Inside Specialized – A Closer Look at How the Big-S Develops Mountain Bikes 25

Widely credited with producing the world’s first mass-produced mountain bike, the venerable 1981 Stumpjumper, Specialized has been a part of the mountain bike movement since the very beginning. As one of the major players in our industry, it’s easy to perceive a company like Specialized as a faceless giant, moving thousands of boxes through countless retail points and serving consumers in pretty much every major cycling product category there is. When it comes to the mountain bike side of things however, the core team behind the product line is a lot smaller and tighter than you might initially think. We were fortunate enough to get invited to check out the company’s brand new Innovation Center in Auburn, California – before it was even finished. Join us for a tour of the place and discover the people behind the bikes.

A Family Affair

Mountain bikes at Specialized are synonymous with the Benedict brothers. Both are literally part of the furniture at this point, and nothing happens in the Specialized MTB world without their sign-off in one way or the other. Sam Benedict has the official title of “Global Leader – Mountain Category”, which basically means he is responsible for all things MTB at the company. The job description includes everything from global strategy to making pancakes for the mountain team on Friday mornings. It seems like Sam is pretty good at his job, because the pancakes were excellent and the Specialized mountain product range isn’t too shabby either at this point.

Sam’s younger brother Brad heads up the Ride Dynamics team – the R&D outfit at the very pointy end of mountain bike development at Specialized. So pointy in fact, that the team doesn’t even report directly to Sam, maybe a decision made in the interest of keeping the peace at the family reunion dinner table. Be that as it may, the Ride Dynamics team is ultimately responsible for making sure that every new bike they develop performs and FEELS like a Specialized mountain bike, which means that they spend a lot of time riding and testing prototypes.

So, Auburn?

Riding and testing bikes sounds like a dream job, right? Of course it is, but you need to be set up for it. Specialized is headquartered in Morgan Hill, which means that the closest riding area is Santa Cruz – an hour or so away at least, subject to Bay Area-related traffic at times, too. And aside from the logistics issue, the Ride Dynamics team realized that they needed access to a wider variety of trails than what Santa Cruz has to offer. To create a bike that will perform well all around the world, you need to develop it on demanding terrain that mimics conditions found both here and there. That led to a lot of traveling which is ultimately not the most efficient way of getting through a lot prototype testing – especially if you want to make some changes to the prototypes in question, and then test some more…

Brad and the Ride Dynamics team started using the general Auburn area for testing a while back, and they realized that there was enough variety and enough tough trails here to really push bikes to their limits – and do so repeatedly. A few of the team members actually moved up there and started a satellite office, but when the idea came about to create a full new R&D facility somewhere, all options were still kept open. The team went through a thorough selection process which involved scoring all the potential development sites on aspects like trail access, weather, cost of living and real estate, schools, etc. When all was said and done, Auburn came out on top, and the new building project was kicked into high gear. When we arrived on site, a lot of the outfitting work was still ongoing, but we were still able to get a good idea of what they’re putting together here. If your job is to take bikes from prototype to production, you’d call this your dream facility.

The Process

At the outset, it all kicks off with an idea or a concept. You then need rapid prototyping capabilities if you want to avoid a number of potentially unnecessary trips to a supplier and manufacturer, and of course Specialized already has a lot of know-how and in-house equipment at the Morgan Hill facility. To complement the Morgan Hill capabilities, they are equipping their new Auburn Innovation Center with the tools needed to address running changes and experiment with ideas as they pop up. They have already been working with carbon tube and alloy lug designs for a number of years now, as this technology allows them to quickly and easily fine tune nearly every aspect of a bike’s characteristics - from pivot placement to frame flex patterns.

While no decisions have been made regarding potential mass production of the lugged and tubed frames, we have already seen them out in the wild. We’re talking about the bikes raced by Loic Bruni and Finn Iles on the Specialized Gravity Team of course. These bikes are designed, tested, and built by the Specialized Ride Dynamics team in Auburn (with support from the Morgan Hill machine shop), and the Specialized Gravity team spends a good few weeks testing and validating the designs during team camp which is held here each year in December (together with other key partners like Öhlins).

Building the fastest race bikes you can requires turning over every stone. Brad and his team are exceptionally skilled riders, and by having access to World Cup-worthy terrain right on their doorstep, they are able to go through the test cycles needed to come up with meaningful data and conclusions. Working with arguably the leading World Cup race team obviously doesn’t hurt your chances either. It was fascinating to examine the different building blocks of the rigs we see at the races laid out like this, different thickness tubes here, different profile swingarms there. A bike is a simple machine, but simple is rarely easy. The results on the race track speak for themselves, and on the commercially available side, it’s been a while since we’ve ridden a lemon from this crew.

The latest fruit to fall from the tree of the Ride Dynamics team is obviously the new Stumpjumper (read our review of it HERE). The team honed in on the rear shock as the way to really make this new bike stand out, working with Fox to bring the concept they developed (the “Pneumatic Spring Assist”) to production. It’s not the first time Specialized dabbles in proprietary suspension, but this time around it seems they’ve really nailed it, at least that’s our impression after a couple of days of testing the new bike.

This bike was taken from prototype to production-ready by the team here in Auburn, which marks another new way of doing things for Specialized. Previously, once the prototypes were signed off, a number of trips were usually necessary to work up the production ready specs together with the frame manufacturer. This is now all done by the same crew that developed the bike, and then handed over as a more or less production-ready package. Just another way that this new, state-of-the-art R&D facility is helping Specialized move its mountain range forward. We’re always stoked on what they come up with, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!

Words and photos by Johan Hjord