2015 Specialized Demo 8 S-Works, Demo 8 Carbon I, Demo 8 S-Works Frameset

CLIENT

PROJECT NAME

Aug

2014

8/13/2014 : sicklines

Specialized held a press event earlier today in Whistler to showcase their new Demo. They let us have a detailed look at the updates they’ve done to their new 27.5″ wheel’d Demo. You can learn all about it inside.

Specialized had their entire gravity team, marketing team, product managers, and engineers on hand to help field our questions and talk about their new bike. They were all quite excited to say the least and justifiably so. Below you can see some of the content we’ve amassed for you on the new Demo but stay tuned for more as things develop and we get some time in the bike park on-board the new bike!

Video Overview:

Pricing: TBD
Availability: Fall ’14 for the Demo 8 I Carbon, and Jan ’15 for the full carbon S-Works.

Geometry:

The 2015 Specialized Demo models include:
S-Works Demo 8 Frameset // S-Works Demo 8 // Demo 8 I Carbon

Highlights:

Concentric Bottom Bracket

L7 – Keyed Rear Axle (pyramid and square)

S3 Geometry 4 sizes based on length more than height (Short, Medium, Long, X-Long)
27.5″ / 650b wheel size
Full carbon on the S-Works Demo 8 offerings
Ohlins damper on all models
Asymmetrical frame design
New FSR layout

200mm of travel
Lightweight
12x135mm rear spacing

Mud shedding design
Standard shock hardware with teflon lip seal cartridge bearings in the linkage pivots
Coil springs in all of the complete builds front fork
Integrated cable routing with internal guides. Egress ports are designed to avoid cable rub on the frame

The S3 Geometry is Style-Specific Sizing. The frame sizes are dependent on the rider’s style, not how tall they are. With a low seat tube and standover height on all sizes, the rider should first consider if they prefer a shorter, snappier-handling top tube and wheelbase or a longer, more stable top tube and wheelbase

Short & Medium sizes share the same seat tube height, while the Long & X-Long are the same at 1 inch higher

Aaron Gwin (5’10) – rides a long as he likes the longer, more stable wheelbase Mitch Ropelato (5’8) – rides a medium as he likes a tighter, whippy bike Brad Benedict (6’1) – rides a long in the park and an X-Long for racing

Ohlins Shock Updates:

5mm off-set head to tuck up into the frame with updated spherical bearings
No more shock yoke extension or off-set geo cam in the Demo shock
Shorter rebound knob for easier spring removal
Reduced mid-speed compression for more control on initial hits
Increased high-speed compression for increased control when “at the limit”

Why did they forgo integrated fork bumpers?

They felt that the current bumpers included with forks today work great and didn’t feel it was necessary to pass the costs along to the consumer.

S-Works Demo 8

This is the best build spec that Specialized offers. It includes the Ohlins TTX damper just like the other models and has many top end components that you can see below. The frame has a carbon front triangle, rear triangle, and linkage. All of the Demo’s have 135mm spacing and a special L7 axle that keys the dropouts together to give it stiffness as there is no seatstay bridge.

The shock linkage is massive and quite robust as you can see. It helps provide chassis stiffness as well. Be sure to check out the gallery for more photos. Specialized doesn’t have pricing yet but we’d wager it’s going to be a $10,000 complete bike.

Demo 8 Carbon I

The Demo 8 Carbon I includes a pretty nice trim and includes the Ohlins TTX damper. Specialized did swap out the main linkage to an aluminum one for this lower trim package. It still has a carbon front and carbon rear stays.

Specialized also put together a lightweight custom build to irritate the internet for fun. It came in at a scant 32.65lbs. While you can’t purchase this build from Specialized, you can take this and run to your closest internet message board for dissemination. There’s more pictures of it in the gallery as well below.