Even so, I occasionally ran up against the speed limit imposed by the titchy chainring on gentle descents. The tyres are undoubtedly slower on tarmac than narrower equivalents, but not as draggy as you might imagine. Like a tractor on the road, it’ll bounce and oscillate after hitting a bump as the tyre rebounds, but this is preferable to the harsher feel of smaller rubber. That makes the Fuse a comfortable and efficient bike for crossing rough and soft ground. Meanwhile, the big tyres help the bike to cover bumpy, rooty terrain with less fuss, and they feel less jarring than skinnier rubber on larger-diameter wheels. The easy-to-use dropper keeps the ride flowing on undulating terrain, with no need to stop to drop the saddle. (In muddy conditions, the semi-slick rear tyre isn’t so great, though.) The lowest gear is small enough for most situations and the 2.8in Slaughter rear tyre offers great traction on loose, bumpy surfaces, so you can get up some tricky scrambles. This may be more about the perception of speed than actual speed, though.
SPECIALIZED FUSE COMP PLUS
Steve BehrĪt 14.25kg, this isn’t a light bike, and while the plus tyres are surprisingly fast-rolling over bumpy terrain, they can make it feel a little numb and slower to respond to pedal inputs. The semi-slick Slaughter rear tyre offers great traction in ‘plus’ guise, except in the wet. Shorter riders won’t find the Fuse as cramped, although the long seat tube does make it difficult to ‘size up’ from the smaller frames to get extra reach. This, combined with the stubby stem and short effective reach, also makes it harder to keep the front wheel on the ground on steep climbs. Riding seated, the position was fine unless tackling very steep gradients, when it felt like my weight was too far over the back, due to the 73.4-degree effective seat tube angle. When climbing, this made the bike feel a little awkward and fiddly, especially when pedalling out of the saddle. At 6ft 3in / 190cm tall, the bar felt too low and too close for my liking. Specialized Fuse 27.5 ride impressionsĪlthough the XL Fuse’s 480mm reach (the horizontal distance from the centre of the BB to the centre of the top of the head tube) is pretty roomy on paper, its short stack height (the vertical distance from the BB to the top of the head tube) makes it feel much smaller.Ĭombined with the short 45mm stem and low-rise bar, this makes it feel comparatively cramped. I’m a big fan of the Specialized’s comfy saddle and grips though. Also, Tektro’s M275 stoppers aren’t as powerful as the other bikes’ brakes.
SPECIALIZED FUSE COMP UPGRADE
The square-taper bottom bracket is likely to be less reliable and harder to upgrade than the external BBs found elsewhere here too. Steve BehrĪlthough Specialized’s website says the Fuse comes with a 30t chainring, my bike had a 28t, which limited speed on pedally descents.Īnd while the other bikes have 11-46t cassettes, the Fuse makes do with an 11-42t spread, so the bottom gear is no easier. The adjustable air spring makes it easy to adjust for different rider weights and styles, but the TurnKey damping isn’t as sophisticated or forgiving as the Motion Control set-up found in its mid-range forks.Ī dropper is a bonus at this price, even with a limited 115mm (measured) stroke. RockShox’s Judy TK fork is nice and sturdy too, with a bolt-thru axle. The highlight of the Spesh’s spec sheet is the Trans-X dropper post, which offers 115mm of drop (by my measurements) and can be set anywhere in its travel using an ergonomic under-bar remote lever.
This makes it more likely that you’ll damage the frame and/or shifter in a crash. Steve BehrĪside from a few niggles with the geometry (more on that later), the only aspect of the frame design that I didn’t like was the relatively high top tube.Įven with the handlebar raised up as far as it would go (by placing all the spacers under the stem), the shifter would contact the top tube when the bar was turned through 90 degrees. Tektro’s M275 brakes aren’t as powerful as the Calibre Line 29 or Vitus Sentier 29, never feeling like they’ve bedded in properly.
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