a single unit from front to back - with the perfect stiffness ratios. How does Specialized know this level? From decades of development work and thousands of data sets. A key goal with the Stumpjumper 15 was to use materials and design as efficiently as possible. This also included apparently counterintuitive measures: for example, "wasting" a few grams more material on the rocker arms - which culminated in a more efficient, stiffer design than the previous sidearm concept. The result? Optimal handling with even less mass.
Anti-Squat, Efficiency and SWAT
When it comes to anti-squat values, the Ride Dynamics team fed the algorithm with data sets from over 40 years of bike development. The goal: to achieve the perfect trail balance of efficiency and impact management despite the perceived "soft spring" of the GENIE technology. And they succeeded, with the Stumpjumper 15 moving between its predecessors, the Stumpjumper and Stumpjumper EVO, in terms of anti-squat and efficiency, both of which were incredible climbers. Another fourth-generation innovation from Specialized: the ingenious SWAT™ Box 4.0 in the down tube also offers a wind, weather and crash-proof storage compartment in the Stumpjumper 15, now even safer and better integrated.
Efficient ergonomics
Six individual settings allow riders to perfectly adjust the ergonomics and efficiency of their bike to suit their preferences and terrain. The special, eccentrically shaped upper headset cup allows the steering angle to be adjusted in three positions between 63° and 65,5°, while the bottom bracket can be moved up or down by 180 mm as desired by turning the Horst Link FlipChips by 7° - to shift the center of gravity downwards or increase ground clearance. Six frame sizes are available with similar head tube lengths and standover heights, but are not only tailored to body sizes, but also to riding style and terrain. Smaller S sizes offer a more agile, playful riding experience thanks to a shorter reach and front center, while the larger sizes provide more stability and a fuller ride feel.
Specialized Stumpjumper 15 with Traverse SL II wheelset
Of course, the best trail innovations are worthless if the power is not transferred efficiently to the ground. The Traverse SL II wheelset, with its flat, wide rim profile and a specific carbon layup, provides 21% more vertical compliance - for flowing lines and better control on rough trails. Compared to its predecessor, it also has 15% more stability on the front wheel and 25% more on the rear wheel. Nevertheless, the rim shape is designed to be so flexible that it provides even more traction and control through adaptive rotation. Grip and traction are ensured by the tires with the Butcher Grid Trail T9 at the front and the Eliminator Grid Trail T7 at the rear.
Available in five variants or as a frameset
The new Specialized Stumpjumper 15 is available in five versions ranging from 6.500,00 to 13.000 euros. A frameset is also available for 4.500 euros. And then there is still one question: Large wheels for better rollover behavior and more momentum or a smaller rear wheel for more playability? In the aftermarket, Specialized offers the right rocker arms for the different combinations without changing the geometry or chassis characteristics of the Stumpjumper 15.
Web: www.specialized.com