FSR Suspension
Specialized holds the patent on the FSR linkage, otherwise known as the horst link. That means anyone who wants to sell an FSR link-equipped bike in America has to license that design from Specialized.
Basically, the FSR link is the pivot placement where there’s a pivot on the chainstay just in front of and below the drop out.
This pivot placement does a few things:
1) As the suspension compresses, the wheel follows a slightly more vertical wheel path, which helps it absorb bumps.
2) It helps isolate drivetrain forces, thus making the bike pedal more efficiently.
3) It helps separate braking forces from suspension forces, so the suspension remains active while the brakes are applied.
The FSR link isn’t a new design (it’s been around for 20 some-odd years), but it’s a good one.
These days, there are a lot of other suspension designs out there—VPP, dw-link, Maestro, split pivot etc. The idea behind pretty much all these designs is to make the suspension absorb bumps better while also isolating pedaling and braking forces.
Basically, we want the suspension to move freely when the wheel hits a bump, but we don’t want the suspension to interfere with power to the rear wheel. We also don’t want the suspension to do anything funky when we grab the brakes.
Without wading into the engineering and nerdery that comes with this sort of discussion, the FSR linkage is awesome at absorbing bumps and staying active during braking, but it does a mediocre job isolating pedaling forces.
When you crank on the Enduro’s pedals, the suspension moves quite a bit. A significant portion of your energy goes into moving the suspension rather than moving you forward.
My previous bike was a Pivot Firebird, which uses the dw-link rear suspension. The dw-link produces noticeably less pedal bob than the FSR linkage, which comes into play when you need a quick burst of power (i.e. accelerating up a short, steep climb). The FSR feels sluggish relative to the dw-link in these situations.
This issue can largely be resolved with the shock settings (more on that below), but it’s annoying to reach down and fiddle with the shock settings every time I want the suspension to pedal well. On the Enduro, I find myself switching the settings on the shock far more often than I did on the Firebird.
But the FSR’s linkage felt noticeably more active than the Firebird’s. Particularly on smaller bumps, like a series of roots, the FSR linkage did a great job tracking the terrain.
On a side note—the rear shock on my Pivot was a Monarch RC3, so while this isn’t quite comparing apples to apples, I attribute many of the differences to the linkage designs.
Even with the Monarch in its most open setting, the Firebird still had relatively little pedal bob compared to the Enduro. This comports with other experiences I’ve had on other dw-link bikes with different shocks.
Fox Float CTD Rear Shock
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m a fan of the CTD on the rear, it’s not as bad as the fork. Like the fork, the Float has 3 position settings—Climb, Trail, and Descend. Some Fox Floats have an additional 3 settings whereby the middle “Trail” setting can be adjusted to soft, medium, or firm. The Float on the Enduro unfortunately doesn’t have this adjustment.
I didn’t find the three position settings on the fork to be all that useful. I’m not all that concerned about a little bit of fork bob on the climb, because it doesn’t make that much of a difference.
Bobbing in the rear, on the other hand, makes a fairly noticeable difference.
Flipping the rear shock into “Climb” transforms the pedaling characteristics of the Enduro—it goes from a bouncy, somewhat inefficient climber to one that will cruise up climbs (almost) effortlessly. Even standing and hammering on the pedals works fine. The Climb mode gives great support, but still has a enough squish to keep you from getting hung up on roots and rocks.
In “Trail” mode, there is still a noticeable amount of resistance to pedal feedback, which is a good thing in rolling terrain. What you lose, however, is a lot of that small-bump sensitivity that the FSR linkage handles so well.
I found that while descending in the “trail” setting, the rear wheel tended to skip over small bumps rather than track them. This becomes problematic when you’re pulling hard on the brakes into a corner—the rear wheel isn’t planted as firmly, which leads to a lot of hacking the rear wheel over rather than rolling around the corner gracefully.
