The Specialized Stumpjumper Expert is a 29er full-suspension bike with a long history – after all, the first Stumpy came out an impressive 40 years ago! Of course, its had some updates along the way, but has frequently been rated one of the best mountain bikes on the market.

Specialized Stumpjumper Expert need to know:

• Grid Trail casing tyres add extra puncture resistance and sidewall support
• Flex in the seat stays dispense with Specialized’s signature 4-bar design to deliver 130mm travel
• Fox’s 34 Performance Elite fork benefits from the Grip2 damper to control the 140mm travel
• SRAM’s 10-52t Eagle cassette will keep you legs spinning even on the steepest climbs

Weight matters, right? So how much lighter is the standard Specialized Stumpjumper Expert compared to the Specialized Stumpjumper Expert Evo? On our workshop scales it weighed in at an impressive 13.48kg with the SWAT bottle cage and tool fitted. That makes it almost 1kg lighter than its big brother, and lighter than comparable models like the Mondraker Raze RR, Canyon Spectral 125 CF9 or the Bold Linkin 135. 

Some of that weight saving has been achieved by opting for the Fox 34 fork over the 36, and by swapping from a Float X piggyback shock to a lighter inline Fox DPS. But given that both models share the same cockpit, wheels, OneUp seat post and SRAM Eagle drivetrain, it’s fair to say a big chunk of the weight saving has to be in the frame itself. 

By forgoing some of the Evo’s adjustability the Stumpy can be made lighter. As such, it doesn’t get the independent head angle and chainstay length adjustment found on the Evo. You can still tweak the numbers via the asymmetric insert in the shock eyelet though. In the low setting the head angle measures 65.1º with a corresponding BB height of 330mm.

Geometry can be switched between high and low settings

The other way that Specialized has saved weight is that standard Stumpy has fewer suspension pivots than the Evo. 

Specialized Stumpjumper Expert suspension

In fact, the flex-stay rear end on the Stumpy Expert has more in common with Specialized’s Epic XC race bikes than the rest of the Stumpy range, even if the alloy version of the Stumpy still uses the brand’s signature 4-bar design.

So why the change? Well, by eliminating the Horst link pivot on the chainstay there are obvious weight savings. There’s also less to go wrong. The flex occurs in the seat stays, so the 130mm rear end on the Stumpy is closer in behaviour to a single pivot than a four bar. Also, as the stays flex they increase the force needed to compress the suspension, and act like a secondary spring.

Specialized has been smart about this though, so the suspension is still really subtle off the top, then the spring force in the stays kicks in around the sag point to add support but it’s not so pronounced that you can’t achieve full travel. 

We’ve already mentioned that the 140mm travel Fox 34 fork gives the Stumpy a distinct advantage on the scales, and while it isn’t as stiff as the Fox 36 forks elsewhere in this test we didn’t notice any loss in steering precision on the Stumpy. In fact the front end was very composed thanks to the Grip2 damper cartridge.

Specialized Stumpjumper Expert components

A big part of that steering precision on the Stumpy comes from the oversized 35mm cockpit. Specialized’s forged alloy 55mm stem isn’t as sexy as its machined counter parts, but it certainly makes for a light, stiff stem. The 780mm alloy bar also has a good profile, the Deity grips simply icing on the cake.

The controls for the OneUp dropper seatpost

And it’s not just the grips that make for a more comfortable ride, the Bridge Comp saddle offers good ergonomics too. The S4 size Stumpy comes with a 180mm drop OneUp post, and given how much post we had sticking out of the frame we could easily upsize to S5 if we wanted more reach, without having to compromise on drop. 

Yes the SRAM G2 4-piston rear brake gets overwhelmed at times, so if you weigh north of 75kg you’ll want to upgrade to a 200mm rear rotor.  

Specialized Stumpjumper Expert performance

Specialized appreciates how important it is to dial in your handlebar height, which is why the Stumpy has 30mm of stem height adjustment in 5mm increments. We ended up running 10mm of spares under the stem, which really helped balanced weight distribution. And with the riding piston dialled in we spent most of the test fiddling with shock settings.

The SWAT storage compartment in the downtube

For a short-travel trail bike the rear suspension on the Stumpy is remarkably active; overly so. So we ended up running the DPS shock in the Trail setting with the mid-level of the platform just to calm things down and provide more support for climbing. In the open setting the Stumpy felt hyperactive and totally off-sync with the fork.

• Best mountain bikes: the ultimate trail, XC and enduro machines
• The Specialized Stumpjumper – 40 years in the dirt
• Best mountain bike helmets: a bunch of brilliant brain savers