Wheel Size: 29”
Travel: 120 mm rear / 120 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes Offered: XS, SM, MD, LG, XL
- Headtube Angle: 65.9° (Low), 66.4° (High),
- Reach: 450 mm (Size Medium, Low shock position)
- Chainstay Length: 435 mm
Frame Material: Carbon fiber
Price: Complete bikes starting at $5,000 USD / $7,500 AUD / €5,200 / £4,250
Wheel Size: 29”
Travel: 120 mm rear / 130 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes Offered: XS, SM, MD, LG, XL
- Headtube Angle: 65.4° (Low), 65.9° (High),
- Reach: 445 mm (Size Medium, Low shock position)
- Chainstay Length: 435 mm
Frame Material: Carbon fiber
Price: Complete bikes starting at $5,000 USD / $7,500 AUD / €5,200 / £4,250
Intro
World Cup Cross Country racing has gotten extremely exciting in recent years, especially as tracks have become more technical. Those changes are not just exciting for viewers but have also brought rapid evolution to XC bikes in pursuit of speed and comfort in more demanding terrain.
With the UCI World Cup Cross Country series kicking off in Brazil in early April, Specialized has officially unveiled its Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO bikes as a reflection of the demands of modern XC riding and racing. While the two models now share a common frame, Specialized has made significant changes to the frame construction and geometry to drop weight, add confidence, and improve efficiency.
Read on to dig deeper into the overhauled Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO and see how Specialized has reimagined these very fast bikes:
The Frame
The Specialized Epic has taken many forms over the years, often with some unconventional designs. Longtime riders might remember the first Epic’s seat-stay-mounted BRAIN shock, or even the 2023 Epic World Cup’s proprietary shock recessed into the top tube. With the latest Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO, Specialized has stuck with the simpler aesthetic of the outgoing Epic and Epic EVO, relying on a flex-stay design and linkage-driven shock with an extension yoke.
The simple aesthetic belies a whole host of updates to the frame construction and suspension, which now pumps out 120 mm of rear travel in both the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO formats. For reference, the outgoing Epic had 100 mm of rear travel, and the Epic EVO came in at 110 mm. The fact that Specialized is supplying a full 120 mm on its race-ready Epic reflects the evolving needs of its racers, who favored the outgoing Epic EVO on most tracks last year. It’s also a change that just so happens to make the bike a bit more versatile for those of us who want a bit more comfort and don’t often find ourselves between the tape.
Unsurprisingly, the new frame’s major emphasis on weight savings means that it’s only available in carbon fiber. Interestingly, Specialized employs what they call “Rider-First Engineering” to customize the construction of each frame size in the range. The goal was to optimize weight and frame flex characteristics for the differences in rider weight and stature that are often associated with each frame size. Specialized also claims new construction methods and molding techniques, which reportedly allowed them to create more hollow forms and shave 24 grams out of the top tube. The Epic S-Works model gets extra fancy with “FACT 12M” carbon fiber material, titanium pivot hardware, and a carbon shock-extension link; together, that means the Epic 8 S-Works frame weighs 74 grams less than the old model.
Despite the focus on weight reduction, it’s worth noting that the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO both get Specialized’s updated SWAT 4.0 downtube storage system (or gummy worm habitat, in my use case), as well as a steering stop to keep the brake levers from damaging the top tube in a crash.
While they share a frame, the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO diverge a bit in the suspension department — specifically, how they employ shock selection and adjustment configurations through an approach that Specialized calls Specialized Ride Dynamics. We’ll walk through each of the bikes individually to make the intricacies easier to follow:
Epic 8
Specialized makes some impressive claims about what they have achieved in both rider comfort and efficiency gains with the new Epic 8. The Epic 8’s suspension was clearly a point of focus for Specialized’s engineers, and the Epic 8 gets both custom shock tunes and kinematic updates, by which Specialized claims a 20% reduction in pedal-induced suspension movement while also being less fatiguing to ride on rougher tracks. On the latter point, Specialized claims that the new Epic 8 manages forces from bumps better than any 120mm-travel bike they’ve tested, and their testing showed a 12% drop in bump and vibration forces through the frame relative to the prior Epic.
