It pops into the air with ease and rails corners like nobody’s business. On flow trails, the Fuse is lightning fast.
#SPECIALIZED FUSE COMP FULL#
The Fuse, on the other hand, requires some finesse and pre-planning to be ridden at its full potential. We’ve almost become accustomed to barreling straight down the trails without a second thought thanks to our long-travel 29ers that soak up anything in front of them. The flow: Cruising the trails on a hardtail requires extra attention to line choice, especially when compared to a modern trail bike. During steep climbs, our bike stayed planted to the ground and managed to hold traction well since we were able to get away with pressures as low as 18–20 psi in our tires.Ī long-reach, slack head tube and a low bottom bracket help the Fuse maintain speed. The steepened seat tube angle provides a more centered weight distribution, which makes up for the short stem, and the long reach offers a roomy fit that feels similar to most modern trail bikes. Its meatier components lend themselves more to the descents than the climbs. Our test bike excelled in a variety of climbing situations, but it’s important to keep in mind the Fuse is no cross-country race rocket. The lack of moving parts or suspension bob allows riders to focus purely on charging up the trails.
DOWN AND DIRTYĬlimbing on this hardtail is no-nonsense.Ĭlimbing: The beauty of hardtail bikes, no matter what category they might fall into, is their simplicity while climbing. From then on, it was just personal preferences-from saddle position to dialing in our cockpit. We adjusted our fork to 20-percent sag and made minor tweaks to our rebound to find the best setting for our weight and riding style. A 44mm offset fork was used to improve handling characteristics, and SRAM Level brakes were added to keep this steed under control.Įase of setup makes the Fuse such a fun bike to ride. An oversized TranzX dropper post was added with 120mm of travel on medium frames and 150mm on large and extra-large frames. The bike features SRAM’s NX drivetrain, keeping cost at a reasonable amount while offering a wide-range, 12-speed cassette. Everything on the Fuse is trail-ready-from its short 45mm stem and wide 780mm bars to its burly 2.6-inch-wide tires and 130mm-travel RockShox 35 Gold RL fork. The geometry might be the heart of the Fuse, but its components scream confidence when it’s time to push things to the limit. Continuing to follow industry trends, all Fuse models are now single-chainring-specific. Boost hub spacing allows for tire clearance up to 29×2.6 inches or 27.5×2.8 inches. A threaded bottom bracket was added to keep up with industry demand, and internal routing was used to offer a clean finish. Specialized then added sliding dropouts to the Fuse, offering the ability to adjust chainstay length for a single-speed setup or for riders looking to snap the bike around with a lower-volume tire in the rear. Additionally, the seat-tube angle was steepened to aid in climbing performance. Both frames are constructed from M4 aluminum and feature an aggressive trail-ready geometry, meaning the head tube is now slacker, the standover height is nearly 52mm lower and the reach was lengthened by 20mm across all sizes. The Fuse 29 is offered in the Expert model seen here or a Comp model that retails for just $1675. The wrecking crew combined its cross-country talents with its heavy-hitter trail riders to search for the limits of this modern hardtail machine. Can you guess what those might be? Well, if you said long, slack and low, you’d be right.
The new Fuse rolls on 29-inch wheels and features the newest trends in geometry. These mid-fat tires soon seemed to deflate in popularity, allowing us to settle for a happy medium-a 2.6-inch-wide tire size. First introduced in 2015, the Fuse was a playful hardtail with 27.5-inch, plus-sized tires.
The all-new Fuse, however, falls near the middle, with a dash of modern trail-bike technologies mixed in. Specialized offers a host of hardtail bikes-from the XC-ready Epic hardtail to the BMX-like P.3 dirt jumper.
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