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Aaron Gwin took down the first World Cup of 2014 aboard this prototype Specialized Enduro EVO with 650b wheels. Specialized has been pretty quiet about the details of the bike and wouldn't let us get too close, but we know his whip has 180mm of travel out back with a FOX rear coil and we figure the FOX 40 has been modified to match up front with 180mm travel. He ran a Specialized Butcher GRID tire up front with a Slaughter semi-slick out back. A SRAM X01 DH 7-speed drivetrain makes Gwin go while Avid brakes make him stop. Well done, Aaron! We're stoked to see you stomp again.
Credit
Sven Martin
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WINNING BIKE: Aaron Gwin's Prototype Specialized Enduro EVO 650b
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20 comments

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al.boneta
10 years ago
I don't see the point of complaining about what Vital posts. There are always stories that both interest and disinterest me.
Spomer and his crew do a fine job. Oh and it's free
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mrpowerjd
10 years ago
The front half is the stock 26 Enduro EVO frame. The back half is the stock alloy 29 Enduro rear. Still gives a chainstay of 430.
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Aussie Pinner
10 years ago
Sorry but I doubt that. Why wouldn't the whole frame be a 650B Enduro Expert Evo frame? There was already a 26" Enduro Evo frame and 650B isn't much of a work to make it happen.
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FCTRY
10 years ago
This sport will continue to decline and become less and less interesting, until we stop talking about pieces of plastic and aluminum and start talking about the people who ride them. Inanimate objects will never be as interesting as people, this sport has lost its soul with incessant pandering to self-important manufacturers. Bikes don't win races, people win races.
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sspomer
10 years ago
hey, remember that one time when vital had 4 slideshows from PMB 2014 with 169 action/lifestyle photos and 48 audio clips interviewing the racers about their racing?
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FCTRY
10 years ago
The Out of Africa slideshow is killer. Nice work. Just thought it was strange that the first thing up about the 4 race wins yesterday was their bike checks. Also The Hub yaps about nothing but parts and bikes, from there you wouldn't know there were races yesterday. My arm is broken and I need vicarious racing fulfillment, frustrated. Come on Outdoors!
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sspomer
10 years ago
the bikes go up first b/c they're a quick post. the slideshows take a lot of time. just have cooper lick your arm till it's healed.
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FCTRY
10 years ago
Cooper's old age at least gives me some company as a broken down old fart. How does your little white fluff ball feel about the kid, do they have a Cash-Kyle style rivalry brewing yet?
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rippah
10 years ago
Bikes don't win races? Right, because new and better equipment doesn't allow us to get faster. And WC race crews poor over details and setup of their bikes because hey, Gwin could win that WC race on an out of the crate bike? Sounds like sour grapes man. I do understand some of what you're saying, that the story should be the rider. But if you hadn't noticed, your brethren mtb nuts kinda like gear, so why not show what's Gwinnin?
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FCTRY
10 years ago
My brethren MTB nuts are the problem, with everything. People that would rather build bikes than ride them, people that want to talk about how they shredded the sanitized "black" trail rather than actually be challenged, people that want the XC trails to be dumbed down to their level rather than elevate their level of riding, people that pretend to enjoy horrible anti-fun enduro races because that's what's being marketed right now, and so on. These people are now the majority in MTB.
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rippah
10 years ago
I'm sorry mtb has made you so bitter. I thought we were supposed to be having a good time? And that's a bit of a stretch to say riders are not enjoying "anti-fun" enduro races. I haven't raced in one, but my friends have and I am 100% sure they had a good time. Anti-fun for you maybe, but maybe not for everyone else.
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FCTRY
10 years ago
The assessment of me as "bitter" is pretty fair and accurate, although "defeated" might be slightly better. I have watched the sport I love, downhill, basically die over my 10 year DH career. The nationals died, the MSC died, and half the great american DH tracks have been reclaimed by their hills, to be replaced by bike park trails you could do on a DJ bike. Enduro is a sad replacement that sucks to watch and to race, contrived to sell more 6" trail bikes. I know a few high level guys who like it, and I know some high level pro enduro riders who do it only because they have to to continue to have a career. Among the rank and file pro DH riders that I know, it is all but universally loathed. I am hoping to go back home to the East this summer and hopefully re-find some of the joy I used to have in downhilling, when the tracks were steep, the rocks were slick, and men were men. If it's not there, that will probably be it for me until something turns around. DH racing has been the greatest experience of my life, and it's too heartbreaking to watch it continue to decline into a shadow of it's former self.
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Mudstud
10 years ago
@FCTRY
Right, bikes do not win races.
But bike sales do pay for race teams.
So without self-important manufacturers trumpeting about their latest products to drive their sales, there would be no professional riders competing. And you could not talk about people who ride bikes.
So frankly your argument is pretty useless. If you don't care about the equipment being ridden in races, don't read the articles about that equipment. Let alone comment on those articles.
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Mudstud
10 years ago
@kidwoo
True. That's because unlike @FCTRY I am very much interested in the equipment ridden in competition.
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FCTRY
10 years ago
I'm not entirely uninterested, but after racing for 16 years you start to realize that it's just a bike. What's more interesting about a carpenter, his tools or his products? Gwin didn't go 3.5 sec up at the first split because his bike was 254.2 grams lighter or because of the size of his wheels, he did it because he's probably the greatest downhill racer in history. Knowing what a grizzled old bastard Woo is, I think he might understand where I'm coming from. Equipment is an important part of the sport, I just grow weary of central position it seems to take in the attention of the community. Go contrast the forums on Vital MX vs Vital MTB, and see the how many threads are about equipment vs riding and racing. Here it's probably 10 to 1, there it's 1 to 10. Seems out of whack to me. Hope that clears up my feelings on the issue.