Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 99 total)
  • Spesh 650b prototype
  • CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Interestingly, Bikerumor had made mention of this on the Twit, but then swiftly deleted it. I wonder if the banlegalhammer fell upon them.

    Looks OK, I suppose.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    yep looks like a 26″ bike

    GHill
    Full Member

    I’d guess that it’s closer to production than prototype. Mostly based on the stickers.

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    Hob-Nob
    Free Member

    And the fact that it’s carbon.

    Looks like the front end from the 29er Stumpy.

    Be interested to see how they market it, considering they always stated it was pointless with 26 & 29 existing, and the the Enduro29 winning pretty much every review it’s in.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Be interested to see how they market it, considering they always stated it was pointless with 26 & 29 existing, and the the Enduro29 winning pretty much every review it’s in.

    Indeed. I suppose the best they could do is, “Well, everyone else was doing it, so it’s market demand. We’re just making what the market wants”, or something!

    A little like the poor chaps at Niner, who hitched themselves up to the wrong bandwagon*.

    *Yes, I know it’s all subjective, but it certainly looks as if the rest of the industry is now backing away from 29ers completely.

    And yes, I can hear that kitten screaming in agony as it suffers a painful death.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    There were murmurings on MTBR about some news coming from Spesh this spring that would involve 650b bikes, in the form of product launches.

    But then, it was MTBR

    Stevelol
    Free Member

    The all black monarch plus looks so badass with the pike. I’m liking the recent stealth ‘colour’ schemes popular at the minute 🙂

    NormalMan
    Full Member

    Depends if they are to replace any 29ers with them or just the 26ers in the range? (Stumpy and Enduro)

    They can always claim demand and/or lack of OEM equipment to continue with the 26er versions I guess.

    Sea Otter should reveal something I’d imagine.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    a guy from france popped up on here a while back and said that spe had ordered a load of 650b wheels from mavic,

    bikes in the shops before the summer I reckon

    looking at the shimano 11speed xtr embargo and the new Intense reviews appearing simultaneously on Vitalmtb, Bikeradar, Enduro mag, Pinkbike shows how much control bike companies have over the release of info

    stevelol agree about the monarch, looks very nice, Im just not convinced about the sealing!

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    looking at the shimano 11speed xtr embargo and the new Intense reviews appearing simultaneously on Vitalmtb, Bikeradar, Enduro mag, Pinkbike shows how much control bike companies have over the release of info

    Indeed. When I spotted the Bikerumor twittering over breakfast and Radio 4 this morning, I clicked on the link to see a 404, and the tweets have since been deleted. I wonder if somewhere in Morgan Hills, a lawyer’s firing an angry missive to STW Towers at this very moment! OK, more likely to be from a small light industrial estate just opposite Thorpe Park at this hour of the day, but you get the idea!

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Hob Nob – Member

    Be interested to see how they market it, considering they always stated it was pointless with 26 & 29 existing, and the the Enduro29 winning pretty much every review it’s in.

    If they’ve got any sense they’ll do the same thing Rockshox did over 15mm axles- “We still say we’re right, but apparently this is what everyone wants us to do so I suppose we’ve got to do it. So since we’ve got to do it, we decided to do it better than everyone else”

    If they pull away from 29ers they’ll have more of a PR problem but they’ve not tied themselves to a 29-er only agenda so switching to 650b and 29er shouldn’t hurt them at all.

    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    Doubt it means pulling away from 29″ – just means killing 26″

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    If they killed the story on bikerumor I suspect it’s not got long on here before it’s deleted.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I reckon they could ship the lot with 26″ wheels and 650b decals and try the biggest bike placebo test going 🙂

    toons
    Free Member

    That photo is still on Instagram and has been for 3 days!

    It was posted by one of their sponsored riders.

    scruff
    Free Member

    Is it Gwins bike for Sea Botter ? (TLD / RedBull helmet)

    Hob-Nob
    Free Member

    Curtis Keene’s.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    Its their enduro racing guy- Curtis Keene

    grum
    Free Member

    Wow it’s like a normal Specialized but the wheels are a tiny bit bigger.

    asterix
    Free Member

    it is the beginning of the end for the 29er

    londonerinoz
    Free Member

    When it’s just the one bike in the photo, I really can’t tell the difference without some 650b/27.5″ tyre logos! It’s more a hunch thing. Maybe if I still rode my 26″ bikes it might be more obvious.

