Yes, I always expected the next Blur to very much resemble the ZFS-5, considering they did all the engineering and only sold it for like 2 years before they discontinued it.
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Is the ZFS continued? Still live on the Cervelo website.
Aren’t they basically the same bike with ever so slightly different geo?
Gun to my head, I couldn’t tell those bikes apart if you covered the logo.
I guess it still is one their site, but very few places have them for sale. The bike builds haven’t been updated since release. Maybe it is still an offering, but it doesn’t really seem like they are supporting this bike.
Why stop at 32” and go with 35”?
What am I missing—wouldn’t head tubes be resized so normal stems would be used?
There is a limit to how short the head tube can be i suppose. Unless it is made super deep instead to accommodate the top and down tubes.
Any of the dropper tech for XC seems like a missed opportunity. The big players could do interesting things with integrated droppers.
Cam is just running a standard negative rise Scott Fraser integrated front end.
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The Supercaliber was a pretty cool bike went it launched and turned out to be more capable that what it looked like on paper. It remains a great bike for something like Leadville, or to be used a platform to convert into a dropbar bike. That being said, the Epic 8 really has made the SC irrelevant with similar weight but being more capable with the 120/120 platform and rider friendly geometry.
With what Trek charges, especially on the high end, it would be great to see them innovate and try and push things forward again. They are trying to play catchup with the Top Fuel and they missed badly with the Checkmate on the gravel side with not having modern tire clearances at launch.
One thing I anticipate seeing on an Epic 9 is greater tire clearance compared to the 8.
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I’d really like to see Pinnarello update thier Dogma X to a 120/120
I ride a ti ht, I’ve never ridden an fs, other than kicking tires in my lbs. Is 120/120 really that necessary?
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As always, it depends where/what you ride.
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They all have their place! Depends on your terrain (and skill level). I have an sworks epic 8 that is phenomenal. I’m a very inexperienced mountain biker (although I pick up on stuff like that quick) and the 120/120 definitely helps compensate for my lack of skill.
Of course, on certain routes, the full suspension will be faster and nearly always have less fatigue. My goal is 100 mile mtb races and the lack of fatigue goes a LONG ways.
I have a titanium gravel bike (mosaic) and longed harddd for a titanium hard tail but just couldn’t justify it. My career started and still surrounds welding a lot, so I have a penchant for titanium. I’ll still likely get a titanium hard tail some day, but it’ll likely be more of a tamer trail/bikepacking rig.
Almost nothing we have on our bikes is “really necessary”. You could go out with a mid 90s 26” hard tail with cantis and still do the route and have fun.
The thing about the current generation 120/120 bikes is that there are little to no tradeoffs compared to less travel or with an hardtail. Most of the weight and complexity implied by a full suspension is there regardless if you have 50mm or 120mm of travel.
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Anyone work at a shop or know someone well enough at a shop to understand Specialized’s inventory?
Given they’ve released 2026 Epic 8s, I’d be surprised if a new Epic 8 is announced before the summer of 2026, to be a 2027 model year (although it was March 2024 that the E8 was announced). But what’s got me confused, is that there’s almost no stock on Specialized’s site (either at Specialized or at local dealers). There’s the odd combination I could order, but generally it’s saying there might be a particular model in my size at a shop 395 miles away.
Is this natural (and maybe a little artificial because they’re not wanting to bring in containers of stock whilst the tariffs are where they are, only to have that stock sit until many area’s in the US warm up and riding season starts?), or is this a sign that they’re about to release (in March/April) an updated Epic 8’s (in which case the 2026 E8s would have had a really short shelf life before the 2027 E9’s would take over).
Within the next 18 months, I’m wanting to get onto a full sus xc bike, and it’ll either be a Chisel FS frame (as I’ve got plenty of higher spec parts than a Chisel comp comes with), or if there are deals, the E8, ASR, Giant or maybe cervelo/Santa Cruz are on the list. So a new E9 coming, if like when we went EE7 to E8, caused some crazy sales. I’m not in a huge hurry, as I’ve got a nice Epic HT build, and modern xc geometry is so capable on the trail, the full sus is for potential longer rides/events where my back would appreciate the smoother ride of a full sus.
Thanks