Specialized Men's S-Works Epic Hardtail Frame - LTD GLOSS FLO RED / YELLOW XL

Not much can match the feeling of powering up a pitch on a featherweight bike and we designed the new S-Works Epic Hardtail frame with this in mind. It's less than 900 grams exceptionally stiff and it features a Rider-First Engineered™ design. And for its release we designed a special Cactus Cup edition that commemorates Ned Overend's bike from 1992 making it the perfect canvas for your one-of-a-kind dream build.

Over the last decade cross country racing has evolved into a completely different animal—the courses are rowdier more technical and overall they're inherently different. Because of this we realized that the best bike for the job needs to not only be lightweight and stiff but also be able to descend and climb with equal prowess. Determining the best geometry was the easier of the two as we took our current XC race geo and added some trail DNA to the mix. This equates to a longer top tube a shortened head tube and a slacked out front end the result of which is a tremendous increase in downhill stability plus a wider fit range. And just as importantly this doesn't require any sacrifice of climbing proficiency. The weight aspect was more complicated though. We were posed with the question "How do you take weight out of something that's already so light?" But the answer was relatively obvious: you get the best mountain bike engineers together in one room and let the magic come out.

Up until now there were two ways to lighten up a frame—use less of the same grade of carbon or use less of a higher-grade carbon. Option one is never a viable solution as it sacrifices stiffness and strength two attributes that shouldn't be tampered with. And while we did end up using option two we weren't content with the amount of weight we could cut out by just using a different grade of carbon. So how else do you cut weight? Well we began looking at our layup schedules to see if they could be improved which shed light on a new discovery—layup inefficiencies.

Beginning with our Rider-First Engineered™ frame technology each size Epic Hardtail is specifically tailored to size—every carbon layup and tube are exclusively selected based upon hundreds of hours of collected ride data. What does this mean for you? It not only creates the optimal balance of rigidity weight and responsiveness across every frame size but it led us to the discovery of how to save weight through the studying of the layup.

Through extensive layup studies we made the discovery that by further controlling the construction and layup schedules we could drastically decrease weight all while maintaining the ride characteristics that you'd expect from a top-level XC race bike. With this discovery each frame now features complex cut carbon plys that allow difficult junctions to be covered with less overlap. And while this does complicate the carbon frame puzzle by adding more pieces to the mix it allows us to design and place them more intelligently. The result of this is a lighter frame stronger junctions and a drastic increase in stiffness. We then took the weight savings one step further by using Japanese military ballistic-grade carbon which we now call 12m to create the lightest mountain bike we've ever made. How much lighter of a frame you ask? Less than 900 grams for a size Large frame—the same weight as a full 24oz Purist water bottle.