The Epic 8’s custom suspension tunes include a new tuning philosophy called Dynamic Trio. In addition to the familiar open and firm settings on the shock — Specialized calls these Wide Open and Sprint-On-Lock — there’s a middle setting called Magic Middle, which aims to be something of a “home base” setting for 80% of racing scenarios. Magic Middle features a digressive compression tune, which takes longer to blow off in order to minimize suspension movement under rider inputs, but is softer at higher shaft speeds. The theory here is that the Epic 8 is more efficient by being less sensitive to rider inputs, but reduces fatigue on larger impacts by using the deeper part of its travel more readily. The Epic 8 is offered exclusively with a RockShox SIDLuxe 3-position shock.
The Epic 8 also sees the first adaptation of SRAM’s Flight Attendant suspension system to the RockShox SID platform, though only on the top-tier S-Works Epic 8 model. The Epic 8 S-Works’ Flight Attendant system gets the same Dynamic Trio shock tune as the rest of the range but uses SRAM’s AXS technology to automatically shift between settings based on rider and terrain inputs. We spent a lot of time with Flight Attendant on the RockShox ZEB and Super Deluxe Ultimate that came with the YT Capra Uncaged 6 and were impressed by the efficiency gains; in a lot of ways, it seems like a particularly advantageous system for the Cross Country race crowd where it removes the need for riders to think about manual adjustment between shock settings.
[For more info, check out our First Look of the new SID Flight Attendant setup and the new features that RockShox has added to the system.]
Epic 8 EVO
While many of the performance gains of the race-ready Epic 8 are baked into the Epic 8 EVO, Specialized took a slightly different approach to make the Epic 8 EVO a bit simpler and more functional for folks with less of a race-oriented mindset. Specialized has leaned into the “downcountry” classification for the Epic 8 EVO, emphasizing the bike’s descending capabilities, and omits the Magic Middle setting of the Epic 8 in favor of a simpler, two-position choice between Wide Open and Sprint-On-Lock settings. Interestingly, the Epic 8 EVO foregoes the RockShox-only suspension of the Epic 8 in favor of a Fox Float 2-position rear shock.
Fit & Geometry
With the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO sharing the same frame, the geometry differences between the two come from the longer 10 mm bump in fork length on the Epic 8 EVO. While frame geometry doesn’t take a radical departure from the outgoing Epic EVO, it does appear quite a bit more Trail-inspired than the prior Epic — again signaling the evolving needs of Cross Country racers on more technical tracks.
Geometry: Epic 8
Using its Low geometry setting (accomplished by a reversible spacer at the rear shock mount) and size Medium frame as a baseline, the Epic 8 has a 450 mm reach, 65.9° head angle, 598 mm stack, 44 mm bottom bracket drop, and 435 mm chainstays. Relative to the outgoing Epic of the same size, that reach has grown by 5 mm, the head tube angle has relaxed by a full 1.6°, the stack has increased by 7 mm, and the chainstays have grown by a modest 2 mm. Shifting to the High position brings the head tube angle 0.5° steeper (to 66.4°), but the changes follow the trend of longer and slacker in the world of competitive Cross Country. The head angle stands out as particularly slack among its peers, such as the BMC FourStroke and Trek Supercaliber, both of which sit at 67.5°.
Geometry: Epic 8 EVO
The Epic 8 EVO’s 130 mm fork means measurements get just a bit taller and slacker, relative to the Epic 8. The Epic EVO’s head tube angle relaxes further to 65.4° in the Low setting and reach shortens to 445 mm, while the stack creeps up slightly to 601 mm and the BB drop gets reduced to 41 mm. Otherwise, geometry remains similar to the Epic 8.
Interestingly, the Epic 8 EVO’s geometry is a bit more of a departure from the outgoing Epic EVO, primarily in the reach department, where the outgoing model featured a considerably shorter 436 mm reach in the size Medium. The Epic 8 EVO’s head tube angle is a full degree slacker than the old one’s (formerly 66.5°), and its stack sits just a bit higher than the old one’s 597 mm measurement. These all seem like positive updates, making the Epic 8 EVO a bit slacker and longer for better composure on rougher trails.
Overall, the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO continue to push Cross Country geometry longer and slacker, borrowing from trends we’ve seen settle a bit in the Trail and Enduro categories. The size Large Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO look like what I would expect to see for my 6’ / 183 cm height, and I am particularly intrigued by the significantly slacker head angles, given that short-travel bikes with slack head angles have historically proven to be quite a bit of fun on the right trails.
