Specialized Diverge EVO: Gravel Shredder, High-End Hybrid, or Just a Rigid Mountain Bike?
You're not here to read about drop-bar bikes, I know, but things are getting a bit murky over at Specialized with the debut of their new Diverge gravel range that includes two longer and slacker EVO models, both sold with a flat handlebar. And a dropper post. And room for 27.5" x 2.1" rubber. And basically the same head angle as their 2018 Epic mountain bike. The Diverge EVOs even have front suspension of sorts.
You can get the deep dive on the curly-bar models from Dave Everett on CyclingTips, but we'll stick to the two EVO grountain bikes here. And I promise I'll never use that word again.
You can get the deep dive on the curly-bar models from Dave Everett on CyclingTips, but we'll stick to the two EVO grountain bikes here. And I promise I'll never use that word again.
Diverge EVO Details
• Intended use: ???
• Wheel size: 700c
• Compatible w/ 27.5" x 2.1" wheels, tires
• Future Shock w/ 20mm travel
• Aluminum frame
• Dropper post w/ 50mm travel
• Head angle: 70-degrees
• Sizes: Sm, med, lrg
• More info: www.specialized.com
• Intended use: ???
• Wheel size: 700c
• Compatible w/ 27.5" x 2.1" wheels, tires
• Future Shock w/ 20mm travel
• Aluminum frame
• Dropper post w/ 50mm travel
• Head angle: 70-degrees
• Sizes: Sm, med, lrg
• More info: www.specialized.com
The E5 Expert EVO costs $2,600 USD.
$1,600 USD will get you the E5 Comp EVO.
The E5 Expert EVO sells for $2,600 USD, while the Comp EVO version costs $1,600. Both come with an X-Fusion Manic dropper post with 50mm of travel, but you'll find Magura MT4 brakes, a 12-speed Shimano XT drivetrain with carbon cranks from Praxis, DT Swiss G540 rims on the Expert model.
The Comp gets hydraulic disc brakes from Tektro and an 11-speed SRAM NX drivetrain.
Mountain bike? Gravel? Who cares?
Both Diverge EVO bikes are assembled around the same aluminum EVO frame that has a 70-degree head angle (one-degree slacker than the non-EVO version) and a much longer reach combined with a relatively short stem. The size-large flat-bar EVO gets a 440mm reach and 80mm stem combo, whereas the size-58 drop-bar Diverge sees a 401mm reach and 110mm stem. The idea with the EVO geometry is, of course, to keep the roomy cockpit while pushing the front wheel farther out in front of the rider, just like we've seen mountain bikes doing for many years now. That should make them more fun than some of us might expect, and Specialized even uses the phrase, ''... sending technical singletrack...'' on their website. Their words, not mine.
Single-ring drivetrains aren't nearly as ubiquitous in gravel, a world where you might be doing 50mph down an old logging road one minute and then going 1mph up an old singletrack the next, but that's what you'll find on the Expert and Comp EVOs; they're both 1x-only frames. And while there's room for 27.5" x 2.1" rubber, a set of 700x x 42mm tires come stock. They also skip the handy SWAT hole in the downtube that the carbon fiber, non-EVO Diverge bikes get, but you will find front suspension on both. Kinda.
Specialized's Future Shock 1.5 is half-hidden inside the EVO's headtube, with the proprietary stem moving up and down by 20mm to suspend the rider rather than the bike.
Specialized's Future Shock 1.5 is half-hidden inside the EVO's headtube, with the proprietary stem moving up and down by 20mm to suspend the rider rather than the bike.
No, it's not intended to mimic the action of a proper fork, but rather improve comfort while keeping the look sleek and without adding too much weight. I realize that it sounds like I'm describing a suspension stem, and it sort of is a suspension stem, even if the folks as Specialized probably don't see it that way. That's also selling the Future Shock a bit short, I think.
''The Future Shock is designed for road riding, not off-road trails,'' Specialized says, ''so the system needs to be incredibly active.'' Inside, you'll find a coil spring (enduro ready!) instead of some squishy bumper, but not the external adjustability of the newer Future Shock 2.0 that's used on the pricier drop-bar bikes. If a change is needed, riders can swap out the spring to stiffen or soften the action.
So, what the heck are these Diverge EVO things: Are they just high-end hybrids with better geometry to shred the bike paths? Five-year-old mountain bikes with not enough tire clearance? Or something you'd want to take on a proper mixed-terrain adventure? At least we're not short of options these days.
