I dont think I heard one review for this bike where they were impressed.
Well thats not good. Only fanboiās will buy
I have a diverge with the front shock thing. Where i live in Appalachia, its not very useful, BUT everytime i go somewhere with flatter gravel (mid west) i alway come back and say how well the future shock works. I donāt think people are understanding what these shocks are doing. They are not supposed to be like suspension on you mountain bike and let you bomb down hills. They exist to take the edge off hits and the associated fatigue that come with that on long rides. I know when i did kanza, my hands where shot at the end of the race.
Pretty sure the future shock wouldve improved the feeling in my hands after 12.5 hrs.
Anyway, dont put down the bike cause its not the suspension people assume it is, cause its not, its for saving rider fatigue on LONG rides.
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Did you miss James Huangās review, because he really liked it?
I think most of us understand what the suspension elements are designed to do in this bikeā¦as you note, it is geared more towards comfort vs performance.
I issue some of us have with the design is that it is unnecessarily complicated, heavy and expensiveā¦a good suspension stem and seatpost can achieve the same effect for substantially less money and still weigh less. And those parts could be easily replaced if they break.
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I have the prior gen Diverge with the future shock in the head tube. It really works - a huge improvement over my Domane.
Iād like to try this new Diverge to see if there is much of an improvement. It does seem like a very expensive way, however, to get the benefit of a suspension seatpost.
In my experience riding in Colorado, once you get off maintained gravel roads and onto jeep roads, a gravel bike is outmatched - even if it did have front and rear suspension - and you need something more like a Salsa Cutthroat with 2.4ā tires and a MTB suspension fork.
Sales & Marketing asked: " Roadies are ok to spend $$ to avoid near-death-experience from cars. They like long rides and being comfy. Rough gravel is not comfy. Gravel explorers want & need a suspension but donāt want to buy a MTB because. "
Product: " How about a Dimond design?"
Sales & Mktg: āNo seat tube? Only triathletes would ride that and accept to go faster while bobbing up and down. No we need a design that is not from triathlon and not from MTB but with a suspensionā
Product: āHum OK that leaves only one ātube of freedomā the top tube.
Problem is that itās horizontal and most of the bumps make you go up and downā
Sales & Mktg: " A horizontal suspension is a suspension. I can sell them that - just donāt make it look like a MTB or reuse MTB parts"
Product: "but but the MTB parts are off the shelf, serviceable, ā¦ "
Sales & Mktg: āUnique & proprietary helps justify adding a digit to the price. I can sell them that. OK this meeting is over. Go to your CAD station.ā
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Have you ever aspired to write novels or somethingā¦because that is some good fiction there. 
Thanks for the compliments. Iām a product manager in high tech.
I think the above leans more towards non-fiction ā¦
As a former Director of Product Development in the bicycle business, I assure you it is not close to reality.
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Your spot on with this comment.
Really not seeing how this is worth it, at least as heavy as a suspension seatpost and does about the same thingā¦ Maybe even worse with the deflection going more horizontal. Also another propreatary part that has wear and will need servicing and replacingā¦ Specialized pricing was already insane with that Diverge itās just out thereā¦
Honestly if there is suspension on the frame i would want it to suspend the Frame/ Wheels, that at least would improve handling and traction on rougher terrain.
I think most understand that but not all. As pointed out almost all of these suspension options are meant to take the edge off when riding on gravel. For gravel, too much āsquishā like youād get from mtb type forks and shocks will slow you down.
I know when I first got my redshift sports seatpost it was far too bouncy even though I set it to the recommended settings. Once I added its additional coil to stiffen it up a bit itās worked perfectly.
Well, sureā¦that is what āmostā means. 
More seriously, we are in the infancy of suspension for gravel. It is almost a carbon copy from what happened in the early 90ās for MTB. Suspend the rider or the bike?
Suspending the rider adds comfort, but not much performance, but is also substantially lighter. Suspendinf the bike will provide more suspension benefit, but increase the weight dramatically. (Specialized has oddly chosen an middle ground that suspends the rider AND significantly increases the weight 
). Your points about rebound are spot-on and that is one of the main drawbacks of comfort-oriented systems / components. The Specialized system at least attempts to address that.
The difference now is that there is an established product category (MTB) that better addresses the performance aspect if you need that much suspension, so for now at least, the industry seems to be favoring some aspect of suspending the rider / comfort.
I personally subscribe to the theory that if things are getting rowdy enough for suspension over 20-30mm, you should be on a MTB.
But suspension is coming to gravelā¦I donāt think there is any doubt about that.
100% agree.
If my typical gravel rides were shortish 20 miles. Or maybe max 40 miles I might just use a full suspension mountain bike so I could just have one bike. But I definitely need my gravel bike for those longer rides.
I do find it interesting that some gravel bikes are going to mtb level tire clearance. I know lauf Seigla can clear I think 700x57mm. So I donāt know the difference rolling resistance between something like 700x42 vs 700x57.
Something like a Continental Race King 29x2.2 has better rolling resistance than many gravel tiresā¦theyāre super fun on my Salsa Cutthroat. Most would argue itās overkill, but itās perfect for folks like me who are in no risk of being on a podium 
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I donāt worry much about being on a podium. I do like not being last. I just wonder if it would slow me down for long 150-200 miles compared to running my typical pathfinder pro 42s. And if it would make me feel that much fresher over the long events. My current bike can fit up to 45s
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Well, the Sram AXS tire pressure calculator for a 200 lb system weight, 25mm internal wheels, dry conditions would recommend ~35 PSI (rough average of front/back) for a 700x42 Pathfinder Pro and ~25 PSI for a 29x2.2 Continental Race King Protection.
Bicyclerollingresistance.com has the Pathfinder in this scenario at roughly 24Wā¦
ā¦and the Race King at 20W.
The bigger tire wonāt be as aerodynamic and will weigh more, but I donāt know how much that factors in here. You could argue the lower pressure/higher volume would mean a smoother, less fatiguing ride. Youāll be faster if youāre fresher later in the ride.
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Itās definitely interesting to think about. Iām still happy with my lauf true grit but I can see the appeal of even larger tires. My closest gravel route is a 20 mile loop and itās also near a mtb trail so sometimes I do a loop on the gravel with my mountain bike and those big tires add to the stability on descents (the suspension of course contributes)
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Interesting reading.
Has anyone purchased one? Iām a mere mortal and just enjoy cycling and like the look of this.