Stumpy vs Stumpy - Vital MTB Review

Introduction

Few bikes can claim a history as iconic as the Specialized Stumpjumper. Like the Porsche 911 or Ford Mustang, the 37-year-old Stumpjumper lineage has evolved through the years — with each new model becoming the industry’s technology beacon of their era.

As the story goes, Specialized’s original Stumpjumper was the first mass-produced mountain bike dating back to 1981. The latest Stumpy is a far cry from the first generation, but share one common thread: both are mountain bikes for … mountain biking! Today’s over-categorization and genre segregation be damned, Specialized has always intended the Stumpjumper to be the one bike that can do it all, a proverbial jack-of-all-trades — the clear and only choice to take on an epic 10,000-foot+ vertical ascent sufferfest or when you finally decide to chamois-up for what could possibly be an all-day adventure into the high-alpine, chasing your best, and most fit, riding buddies.

With the launch of the new Stumpy comes the latest models, and we were able to extensively test two of the most intriguing models head-to-head: the Stumpjumper Expert against the Stumpjumper EVO Comp Alloy in a sibling versus sibling shootout to determine where each could possibly excel.

Both bikes have the same amount of front and rear suspension travel and offer reach measurements within 5mm of each other, so we decided to test the two in a side-by-side format, under similar conditions, often riding both on the same day, and even the same trail. How’d the pair fare? Which one is better? Which one is faster? Which one is best for what conditions? We sought to answer these questions and more.

Initial Impressions

Stumpjumper EVO Comp Alloy

Offered in both 29” and 27.5” wheel sizes, the EVO Comp Alloy’s geometry numbers have more in common with a YZ250 than it does with Stumpjumper’s cross-country roots of yesteryear. The geo stats are boundary-pushing for a bike of this nature, while not to the absolute extreme as a few Nicolai and Pole models are currently exploring. The EVO only comes in two sizes: Long and Extra Long, both with seat tube height that allows the rider to size up/down with relative ease. We sprung for the longest EVO. With a 475mm reach, it’s hardly an outlier: a number of brands currently produce XLs with significantly longer reach bikes. However, when looking at the complete package, it does start to push limits, especially when considering the bike’s 445mm rear end (much praise), 12.9” bottom bracket height, 63.5-degree head tube angle and reduced offset 44mm Fox 36 fork. Worth noting, one can steepen things up 0.5 degrees with Specialized flip chip in the shock.

The all-aluminum bike comes ready to rally out of the box with aggressive 2.6” tires, downhill-worthy SRAM Code brakes, 30mm wide rims, and a 12-speed drivetrain. On paper, there doesn’t appear to be a chink in the EVO’s armor — and it all retails for $3,620 from a bike shop.

Stumpjumper Expert

While the Stumpjumper EVO has an industrial look with its metal tubes and welds, the Expert has a sexier supercar appearance as its carbon fiber creates smooth-arcing contours that make the bike very pleasing to the eye, just like the stunning curves of a modern supercar. Even the paint has a look to it that screams “quality.” Add carbon wheels, and you’ve got one hot looking ride, ready to perform.

The geometry was a bit more conservative — shorter chainstays, slightly shorter reach measurement and a more “traditional” 66-degree head tube angle coupled with a standard 51mm offset fork. Spec was clearly aimed more at trail use with SRAM Guide brakes, a non-piggyback RockShox Deluxe RTC damper, and a Pike RC fork.

Value, perhaps not quite as good as the EVO, is still nothing to scoff at, as the bike comes in at $5,000 (USD) with carbon wheels.

Finally, unlike the EVO, the Expert has the super clever SWAT box feature — a storage space in the frame that allows you to keep the backpack at home, and always have what you need, be it a snack, multi-tool, spare tube or even a can of your favorite beverage, we kept it classy with a sparkling rosé (a fine canned wine).

Climbing

Let’s get the boring, required, stuff out of the way. Both bikes climb well. In fact, we’d claim these are two of the most efficient 140mm 29”-wheeled bikes we’ve ever thrown a leg over. It should be of little surprise that the Expert scurries up climbs. The combination of light weight, reasonably good-for-ascending geometry, and solid pedaling kinematics all worked in harmony going uphill.

The EVO was the real surprise. Despite the slack head tube angle, we never felt the bike was unwieldy. Editor’s note (and all modesty aside): Jeff set more KOMs in the Jackson area (yes, going uphill) on this bike than any other bike he has ever tested. The magic was in the steep seat tube angle paired with longer chainstay length, just long enough to keep the slack front end from rising too often.

Speaking of STA, depending on your saddle height, either bike may or may not prove to have a steep enough seat tube angle. This is the problem with “virtual” STAs, it’s variable based on height. For Jeff’s 34” inseam and 6’2” height, it wasn’t a problem, and he never felt in a position too far back, but it’s not hard to see a taller rider may find themselves slamming the saddle forward on the rails to keep the effective STA to a reasonable number.

