Specialized Enduro Elite Review

Words & Photos by Nic Hall

If you saw our first ride report on the S-Works Specialized Enduro, you know we were impressed with the completely redesigned bike right off the bat. What was once a glorified XC bike two-decades ago is now much closer to a short-travel Specialized Demo DH bike. We’ve been riding the Enduro Elite for several months in preparation of this review. We’ve slugged it up brutal climbs all around the Pacific Northwest just for the sake of shredding it down the gnarliest trails we could find. We’ve ridden the new Enduro long enough to get past the honeymoon phase and are ready to discuss the strengths, weaknesses and who the ideal consumer for this bike is.

THE LAB
In our first ride review and release articles we went over the leverage curves along with the build philosophy of the new Enduro. Specialized had one mission in mind when creating the Enduro – more speed. Specialized Bikes increased travel, stiffness, and completely changed the linkage to make this bike a truly capable descender. Hoping to offset the Enduro’s downhill bias, Specialized increased anti-squat by 40%, but this bike is definitely not a climber’s best friend.

The 170mm Enduro 29 was built around the Demo linkage design, Specialized’s dedicated downhill race machine. If you guessed that it rides like a 170mm Demo that you can still pedal to the top of your local hill, you’d be right. Specialized continues to use the tried and true Horst Link suspension design, although it rides quite a bit differently than previous Enduros. By moving the shock lower on the frame and placing a pivot on the chainstay below the rear axle, Specialized is able to make several big changes to the Enduro’s suspension characteristics.

The leverage curve on the new Enduro is more progressive and doesn’t flatten out at the end of the travel. If you were struggling to find volume reducers to throw in your shock last year, you’ll be pleasantly surprised as how this bike handles big hits.

Another change at the rear end of the Enduro comes in the form of frame stiffness. Specialized claims the new design yields a 12% increase in stiffness over the previous Enduro while the front triangle maintains the same level of stiffness as testing and rider feedback confirmed that the front end was plenty stiff.

As you may expect, the new Specialized Enduro is long and slack. Specialized is using their “S” sizing system, so customers will be best served by measuring their existing bikes and comparing dimensions to better know which size will fit them best.

We ran the bike in High mode, which gives the bike a 64.3-degree head tube angle, while Low puts the bike at 63.9 degrees. The wheelbase on our S4 is 1,274mm with a reach of 487mm, and a seat tube angle of 76 degrees. The chainstays on all bikes are 442mm long and mate up to the 354mm high bottom bracket (Low).

Specialized offers four complete bikes from $4,510 up to the $9,750 S-Works model. A frame is also available for $3,310. The Elite is equipped with a full SRAM kit. Code R brakes, an Eagle GX derailleur with NX Eagle shifter, and a Rock Shox Lyrik Select + fork works with a Rock Shox Super Deluxe rear shock. Roval’s alloy Traverse wheels and Butcher tires round of the build.