s-works enduro for transwales?

errr I think I may have made a silly mistake… you see I used to race xc and I own a specialized s-works hardtail, but I’ve not been riding much at all for the last 3-4 years. I thought I’d get back into it again, but enduros rather than xc, so I entered transwales. Since I don’t want to do that on a hardtail I figured I should buy a full sus bike, and since I already know & like specialized I figured I’d stick to what I know. Anyway I bought an s-works enduro carbon online (maybe in a bit of a hurry) because for some reason in my mind this was specialized’s “enduro/marathon” bike… however now that I have it, even though it’s quite light, it seems like a LOT of travel for what I actually need. Doing my research online (which, yes, I should have done before) it seems I may have been better of buying an epic or stumpjumer with less travel? I feel a bit foolish since I would *usually* do months of research, testing, to-ing and fro-ing before buying a new bike…

What do you think – am I going to kill my body trying to do transwales on an s-works enduro? Looking at the route there are some decent hills and although specialized’s marketing blurb says the s-works enduro “climbs like a scared cat”, perhaps the aforementioned cat is scared of cardiac arrest or it’s legs blowing up…?

I’ll swap my 456 summer season frame for your carbon enduro frame?

Hmmmm… I think the S-Works Stumpjumer would have been a better option for the TransWales event. But you could always still ride your hardtail? Saying that I know a guy in my team at Mountaim Mayhem that did faster laps on his S-Works Enduro that his Giant XTC carbon hardtail.

I think you may be right.

If you want to be competitive have a look what the top placed riders are using and get something similar. If on the other hand you want to enjoy yourself and think that you can ride the Enduro up hill then you may have the ideal bike.

The event stages are on the website why not try one on the Enduro and see how it feels.

I’m sure the Enduro will be fine…just coming to terms with you buying a £3k+ bike online without doing much research or trying it 😯 …fair play 😀

just coming to terms with you buying a £3k+ bike online without doing much research or trying it

trust me I’m also trying to come to terms with that 🙂 the problem was that I *thought* I knew exactly what I wanted – combined with very hectic week with no time I “just did it”.

Once the weather dries up I might take it to my favourite uphill and see what happens… it seems like an awesome bike for taking on the big stuff. However I’d wanted to leave it unridden in case I want to sell it on…

kiwi_stu I am def not man enough to ride transwales on my HT! your story about your friend at Mountain Mayhem is encouraging though.

I’m not riding transwales to win it, it’s more important that I enjoy it – but hopefully this enjoyment would include the uphills too

You’ll be fine, you won’t be the quickest, but you’ll get round alright. An Epic would’ve made more sense if you want to be competitive though!

maybe as penance for not thinking this through, I should just punish myself, lose 5KG then I’ll be faster than if I’d bought an Epic and continued to eat pies.

thanks all for the feedback… I will now leave it in the hands of fate, or indeed STW… what I’m going to do is see if anyone on this forum wants the Enduro… I’ll leave it unridden for the next 2 weeks and if nobody wants it then I will ride it 7 days solid for transwales! So if any of you want it, I’ll let it go for £2350 but you’ll need to collect it from Bracknell. Hopefully one of you wants it then I can buy my Epic…

All is brand new and it’s unridden (except 5mins by me on the road to check fit)
Frame: 2008 s-works enduro carbon
Fork: e150 SL – the guy that built it says it’s a 2008 fork with 2009 internals
Chainset & rear mech: XT
Front mech: XTR
LX shifters
Brakes: Hope M4 with carbon levers, and fairly bling bling rotors
Wheels: s-works Roval traversee E5
Seatpost: thomson elite
Saddle: some bontrager saddle – personally I would recommend choosing another saddle as this one creaks a bit.
Tyres: conti mountain king 2.2 – the front tyre seems to have a little kink in it so I will also provide set of conti slash 2.3 (used once)
No pedals

Here are some pics… anyone interested ping me robgray at hotmail.co.uk

I’d just keep the Enduro unless you really do want a more focused bike for marathons only. The Enduro is pretty light and the brain shock is decent to pedal with and it’s more versatile if you ever wanted to fool about on rougher stuff.

It’ll be great, perfect for the job.
I did it on a Yeti 575 with Pikes up front last year. Comfort is more important than speed
🙂

ok thanks FuzzyWuzzy and PeterPoddy – the Yeti 575 is a good comparable bike I think… and I have to agree I’d rather be comfortable.

I’ve just been reading some reviews of last year’s transwales: poor organisation, bad tempered campsite managers and long queues for the shower etc. and I’m beginning to think that the bike is the least of my worries…!