The only caveat to the whole climbing thing is this: if the trails you frequent involve high potential for pedal strikes, maybe count the EVO out of consideration. As far as we know, the EVO has the lowest bottom bracket height of any 140mm 29” bike in mass production, which puts its pedals at the most risk of hitting obstacles — there is a reason most bikes have a higher BB, so if you pedal through technical terrain be prepared to smash some pedals (even if you intend to swap the stock 170mm crank arms to a set of 165mm). The Expert did not suffer from this nearly as much, and one could mitigate this on the EVO with extensive “ratcheting,” but there are times this isn’t the most effective technique.

Side point and special shoutout to X-Fusion for their dropper post spec’d on the EVO that functioned like an industry-leader with a satisfyingly-ergonomic lever, going through hundreds of cycles without a hiccup. Considering our history with dropper post reliability, it is relieving to find brands figuring out the secret to long-term functionality for such an integral and necessary component of the modern trail bike.

Descending

Let’s start with one disclaimer: you can go fast on either one of these bikes. Specialized team riders Jared Graves and Curtis Keene choose to race the non-EVO Stumpy at the highest level on the EWS, so it’s clear the Stumpjumper can be piloted down rowdy terrain at ludicrous speed. That said, we did not find either bike to be a formidable enduro race weapon. There are other 140mm bikes on the market that outperform either one of these when descending — does that make them both bad bikes? Absolutely not. Let’s get into the details...

Despite extensive monkeying with the rear shock on both bikes, neither could be tuned to feel as supple or as bottomless as other bikes in this category, like the 140mm-travel Transition Sentinel and Santa Cruz Hightower LT or the 150mm-travel Trek Slash and Yeti SB150. In fact, both Stumpjumpers’ suspension action felt worlds apart from the aforementioned whips. The reason behind this isn’t entirely clear. On paper, the kinematics look good: a progressive leverage ratio compressing a modern suspension damper. But on trail, both simply felt anemic, and if we hadn’t been told so, we’d guess these were “over forked” 120mm bikes.

The Expert seemed to have more appetite for eating bumps than the EVO, despite the fact that it had the less-favorable damper tune of the two. One rationale behind this was simply frame material, with the Expert’s carbon layup providing a bit more dampening than the EVO’s alloy frame.

Overall, they consumed bumps similarly — and with all due respect, this was an area we weren’t overly impressed. However, when you transition from “enduro” mentality to “trail” mentality, things start to make more sense, as either bike adequately ingested bumps in “normal” trail situations, but charging into new, gnarly terrain at “mach chicken” made the bike seem to lose its appetite. The Stumpjumper platform prizes efficiency, providing a more sporty trail-type of ride than other bikes with similar amounts of travel.

Aboard each bike, differences between the EVO and Expert were easily felt — with the Expert providing quicker handling and feeling a bit more “twitchy” than the EVO.

The Expert rewards smaller inputs, and asks the pilot to utilize a more precise touch, while the EVO on the other hand allows the rider to be more aggressive with inputs — tipping the bike over as far as the trail will allow — to let the wheels work the terrain.

On that note, the EVO seemed to have more grip at the tires. How? The EVO seemed to place the rider in a more neutral position over the bike, which was proven by shipping scales. We weighed 47%-front and 53%-rear on the EVO; atop the Expert, weight was distributed 45%-front and 55%-rear. This difference, along with the slacker head angle and lower bottom bracket helped us have a bit more faith to tip ‘er over in the twisties as keeping weight on the front tire is often the biggest challenge a rider faces when cornering.

Up front, the EVO’s Fox 36 was preferred to the Expert’s RockShox Pike — it tracked better, and chewed bumps better, as well. Despite being heavier, the 36 is one of our favorite forks around here at Vital, especially the Grip 1 “budget-based” damper, which rides like anything but a “cheaper” fork.

Overall the Expert felt like a trail bike, through and through. The bike’s expertise is in the fact it doesn’t have one; a jack-of-all-trades. This means you may never have the absolute best tool for the job, but it will never completely be out of its element this side of a World Cup Downhill race track or pro level XC race. While you give up capacity for outright descending prowess, but you gain in overall efficiencies, and just being able to go (and go and go).

The EVO’s true identity was far more perplexing. In some ways, it rode very similar to the Expert. In others, it felt more like a Demo in Specialized’s DH lineup than a run-of-the-mill trail bike. Held back by the harsh feeling rear end, and a more flex-laden frame we were never fully comfortable pushing the bike to the speed the geometry asked. That said, in steep, twisty, loamy trails the bike proved to be an absolute weapon; this was where the EVO was most at home, and these types of trails left us scratching our head in amazement at the bike’s ability.

Either bike jumped fine, with no ill effects noticed while flying through the air, loading the lip of a takeoff or doing something miscalculated. Though the shock’s O-ring often indicated “you have reached the end of the travel, sir,” we never noticed a harsh bottom out, at least while riding at reasonable pressures. This isn’t to say either would be our bike of choice for hucking to flat, but larger impacts were not as much the problem with the suspension as repeated square-edge bumps. The bike simply didn’t track as well, or offer the rider as much traction, as other 140mm bikes.

