Specialized SX
Elegant, clean, straight lines is the Zen nature of the ride; the
premise of the basic 2010 Specialized FSRxc is you have to ride it to
become enlightened.The beauty of the Specialized FSR line is in the frame. It is not necessary to wrestle with this 30 pound bike to get that “full-contact” feel of the trail.
That is not to say there is not a ridiculous amount of tuning to get the “perfect geometry,” however, once you find it, it is not too complicated to keep after it and fine-tune it for the rider, trail conditions and terrain.
It is not the perfect bike, but for the price, there is a lot to build on.
The heart of the bike is the independent suspension and rocker link M4 frame. One of the nice features of this particular frame is that the upper and lower frame tubes are fused and parallel before joining with the head tube. It makes the frame a bit stiffer, but you get a better feel of the trail when climbing and a sense of solidity on landing after taking some air on aggressive descents. The front fork has almost a full 5 inches of travel (120mm) with nice adjustable rebound, preload and lockput dual coil RockShox magnesium tubes.
The Avid brakes are linear-pull rim brakes, which can make for tired fingers after a long day, however, they are adequate.
However, for about $200 more, there are very much nicer hydraulic brakes with front and rear rotors in the stock FSRxc Comp.
In conjunction with the above brakes criticism is that when the rim brakes are upgraded to disks, the rims are going to need to be swapped out, too. Which brings up the issue of tires. It is not that the tires that come stock with the FSRxc are horrid, it is that they are too generic. They are not much help on winter trails or inner city scarfs.
This is a great bike – almost too much bike – for a novice. There is about a 10 to 20 hour learning curve, with most of that time getting used to actually feeling the trail under your butt and up your arms. This can be a disconcerting sensation with the straight-line one-piece top tube/seat stay upper frame between the head tube and the rear axle.
There is not a lot to find wrong with this bike. The best part is the frame, which you can hang new and better stuff on as money allows, or as parts need replacement. If dialing-in and tweaking the geometry is half the fun of riding – or most of the fun for people long-retired from strenuous riding and have taken up bike mechanics – then this bike is a pure joy.
As indicated above, if there was only one thing to make it a much more flexible machine, it would be getting the FSRsc Comp. It would save a lot of hassle with swapping out rims, brakes, and pulls. It is well worth that $200 difference in MSRP. With some clever shopping and letting your fingers walk through the internet, you can make up most – if not all – of that difference.
Deals on eBay
| Specialized SX Trail Frame - Medium, Fox DHX 4.0 Shock | |
| Price: $107.50 | |
| 2010 Specialized SX Trail II (Med) Freeride Downhill | |
|
Price: $2,699.00 Buy It Now: $3,100.00 | |
| 2009 Specialized SX Trail | |
| Price: $610.00 | |
| 2008 Specialized SX size long great spec NR | |
| Price: $499.99 | |
| 2008 Specialized SX Trail 2 | |
| Buy It Now: $2,800.00 | |