    GEDA
    Free Member

    Ooo. Look at those 12.5mm bigger wheels.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    londonerinoz – Member

    I really can’t tell the difference without some 650b/27.5″ tyre logos!

    There is a reason those tyre logos are so massive 😉 The increase in font size was proportionally much bigger than the increase in tyre size.

    stevede
    Free Member

    It’s hardly a surprise that Spesh have jumped on the bandwagon, sales of 26ers must be dwindling pretty fast and the 650/27 and a bit market is taking off big style whether we like it or not so if they can sell large amounts of bikes then from a business point of view they’d be daft not to cash in whether they see the benefit to be negligible or not. Santa Cruz have done pretty much that with some genius marketing.

    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    stevede – Member
    It’s hardly a surprise that Spesh have jumped on the bandwagon, sales of 26ers must be dwindling pretty fast

    Yeti had 12 orders from shops for the SB66 for 2014 for the entire US. Hence them canning it.

    warns74
    Free Member

    it is the beginning of the end for the 29er

    Think you might have the 9 upsidedown!!

    NormalMan
    Full Member

    grum – Member 
    Wow it’s like a normal Specialized but the wheels are a tiny bit bigger smaller.

    FTFY

    chakaping
    Free Member

    To be fair, they’ve had some practice with humiliating climbdowns recently.

    mindmap3
    Free Member

    It does look good though.

    Given that they are selling well, I guess Spesh can’t ignore the adoption of 650b wheels.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    chakaping – Member

    To be fair, they’ve had some practice with humiliating climbdowns recently.

    See, I really don’t understand what is humiliating or a climbdown about this. They’ve committed to 29ers and still seem committed. They’ve never committed to 26 though, in fact you could say they were the first of the big players to move away from 26. They’re changing their small wheels not their big wheels.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    See, I really don’t understand what is humiliating or a climbdown about this.

    Think about their finance department rather than their marketing department.

    asterix
    Free Member

    it is the beginning of the end for the 29er

    Think you might have the 9 upsidedown!!

    No that has already begun, this is the start of the end for the 29er too

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    still not seeing the point Chapaking, finaince happy to see them selling shit, marketing keeping finance in a job.
    Specialneeds Bike Co. is doing fine and will churn stuff out like giant and trek to fill their concept (no comparison) shops full. They will be successful in the mid and top end of the market but dominate the accountant specced end where you slip in a 2te cassette and an XTR shifter to make the forums love you for selling an XTR equipped steed/weapon/cock

    Speshpaul
    Full Member

    is this really news?
    I thought it was out there that both spesh and giant are doing 650 & 29 next year.

    poah
    Free Member

    black monarch looks sweet – wonder if the damper body will fit current 2014.

    ceepers
    Full Member

    surely this is th least shocking news in the world? I can see a boutique brand like niner being all about one wheel size but would anyone expect the biggest bike brand in the world to ignore a whole section of the market?

    jameso
    Full Member

    A little like the poor chaps at Niner, who hitched themselves up to the wrong bandwagon*.

    *Yes, I know it’s all subjective, but it certainly looks as if the rest of the industry is now backing away from 29ers completely.
    As the MTB world goes 650, the remaining demand for 29ers is a ‘niche’ I’d be happy to be a successful player in.. I expect Niner will stick to the rigid / HT / short-travel 29ers that 650 won’t be replacing for a large enough number of riders to support smaller brands – similar things could happen to 26″.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    still not seeing the point Chapaking, finaince happy to see them selling shit, marketing keeping finance in a job.

    The point is simple. They backed the wrong horse.

    I’m not trying to be a smartarse about it and I respect that they tried to stick with 26in – but they still made the wrong decision and it will have cost them a lot of sale.

    My first post was a reference to the PR disaster they caused over the word Roubaix.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    OK about the first point but Specialsed don’t back the horse, they make it

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 99 total)

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