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$75 and all the sketchiness of your nostalgic golden years.
Rigid MTB's are like oversized BMX's, so much fun!
You don't know what the price will be in 2030 and you certainly don't know 90's bike specs. Here are all the components on this bike that would be impossible to spec on any bike in the 90's because they didn't exist:
- future shock technology
- dropper post
- tubeless tires
- alu. frame with manipulated tubing
- 12 x 142 rear through axle
- 12 x 100 front through axle
- 750 mm bars or 31.8 clamp
- XT 12 speed
- carbon cranks
- chain retention help on chain ring
- chain retention help on rear derailleur
- seat that won't make you infertile
And one of the technologies used on this frame is superior to what most of today's manufacturers use: threaded bb.
But if the point is to "add spice" to boring road riding, then what I don't understand is why one wouldn't just use a road bike on that same more challenging terrain. Then, you still have a road bike but you can give yourself some challenge. Maybe pop some bigger tires on there but a whole different bike? Seems illegitimate.
If that's not the goal, and the idea is to have the best bike for the terrain, and people who buy gravel bikes are trying to avoid all paved roads, then I would just have a hardtail mountain bike. That way you truly have a capable bike for everything. You can even ride them on the road if you need to and it doesn't suck. I mean, it sucks more than TRAILS, but it's still okay.
Reiterating my confusion: If the goal of gravel is to do most riding on unpaved roads and some trails, get a hradtail or rigid, flat bar MTB. If the goal is to spice up road by doing some different stuff, get a different wheelset with some slightly wider tires. Or just wider tires.
Who this bike is for: People who want more performance out of their bike that never goes on a "road ride" for the sake of a road ride. Great bike for everything short of ungroomed trails and roads. Not my cup of tea, but I can see lots of people finding this as a great hybrid all-rounder. No, it's not a mountain bike. No, it's not a road bike.
so we see bike brands doing the only thing they ever do, clamoring to sell you products whose existence is justified by being better at doing the thing than the bike you already have
the results of this process have been fantastic for having a great time on a mountain bike but have produced obviously hilarious results when applied to the gravel segment
it really bares to light the fact that gravel, much like cx before it, is an activity whose allure is more grounded in doing something utterly unjustifiable outside of the context of the often masochistic 'triumphs' of the human spirit, rather than achieving feats of skill and beauty which exalt the possibilities afforded to us by the laws of physics (ie MTB)
I wish gravel bikes would lower the stacks back down a bit and get funkier geometries. Slack head angles, steep seat angles, shorter stems, wider bars. Maybe some new type of bar. For instance I am hunting for a pair of cheap aero pins to mount on my flat bars.
There was a video by GCN on Youtube (which is a great channel FWIW) where they rode old mtbs and new gravel bikes on the same trails to see which was better. The comments they make are subtle but clearly disparaging towards "overly wide" bars and "energy sapping suspension" of modern mtbs. They add a small "we're just joking" segment at the end, but I think their attitude is one held by many road riders.
Watch as gravel bikes gain short travel suspension forks and their tire widths grow. In 2025 XC mountain bikes will be called gravel bikes, or vice-versa.
If someone wants to get at least a bit aero while keeping a reasonable cockpit, get flat bars with more sweep (I have 720 bars with 9degs) and use roadie bar tape near the stem. If it blows like hell you can always grab the bar near the stem and lean over it to get drop bar effect. Actually it’s not that inconvenient.
Kinda sounds like a description of the Diverge Evo?
1) Stop shaving your legs
2) Just go ride a mountain bike
3) STOP SHAVING YOUR DAMN LEGS
Submitted with much concern and care.
Here here!
Not to mention the huge price difference
For a good 90% of my riding, this bike ticks all the right boxes. The other 10% (green and blue bike park stuff), I pull out me "hybrid" franken build. Other then a great 100mm sus fork and brakes on mine, this one is way better spec'ed, in every way, except head angle. And if your counting, Thompson stem and bars. Only thing I beat out this un' with, is price
Could go to portland and grab a ton of 1980-90 hard rocks and stumpjumpers and sell them as retro gravel bikes.
bikerumor.com/2019/12/16/evil-bikes-chamois-hagar-looks-to-rock-the-world-of-gravel-bikes-w-crazy-slack-geometry
Well, i guess it's to be expected on something so extreme.