Worth noting, we swapped out the original Butcher 2.6” tires for a different casing and compound from Specialized. Stay tuned for a review on these. However, we do declare that the original tires, especially on the EVO, were on the harder side of things — this was found especially obvious in the desert where slipping and spinning on slickrock became a bit unnerving.

A Few More Comments on the Suspension

We had a few buddies throw a leg over both the EVO and the Expert, and the results echoed our thoughts, highlighting a few common traits:

Heavier riders and faster riders were more likely to comment that the suspension provided a harsh ride for 140mm of travel — regardless of sag settings

Lighter riders and slower riders, who weren’t pushing the bike as hard, were less likely to comment about a harsh ride — note: these riders often settled on more sag than Specialized’s 35% suggestion

This made us wonder if perhaps the shorter eye-to-eye and stroke is partially to blame for the feeling one gets when really trying to rally. Perhaps the damper struggles to control the bike’s travel as the leverage ratio, especially off the top, is over 3:1? This is mere speculation, however, but something we continued to mull over as no chart, component or number seemed to explain what we were feeling on trail.

Durability

Both bikes proved to pass the Vital durability test. Neither frame cracked and no component became mangled beyond repair.

EVO’s Durability Concerns

Rear hub would often come out of adjustment

Original Fox DPX2 had a loud audible squeak in high-speed compression events (this was swapped during testing — the production shock did not have this issue)

Frame would often creak from a variety of sources including the headset, dropouts and main pivot

Derailleur hanger was easy to tweak and was prone to creaking; could use a redesign

Expert’s Durability Concerns

None; the bike stayed quiet and worked just as the day we unpacked it

Components Check & Value

Both bikes proved to be reasonably good values, with the EVO getting the most sincere tip of the cap. We noticed in our comments section of our Stumpjumper First Look that perhaps this isn’t the sentiment of our audience, so some breakdown is required.

EVO’s Value

Specialized did an admirable job putting together a bike with a good components spec at a solid price point. In today’s marketplace, direct-to-consumer has its benefits, but the real value of this brick-and-mortar-only model from Specialized is its spec: there isn’t a single component that needs changing to really push the bike. While none of the parts may be sexy, they work damn near as well as the top shelf stuff at a fraction of the price.

The Fox 36 accumulated some weird wear on the stanchions’ finish, although performance remained stellar. And the Code brakes remained flawless. Once we received the correct (production) shock from Fox the DPX2 never hiccuped. The SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain may not be as crisp as top-of-the-line offerings, but it never let us down — and when compared to more premium drivetrains, it’s hard to say, “We’d go faster if we had _____.”

The only component that required tinkering was the rear hub. It would often loosen, but this is something we were more than happy to live with considering we could spec this bike with parts double the price and probably forget we did so on trail.

In the end, we give the Stumpjumper EVO a confident “yes” to the question “does it provide value?” It offers one of the most rally-friendly spec’d bikes at the lowest price — plus, let’s not forget there will be actual human beings at a real bike shop involved with this purchase.

Expert’s Value

At $2K more, the Expert is substantially more expensive, but with a carbon frame, carbon wheels, and a more high-end build throughout, it also isn’t a bad value, though nothing like that of the EVO.

Truth is, though there is an undoubtedly nicer feel to lighter weight, premium parts, it evaporates pretty quickly on the trail. Also, in all honesty, we preferred the X-Fusion dropper to the Reverb, and we wholeheartedly prefer the 36 to the Pike up front and in the rear we liked the EVO’s Fox shock more than the RockShox on the Expert.

Oh, and one qualm with the Expert’s build: please give us the RockShox RCT3 Pike — at this price point, I think the premium damper is warranted. Otherwise, the spec is certainly up to snuff.

So...Which One Would You Pick?

Even with dollars and cents out of the equation, if we were going to pick only one Stumpjumper then we’d go EVO, hands down. Though it was slightly heavier, it most often proved faster down the trail while only being a bit slower, if at all, going up. Just plan on doing some pivot greasing, be conscious of your crank length on trails with high pedal strike potential, and maybe do some tire swapping. Otherwise, we simply had more fun, more often, on the EVO than the Expert.

Bottom Line

Perhaps not the enduro race slayers we were expecting, both the Expert and EVO Comp Alloy provide a compelling blend of efficiency and versatility that have always been present in the Stumpjumper bloodline. Despite what you may see Specialized top racers doing on the bike, the Stumpjumper is in fact a trail bike designed for the modern trail rider. Those looking for a sporty feeling wagon-wheeled bike that can be composed in most any situation this side of a legit EWS stage or an elite XC race would do well to check out either model. The EVO specifically is a unique ride, and one that rewards those who want to test the limits of modern geometry in steep twisty terrain while sacrificing little in the way of efficiency.

EVO Comp Alloy

Climbing: 4

Descending: 3.5

Fun Factor: 4

Value: 5

Overall: 4

Expert

Climbing 4.5

Descending: 3

Fun Factor: 3

Value: 3

Overall: 3