The “Descend” setting solves this problem. In this setting, the rear wheel does a beautiful job of tracking the terrain. Unfortunately, this comes with a two-part tradeoff. First, the bike doesn’t pedal as well in this mode, which isn’t a big deal, of course, if you’re mostly going downhill. I also found, however, that the “Descend” setting lacked some support deeper in its travel. In compressions on the trail and in hard corners, the rear shock would bottom out.
This was particularly noticeable in cornering after I put the Lyrik on—the Lyrik doesn’t dive all that much in corners, so when the rear end bottoms out, the bike was left with a really slack headtube angle, creating some funky handling characteristics. I tried pumping up the air pressure in the rear to combat this, but it didn’t help much.
In short, I appreciate the Climb mode on the rear shock. That said, the lack of adjustability exposes some weaknesses in the other two modes. There’s a good chance that a Cane Creek Double Barrel Air will find its way onto this bike at some point.
Fox Float CTD Rear Shock “AutoSag”
The rear shock has Fox’s “Autosag” feature. Basically, you pump the shock up to 300psi, sit on the bike, depress a valve, and the shock automatically sets itself to the right pressure.
This works fine, until the last part; I found the pressure it set to be too soft.
But really, setting sag is pretty much the easiest part of setting up suspension. Autosag feels a bit like a marketing gimmick primarily intended to provide a discussion topic on the sales floor.
Replacing the Rear Shock
The rear shock is a proprietary Specialized thing. There are a few common shock sizes, which make it easy to buy different shocks or replace your shock. Not so on the Enduro.
Specialized used a unique shock size and mount. This means two things:
1) You can only get shocks that are made in the proper configuration for this particular bike.
2) When, in a few years, suspension companies stop making shocks in this configuration and you need a replacement, you’re SOL. Cane Creek makes a double barrel for this bike (which comes standard on the S-works version), but other than that, there are very few shock-replacement options.
There’s no question that Specialized gained some advantage by spec’ing a proprietary rear shock; I think it’s safe to say that the frame is lighter and probably stiffer because of it.
But as a consumer, I think the advantages are outweighed by the disadvantages. Proprietary designs and custom shocks just aren’t a great idea—just ask anyone with an old Cannondale Jekyll who’s trying to sell the frame with a blown shock.
Nice write up.
Everyone has written that the “new suspension kinematics” gave the 2013 Enduro more support and better pedaling. But I guess not so much as your complaints are similar to mine on my 2010 version.
I solved the “deep sag” under high force movements, buy adding the small Fox volume adjuster in the rear shock. But like everything there is a trade off; loose a bit of the chunder sucking, but gain some platform to push & pump on, in addition to more ramp up on landings.
I do have to say that the climbing ability of the Enduro on rough climbs is amazing, as the shock stays totally active, while even seating climbing chunk. If one climbs a lot of chunk, this is an amazing climber. For me, I have a lot of hardpack climbs so it does not work as well in my instance.
And I’ll add to the straight lining downhill ability, it also is quite good at doubling up boneyard and other rough segments. It’s taught me to seek out the playful bits in and on the sides of trails as it loves to launch and land almost anywhere. The Enduro taught me to play with the trail, but now I want something a bit shorter for my less rough local trail systems. The short stays are stupid fun for manualling, and have gotten me around a lot of switchbacks that I have no business making.
Dropping to a 50mm stem dials the length down while keeping it roomy. I also use a straight post which helps for a good climbing position.
I neglected to mention above that the Enduro is the most fun I’ve had on a bike. Freaking love it. Just want a bit more funnerer!
P
Great review. You do the best job telling every detail in a straightforward manor and not reviewing just to make every bike sound like its the next best thing since sliced bread. Thanks for not being a fanboy towards all your reviews!
Great review, this is exactly what i was looking for. I’m looking to replace my Trance X with something burlier and had narrowed it down to the Nomad C, Enduro C, SB-66c and maybe the Slayer. It sounds like the Enduro rides like a scaled down version of my Demo 8, not bad at all but just not great at everything either. Need to think about exactly where and how I’m going to ride…
Yeah, I also have a Demo, and to some extent the Enduro is a scaled down version of it – the rear end feels pretty similar – tight chain stays make the rear wheel on both bike very willing to push hard into corners. The cockpit on the Enduro is a little more stretched out than the Demo – the Enduro’s reach is about 21 mm longer (on the current model – geometry has changed a bit over the years). I would also say that the Demo uses its travel a bit more judiciously, but that a tough comparison to make since the shocks (Float CTD vs. Cane Creek DB) are so dissimilar – I’m not sure how much of the difference I feel is the frame vs. the shock.