The specialized is something more the happy middle, enough burl to do some nice fireroads/green blue tracks, but still stiff enough to handle pumping the miles out on gravel/pavement. I don't know how they stack up against each other, but the hagar doesn't rub me the right-way, I think it's how they shaped the chainstay's, absolutely stupid imho.
It's on the extreme end of the gravel bike world, waaaay to slack for what you want/need. Easy to understand, they basically slapped a rigid fork/drop bars on a modern mtb, so from a styling standpoint, it's a fail, at least to me
That's why, to this day, steel, and even aluminum is the preferred material. Any good welder/auto shop can fix steel/aluminum, not carbon. Not bashing carbon at all, it's perfect for mtb/road, but not gravel/endurance. And the price is just stupid IMO, nothing against evil, but there trying to market to a segment of the cycling world that has no interest in this type of bike, and the people that actually want a bike like this aren't interested in this one, for those said reasons. JMO, take it or leave
Like I said, nothing wrong with carbon, in fact, better/cheaper in the long run, i.e. hoops made correctly. But like I said, steel, maybe aluminum not so much, is the way to go. Have read/heard about enough tour's, to know that you want to go with steel, welders are suppose to know how to heat treat properly, aren't they?...
Here's one for ya, what happens if your riding through India, and you crack a carbon hoop, what are you going to do? Wait around a month, or more, for a new one to get mailed to you, plus all the time to build the wheel correctly. Or the same day, you go to most any bike shop, grab a new wheel, mount her up, on you way the same day, or next.
Like I said, for long distance touring/endurance/gravel, aluminum and steel are the way to go. For "regular" use, carbon is fine. But I still hate to pony up the $$$$ to buy components, when aluminum and steel are just as good, albeit a little heavier, for much less money. Even thou long term cost savings is great, upfront cost is too prohibitive. I guess if you bash and break your stuff all the time, then it pays, but for a guy that looks after, and is careful with his bikes, i'm not worried
*for certain failure modes.
I guess if a person was in a pinch, he could make anything work. Bondo makes an all-in-one fibreglass repair kit for boats/fibreglass, so if you really needed too, you could do it yourself. I still stick by my stance on carbon hoops for touring, too much hassle dealing with them.
It's the sort of thing I would probably build as a pub bike out of spare parts for shits and giggles.
Ill sell it to you for $2,600!
Overkill for sure, but i'm not buying another bike to fill that gap (mainly because i'm not allowed. I was supposed to sell the Mega when i bought it's replacement, but i 'forgot'. The wife really doesn't understand needing to have a spare MTB)
Lifting and sprints 4 life.
My commute is pretty short and I wouldn't leave a bike worth stealing at work, so clunkers and garbage work great.
As to roadies. I still laugh at them a bit. Yeah it is impressive that hubbie of my sister in law sustains 32-35 km/h on a 5h training ride like it's nothing. Yeah I rode with 60yr old amateur but serious triathletes and they wore me out on flat. Yeah wattages on their Strava are impressive. Yeah every roadie on commute drops me after 5 minutes at 30km/h, but give them (aside of my pro roadie) a steep hill and they are like a spider trying to get out of a slippery bath tub. And they get scared when their pulse goes above 170, they have some sort of allergy to high pulse and low cadence. I personally thrive on wheelie inducing steep, on roots, rocks, boulders, in wet. Because it weeds out ballerinas
You'd think the gravel market would have matured by now; Niners been selling them for a decade, but the industry and rider demand is still trying to figure it out. Maybe the stupid UCI rules around CX is gumming things up too much.
For those of us who live an hour from "proper" mountain bike trails, the shredder gravel bikes are perfect for blasting around town, rallying on diet roads, and playing on the local social trails.
Gravel roads got your forearms tired, we at special-trek-ized have invented a new type of fork. The whole bottom part of the fork moves along a semi-vertical path along telescoping legs with bushings built into the lowers to maximize stiffness. Now feel the difference 80mm of s̶u̶s̶p̶e̶n̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ comfort and control makes on your gravel rides.
In the rear we took compliant seatstays to an entirely new level with our patented Your Butt Bounces (YBB) rear suspension system which features 20mm of e̶l̶a̶s̶t̶o̶m̶e̶r̶ viscoelastic-polymer controlled rear axle travel to take the edge off the rough gravel roads.