(BLISTER+ members can check out our Flash Review of the Epic 8 EVO for our early thoughts on its on-trail performance.)
The Builds
Most of the differentiation between the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO comes in the form of the chosen build kits for each model, with the Epic 8 getting a 120 mm fork while the Epic 8 EVO gets 130 mm up front (in addition to some burlier spec choices). Interestingly, the S-Works and Pro builds are not offered in the XS size in either the Epic 8 or Epic 8 EVO — smaller riders are stuck choosing from Expert or Comp builds, or opting for a frameset.
Highlights from each model’s available builds are as follows:
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Eagle
- Brakes: SRAM Level Bronze Stealth (w/ 160 or 180 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 160 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: RockShox SID Select (120 mm), Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Shock: RockShox SID Select+, Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Wheels: Specialized Alloy 29 rims w/ sealed cartridge bearing hubs
- Dropper Post: X-Fusion Manic (XS: 100 mm; SM: 125 mm; MD: 125 mm; LG: 150 mm; XL: 170 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Eagle AXS Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Level Bronze Stealth (w/ 160 or 180 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 160 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: RockShox SID Select+ (120 mm), Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Shock: RockShox SID Select+, Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Wheels: Roval Control Carbon rims w/ DT Swiss 350 straight-pull hubs
- Dropper Post: X-Fusion Manic (XS: 100 mm; SM: 125 mm; MD: 125 mm; LG: 150 mm; XL: 170 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM XO Eagle Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Level Silver (w/ 160 or 180 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 160 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: RockShox SID Ultimate (120 mm), Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Shock: RockShox SID Ultimate, Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment and TwistLoc remote
- Wheels: Roval Control Carbon rims w/ DT Swiss 350 straight-pull hubs
- Dropper Post: Bike Yoke Divine SL (SM–MD: 125 mm; LG–XL: 150 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM XX SL Eagle AXS, w/ Power Meter crankset
- Brakes: SRAM Level Ultimate Stealth (w/ 160 or 180 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 160 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant (120 mm), Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment
- Shock: RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant, Ride Dynamics 3 position adjustment
- Wheels: Roval Control SL wheelset w/ DT Swiss 180 internals, ceramic bearings
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb AXS (SM: 125 mm; MD: 125 mm; LG: 150 mm; XL: 170 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Eagle
- Brakes: SRAM Code Bronze Stealth (w/ 180 or 200 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 180 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: Fox 34 Performance GRIP (130 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float Performance EVOL, 2-position adjust
- Wheels: Specialized Alloy 29 rims w/ sealed cartridge bearing hubs
- Dropper Post: X-Fusion Manic (XS–SM: 125 mm; MD: 150 mm; LG–XL: 170 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM XO Eagle Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Code Silver Stealth (w/ 180 or 200 mm front rotor depending on frame size, and 180 mm rear rotor)
- Fork: Fox 34 Factory GRIP2
- Shock: Fox Float Factory EVOL, 2-position adjust
- Wheels: Roval Control Carbon rims w/ Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: Fox Transfer Factory (SM: 125 mm; MD: 150 mm; LG–XL: 175 mm)
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) With the difference between the Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO coming down to a 130mm-travel fork and some differences in parts selection, just how different do the bikes feel on the trail?
(2) How does the new SID-adapted Flight Attendant system complement the race-oriented intentions of the Epic 8 S-Works?
(3) The Epic 8 now features geometry that would not look all that out of place on a Trail bike, especially one from just 1-2 years ago. So just how capable is the new Epic 8 (or especially Epic 8 EVO) when the trail turns downward?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO look to be a compelling new iteration of Specialized’s Epic platform and potentially a significant jump in the bikes’ capability in faster and rougher terrain. We’ve found longer-legged Cross Country bikes to be a whole lot of fun on the right types of trails, so we are keen to get some trail time on these very fast-looking machines — and have already started getting laps in aboard the Epic EVO.
Flash Review: Our Initial On-Trail Impressions
BLISTER+ members and those who purchase our Digital Access Pass can check out the Flash Review below to read our initial on-trail impressions. Get our Digital Access Pass to view all our Flash Reviews and Deep Dives, or become a BLISTER+ member today to get access to that and a LOT more, including the best worldwide Outdoor Injury Insurance, exclusive deals and discounts on skis, personalized gear recommendations from us, and much more.