Anyways, I think you’ve got 4 pretty sweet options to look at there. If you haven’t already, I’d make sure you swing a leg over them – particularly the Enduro and SB-66. Both of those bikes are sized a bit differently that what I would consider “normal” (they’re long). Some people like it, some people don’t.
Can you post an update if you end up mounting the CCDB Air CS?
Hey Sean,
Unfortunately I didn’t end up getting the Double Barrel for the Enduro. I tried getting one earlier in the summer but Specialized didn’t have any in stock (and the shock has to be ordered directly from Specialized due to the unique mounting arrangement).
That said, I have a CCDB on my Specialized Demo and I’ve ridden a CCDB Air on an Enduro 29. The Double Barrel is an awesome shock if you’re willing to take the time to dial it in. It’s not just the different adjustments that the shock has, but the adjustments have a huge range. I definitely notice on my Demo that a couple clicks on any of the adjustments make a pretty remarkable difference. The upside is that you can get the shock to feel great. The downside is that you can also make it feel horrible if your settings are way out of whack. At least on my Demo, I found that Cane Creek’s recommended tune was a pretty good starting point – I could go a few clicks in either direction to suit my preferences, and then occasionally I’ll tweak it if I’m spending a bunch of time on a particular type of trail.
The CCDB Air that I rode on the Enduro had the new climb switch, which is a great addition to that shock. My ride on that bike was just a quick demo, so I didn’t have time to dial the shock in and get it where I wanted it. That said, I’m confident that I could get that thing to feel great and out perform the Fox Float CTD in pretty much all situations.
Long story short: If you have an Enduro you’re just looking for a little more tunability and performance out of the rear shock, I don’t think you’ll regret going for the CCDB.
hi , i´m 5.11 tall. 30.5 inch inseam.
what´s your size suggestion?
M or L
now i have a Pivot Mach 5.7 M and i find it a little short in the Top tube
Thanks
For starters, sorry for the slow response.
The short answer is that you could probably go either way, so you should see if you can find an Enduro to swing a leg over and see how it feels. But assuming that there isn’t one readily available in your area, that’s a bit trickier.
The medium Enduro has a significantly longer reach (almost an inch longer) than the Mach 5.7, but the top tube is only a smidge longer. If you’re feeling a bit cramped on the medium 5.7, I’d probably lean towards a large Enduro, but keep in mind that it’s probably going to feel like a big jump up – the large Enduro is at the large end of larges (if that makes any sense).
Hope that helps.
hey, sweet review, it helps me a lot as I’m about to go for this bike. I got a pretty sweet deal on it too, at about 50% discount, if not more.. My problem is that the bike is a size M and I’m 6.2. normally I never considered buying a bike this small but as you also wrote it has a pretty long reach. I’ve sat on it a couple of times in the shop and it seems to be comfortable. again as you also wrote, the higher the seat goes, the longer the reach would be. any suggestions about this? do you think I should go for the M? if not, then I’m back to a whole lot of searching for other bikes, similar to this but a bit less pricy.. thanks!
Hey Matt – At 6’2″, I think the medium will be pretty small for you. Generally speaking, I’d say most medium bikes would fit people up to around 5’10”, and you might be able to go a little taller than that for the Enduro due to its long reach. But at 6’2″, I think you’ll be much happier on a Large or XL. Especially on pedally trails and longer climbs, I think you’d feel quite cramped on the medium.
Hopefully you can rustle up a good deal on a larger size!
-Noah
thanks for the fast answer, you bummed me out pretty much:)) no way I can get a similar deal on another bike like this, I might take it out for a longer test ride to see how it feels. thanks again!