In other news special-trek-ized has inititated legal action against moots of colorado for infringing their patent on their "novel, innovative" YBB rear suspension system.
In a not-entirely-unexpected twist Specialized went for two by also filing patent protection on their all-new hardcore gravel suspension called h̶o̶r̶s̶t̶ Mildly Optimized Responsively Efficient Covered Axle Suspension Schema (MORECASSch), which enables their gravel bikes to "improve the contact of the rear wheel with the riding surface."
This sounds like downcountry all over again.
Decathlon sells beautifully unsexy bikes on 105 for £500, paying 1.5k for a 105 Spesh in a nice color just to be trashed and waiting to be stolen is for dorks.
My bike is just perfect. Shittest Apollo Veho ever, found in the street, but well tuned. Left out for days at the time, always there when I come back. Once you have 35c tyres and a flat bar the city opens up, curbs, parks, stairs... whatever. And £10 v-brakes with fresh pads are like 100 better than Ultegras used from the hoods, and absolutely no one rides the drops in the traffic.
Some people here is very pro, guys around with portable hidraulic cutters. Position it discretly, step back a minute while the thing silently cuts your £80 kryptonite d-lock, and there you go, all without even pedestrians noticing. London sucks.
A good commuter needs fenders, a rack or so. Not a dropper.
I love gravel bikes for their versatility (road / light offroad). Steel or alu frame, good tires in 37-45, double transmission and lets roll for 20 km or 200.
When you need to add a flat bar, a dropper post and a suspension youre not in the gravel territory. I dont understand. Buy a xc hardtail. Way better and cheaper.
This looks to high value/ theftworthy to be a decent commuter around me.
It’s a hybrid with modern geo.
Seriously? You can use almost anything. With most brands, the flat-bar road bikes are just road bike frames with flat bars.
Scott Addict / Metrix
Fuji Gran Fondo / Absolute
Giant AnyRoad / FastRoad
DB Haanjo / Haanjo
Cannondale Synapse / Synapse
Five off the top of my head. If the flat-bar bike isn't likely to have the sales volume to merit a new frame SKU, they absolutely will use a road frame. (Given that 'road' encompasses cross and gravel bikes, it's not like the cupboard is bare of options.) I don't know what "real" means and we're not talking about mountain bikes.
Looks like a fun ride for around town, but not the sort of thing I’d buy new from a bike shop.
Specialized really will exploit any niche they think they can fill. (Though they’re quick to give up) This time, they’re selling an expensive, ready-made version of the sort of parts-bin commuter people have been throwing together out of old MTBs and hybrids for years.
So ahead of the curve…
www.worldwidecyclery.com/products/ks-eten-r-dropper-seatpost-27-2-100mm-travel-black?aff=7&source=Guide
Also gravel bikes in general are just a lot of fun when you figure out that they’re just road bikes that don’t suck, that you can ride on more varied surfaces, and that don’t have to follow the UCI’s idiotic rules on frame geometry.
My view of gravel bikes is that they only make sense in certain places. The UK? Singapore? No way. But parts of the US and where I'm moving to? Absolutely.
Wouldn´t mind to test it anyway
The addition of brakes that work, and a dropper post actually makes it more capable than the 90’s mountain bikes. So maybe that’s the appeal?
But it’s not a gravel bike. Those need to go fast, and slow. With 1x11... that’s not happening. Plus no drops means no aero benefit, which is half of the point of a gravel bike instead of an XC bike.
It should have been called Crossover because it fits perfectly in this platform as an high end / lighter weight option.
Close but no cigar
Norco Indie 3 (sized up one to get longer reach) - $600 Canadian
Amazon 1X crankset - $55 Canadian
Pinkbike special Shimano 11-46T cassette - $20
Deore 11sp shifter - $20
Deore 11sp derailleur - $50
KMC Chain - $20
Amazon 40mm stem - $20
Total cost $785.00 and I don't have an NX drivetrain.
Btw... "intended use: ???" means "wtf is this bike for? xc hardtail??" or what? Just asking
Yes. Lot of people don’t seem to get this. Drop bars are faster and more comfortable when you’re actually trying to get somewhere.
And you might as well have some tread...most good hard-pack and semi slicks role almost as well anyways.
As far as this bike goes, I usually like what they’ve done with “EVO,” but not really on this bike.
