Go for the latter – you will never regret buying such a fabulous bike. The bike is available in boring old black or a fruity finish that Specialized calls “Gloss Ice Blue/Clay/Cast Umber/Chrome/Wild Ferns”. You could go for an austere black finish or… well, just for this one. The Sport-level bikes get the 8r layup, which is heavier again. This adds an unspecified amount of weight compared to the top-end bike. The Pro, Expert and Comp-level bikes – including the bike I tested here – use a Fact 9r layup. The carbon version of the new Diverge is available in three different layup options.Īt the top-end, you have the S-Works bike, which uses Specialized’s most advanced 11r layup. I should stress that I am not alone in my fondness for the Future Shock – senior writer Matthew Loveridge has also fallen for the system on his Roubaix Expert long term test bike. This makes a certain amount of sense but I would be satisfied with a two or three-position setup similar to that seen on most modern rear shocks.
To be totally clear, leaving the shock in any of the intermediate ‘clicks’ on the system makes no difference at all – they are just there for feel. So why have the intermediate clicks in the first place? “The idea behind multiple small indents is to retain a premium feel – like a stereo dial – instead of having a large sweep with no haptic feedback”, says Specialized. It added that “in development, our test riders generally preferred the system active or firm and really didn’t need or use more settings in the middle effectively”. It turns out my assessment was correct – when I contacted Specialized to find out exactly how the Future Shock worked, it confirmed that there are “just two focused settings – open or firm”. I rarely used any of the intermediate settings, feeling they didn’t really affect the ride quality of the system in any meaningful way.
To adjust the Future Shock, you turn an indexed dial (where the top cap would usually sit) through 90 degrees. The Future Shock adjuster replaces a typical top cap. It’s not distracting and is barely audible over the rumble of the tyres, but bears mentioning. If you really focus on it, you can hear what is either the roller bearings or fluid in the damper rushing about the shock on hard impacts. There is next to no stiction in the system and it is very active over even the smallest bumps.
Specialized diverge gravel bike series#
The whole system runs on a series of roller bearings. It also deals with bigger hits in a more refined way – it’s not difficult to bottom out the shock (there is only 20mm of suspension travel after all), but there’s now less of a mechanical clunk as the damping circuit ramps up as it reaches the end of its travel. Though I didn’t find it to be a huge problem on the old bike, the new system bobs less when climbing. I haven’t indulged in quite as long an adventure on the new bike, but even on three or four hour-long rides, the reduction in upper body fatigue is noticeable. The effects of the Future Shock are most noticeable on long days.ĭespite doing this last year on the previous-generation bike, I was left very impressed by how much of a difference the system made on a (*humble brag warning*) 282km coast-to-coast epic. Jack Luke / Immediate Mediaįor such a simple system, it is remarkably effective – on rocky or rough terrain, your weak cyclist’s upper body is jiggled around far less than on an unsuspended bike, improving comfort and control enormously. There – I said it.Įven over smaller bumps, the Future Shock is really active. Well, fast forward a few years and, after lots of time spent on the last two generations of the Diverge, I have fallen for the Specialized Future Shock. I felt like we had already poo-poo’d the whole ‘suspending the rider’ concept with the Girvin Flexstem way-back-when. The Future Shock suspends the rider alone. I will preface this section by saying that, when the Future Shock first debuted on the Roubaix way back in 2017, I was hugely sceptical that it would actually work.Ī typical suspension system sits beneath the head tube, suspending both the rider and bike.
The Future Shock 1.5 – which was featured on the previous-generation bike and is still used on cheaper versions of the bike – has swappable springs (soft, medium and firm), but does not feature the hydraulic damper or adjuster. It offers 20mm of linear travel, allowing the cockpit to move up and down relative to the frame and fork. The Future Shock 2.0 – which actually debuted on the latest Roubaix in 2019 – is an adjustable coil suspension cartridge housed within the fork steerer. The adoption of the latest-generation version of the Future Shock was the headline news at the launch of the new Diverge. The overall look of the Future Shock has been updated since it was first released.