I quickly learned to use the edge of the trail, which is smoother. The 120mm travel Manitou Magnum Comp fork definitely helped matters when the going got rough. However, it takes the edge off way better than even a softtail and the traction was unreal, even when the trail dried out at the lower elevations. The combination of speed and rocks made it quite clear that a squishy undamped tire is no replacement for real suspension. This is also where I had to rein things in a bit. Our group instantly suffered about six flats and one broken carbon rim. When we dropped into Butcher things got real. Acceleration does seem a touch slower though, so there is a weight tradeoff with the wider rim. Tire stability is great with the wide 45mm WTB Scraper rim, so it seems Specialized made a smart move by running this wider rim on the hardtail. Traction with the tacky wet dirt was perfect, so 6Fattie was overkill here, but it offered a forgiving ride over the few rocks, roots, and braking bumps on the trail. I have a pretty good feel for tire pressure and I’d estimate that I was in the 12-13 psi range. I dropped tire pressure a bit but unfortunately didn’t have my digital gauge with me. The Fuze was awesome at pumping the rolling dips and bermed turns that are common on Sunrise. Right away I could feel the efficient hardtail pedaling and climbing characteristics on the smooth and flowy Sunrise trail. We rode the Downieville Classic downhill racecourse on a rainy day that starts with Sunrise to Butcher to Third Divide, finishing with First Divide trails. Related: Redesigned Specialized Camber Hits a Sweet Spot When you mix that speed with those few techy spots, things get interesting and really fun, really fast. The biggest standout of this ride is raw speed. It’s not overly technical, but it has many spots that will test your skills and a few that some riders even prefer to walk. The 15 mile, point-to-point ride descends roughly 4,000 feet over an unimaginably wide variety of trail and ecosystem types. So, it outfits these models with 45mm or 38mm wide rims where the suspension models have rims that are just 30mm wide.įor those who have not ridden Downieville yet, it should be on your bucket list. Since the hardtail doesn’t have rear suspension, Specialized theorizes that riders will run lower pressure for a smoother ride.
FUZE WHEEL RIDER FULL
One interesting spec difference between the hardtails and full suspension Stumpjumper 6Fattie models is the rim width. The front and rear hubs feature Boost 148mm/110mm spacing with the additional 3mm of outward chainring spacing to match. A CliffsNotes version goes something like this: The 6Fattie hardtails feature aluminum frames with a cool diamond-shaped split drive side chainstay to keep the rear end short while still allowing driveline and chainstay clearance for the chubby 3-inch-wide tires. Specialized showed the Fuze and women’s Ruze 6Fatties at Sea Otter.
I honestly can’t think of a bike that I’ve ridden in recent memory that offers a greater smiles-per-dollar ratio than the Fuze. And this wasn’t a high-dollar deluxe model either it was the Fuze 6Fattie Expert that costs just $2,100.
I ended the ride without a single regret and better yet, no flats. So I gave it a go, and ended up having a total blast. I’d been converted from skeptic to believer in that short time, but had yet to try the high volume 3-inch tires on a hardtail. I had spent the last six weeks riding almost exclusively on 27.5+, or 6Fattie, as Specialized prefers to call it. Related: New 27.5+ Bikes From Specialized That’s why there was definitely a big part of me that felt stupid for choosing the new Specialized Fuze 6Fattie hardtail instead of the company’s latest full-suspension Stumpjumper 29er for Downieville during its Destination Trail media camp. Suspension has made riding there way more fun and much faster. And for good reason-the Northern California trails are so rough and eye-watering fast that I rarely make it down without a flat or two. It had been well over a decade since I'd ridden a hardtail on Downieville's trails.
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