I've got a 25 mile mountain bike trail system right outside my neighborhood, but it's often too wet to ride. Our soil is mostly clay, and we often have to buy rock from a quarry to trail build. Winter and spring are usually a mucky mess for weeks at a time. There's also a network of paved paths, gravel and back roads (chip & tar "pavement"). With a little creativity, I can connect them into 40-50 mile rides with 2-3K of climbing. Some of this is the crumbling cart path of an abandoned golf course that's reverted to open space. Two other parks have gravel carriage roads that cross covered bridges and wind along streams and through hay fields. There's always something pretty to look at, and good shoulders on any roads with significant traffic.
I used to ride this route on my mountain bike, but the road sections were no fun at all. I'd feel my expensive tires grinding off on the uphills, and head winds were like a palm on my chest. Still, given the choice of not riding, or riding a mixed surface route, riding was always better.
Then, I found a good deal on a gravel bike demo, and suddenly those "better than nothing" rides became a lot more fun. I could go a LOT faster, and the drop bars gave me a fighting chance against the wind. That feeling of being able to "go anywhere" and create all kinds of new routes has really freshened up my riding. I ride all kinds of little sections of trail that wouldn't normally be worth driving my mountain bike to. My rides have increased from 20-30 miles to 50-60 and the occasional 100 mile epics. When it's dry, I can cut through sections of singletrack, and trails I've ridden hundreds of times suddenly become challenging with skinny tires and no suspension.
Do I still like bombing down rocky trails on a full-suspension mountain bike? You bet, but this is fun too.
My gt grade with hard-pack/mix terrain gravel tires is the most fun bike I currently own. I sold my full-susp. 9.7kg Oiz because it was little to no usage anymore(5-6 rides in almost 1 year);
Also, gravel bikes put the fun back in the trails near my city, as I live in the flats and there is no hill or mountain in sight.
With the more road oriented set-up(original wheels and tires), I can do 30-50 mile loops and connect different roads by going on gravel/agricultural/tractor roads. Very fast when used it for commuting to work through city traffic(30-35 minutes instead of an hour with the car).
If you don't live in the mountains and can't use your trail/enduro directly from your house, you can't go wrong with a gravel as a primary bike.
Don’t know too much about the US buy every insurance policy I’ve ever held (in Canada, NZ and the UK) has a maximum unspecified value for a bike of around $2,000.
This isn't really true. I'm 6'5" and riding a true road bike would be like packing my frame into an F1 car. My gravel bike is stretched out for days, takes fat rubber and has hydraulic brakes. it's about as close to a road bike as I'll ever want to get.
No one on PB, that is for sure!
...nevermind
And why only 50mm?
: (
Real all-road bikes are very different than that.
www.peterverdone.com/airspeeder
just wow!
www.peterverdone.com/actually-youre-not-a-bike-expert
“Better than everything else in the class” needs to come from testimonials and reviews, this reads like a kid marking their own homework.
I have to believe this is a satire and that no one could possibly write this entire article without once saying to himself, “This is stupid. I sound stupid. This is going to achieve the opposite of what I’ve set out to do.”
The irony of titling the article “Actually, you’re not a bike expert” and opening it with a clip from The Devil Wears Prada, a movie about a megalomaniac, then sloughing off the Dunning-Kruger effect is so enormous that this can’t not be a satire.
The amount of work it takes to pack literally every sentence with either “everyone sucks except me” and/or “I’m God’s gift to whatever group of people I’ve chosen to alight” and make it look unintentional is the work of comedic genius.
Awkwardly throwing in the glad-handing sentence about how this is a “male problem” and the “requirement for a man to puff himself up” in the middle of an article that is entirely a man puffing himself up is like a satirical slap in the face.
While the talking points read like a comedy, the wording itself is… laborious. I hope it got better in the back half; I honestly didn’t get that far because I’m late to go be an expert somewhere.
Final rating: 3/10 High-schoolers called, they want their angsty tirade back.
Obviously, you didn't understand much in the post. Give it a re-read.
m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207773672032964&set=p.10207773672032964&type=3
Really what upsets me more than a little is that you also didn't understand The Devil Wears Prada. If your takeaway from it was "a movie about a megalomaniac", aside from being just wrong, it makes me wonder if you really understood anything about what was being said in my post.
Maybe you need to re-read my post and re-watch The Devil Wears Prada.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=obyrVnRg7lo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbyE3zccTU