Sequoia elite, to be precise…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/QPZFU2]The Adventure one[/url] by tom howard, on Flickr

Complete impulse purchase, following a particularly shitty day at work, and a particularly horrible, uncomfortable, clattery ride to and from said day at work. The offending bike has now been sold.

Had a quick spin today and its great, really like the bar shape (never used flared drops before) and the comfort offered by the tires and cobble gobbler (upgraded from the standard alloy post, partly for comfort, mainly to send CFH into orbit)) but the best thing is brakes, going from low end Bontrager callipers to 105 hydros is night and day, all the more evident as it was pissing it down this aft.

Only thing thats less than ideal is that while the tyres are tubeless ready, the rims are not. try s they might, the infinitely capable mechs at the Harrogate concept store couldn’t get the to stay inflated as air kept leaking from the join in the rim. Ho hum, tubes it is.

tbh I’m not going to be doing much in the way of multi day bikepacking adventures, more commuting and the occasional big one day on/off road rides but based on todays poodle, commutes can now be enjoyed (as well as varied to include offroad) rather than simply endured.

And I went to see lego batman today, which was ace, so a good day all round!

Looks nice in a very simple uncluttered way.

Nice! I’ve had mine for a few months now. Lighter wheels transformed it.

I note you’ve got one of the fancy carbon seatposts, not the standard alloy one on the Elite – was that an upgrade or part of the deal?

BTW – Use 25mm Gorilla tape around the rim but put a strip across the join first; worked for me and they’ve stayed up perfectly.

😉

Fugly posts, but they work!

Yeah the fancy post was an upgrade, but got a good deal 🙂 (Plus while I’m not offended by its looks, it def works well, and no-one can see it when I’m sat on it…)

Yeah I’m sure a solution could be found, but the thing about impulse buys… it can go on the ‘things to do when I’ve got nothing else on’ list!

Love that colour! You may have written poodle, but that’s no dog.
Those tyres look interesting, must go and read the blurb on the Specialized website,

Those tyres are very good and surprisingly quick on the road.

And good in the wet!

Well, first proper ride in to work today and it’s great. The seemingly ploughed roads haven’t rattled my eyes out, the 42mm tyres feel to roll as well as the 25mms they replaced, the frame is lively and a typically steel ride (compared to the harsh, dead ride of the Alu trek 1 series). Braking distances have been pretty well halved, and I’ve no issue with the shape of the hoods that some have reported

I now can’t fathom why someone would use a racey road bike as a commuter

I’ve no issue with the shape of the hoods that some have reported…

I think that the shape of the hoods (the hood being longer than cable brakes) combined with the flare of the bars combine for a lovely hand position – I’ve seldom felt at home on a bike so quickly!

I now can’t fathom why someone would use a racey road bike as a commuter

STRAAAAAAAAVVVVAAAAAA!

I also got one a few weeks back. I never thought I’d buy a bike of the evil Spesh but this one just ticked too many boxes.

The spec is really well thought out and everything feels good quality, apart from the rims – they’re crappy.
I swapped the cassette for a 40T Sunrace to get a decent climbing gear. This is a bike crying out for an unfashionable triple chainset. 32/40 is near enough though.

The main thing though is the frameset. They’ve absolutely nailed it. I did over 100 miles this weekend on road, gravel, loose landy track and some rocky siingletrack.
The big DT and solid chainstay/dropout make it feel like a stiff carbon XC bike when you pedal hard. The skinny TT and flattened pencil seatstays keep it really comfy.
It’s the best steel bike I’ve ridden, and I’ve ridden plenty.
Coupled with the fantastic tyres, it feels at it’s best on poorly surfaced tar and fireroad type stuff.

Riding from the door –
[url=https://flic.kr/p/QPoMpw]2017-02-13_06-37-07[/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/S6Qj5M]2017-02-13_06-35-54[/url]

Lovely images, Bedmaker – may I ask where..?

Couldn’t agree with you more on your critique of the bike itself.

Cheers.

Followed the route of the Highland Cross. Rode from Beauly, throught Glen Affric, Glen Lichd and on to Dornie for a friends 40th.

Rode home yesterday into a grim headwind up Glenshiel. It hurt..

First pic is Glen Affric, on the track know as the Yellow brick road. Second pic is the high point after Camban bothy with the five sisters of Kintail in the centre of the pic.

Thanks, bedmaker – an area on my ‘to do’ list for a while now.

Tom. You need to give it a try round the Holme valley. Let me know when your over, I’ve been looking into those gravel/ adventure bikes. Cannondale slate. Ash

Oooh, is it steel then? Looks nice.

Anyone know if the Sequoia is offered as frameset only – no mention of it on the specialised site so assume not?

Don’t think so, though you could go for the base model, sell off what you don’t need and have a pretty good value frame. TBH, I reckon the elite is pretty good value and there isn’t anything i immediately feel the need to upgrade. (Save the seatpost, Obvs)

Ash, yeah sounds good, bit busy for the next month or so but will be swinging that way at some point.

Anyone know if the Sequoia is offered as frameset only – no mention of it on the specialised site so assume not?

There was some talk (on MTBR – there’s a thread there on the Sequoia, on the Specialized forum) about some German companies offer it as a frameset… yup, Google ‘Specialized Sequoia pro module’ and there’s a few places come up – €999.