The new Specialized Stumpjumper caused quite a splash when it was launched, with long and short travel options, bikes for ladies and gents, carbon or alloy choices and lastly the tease of the more progressive Evo version. The range is huge but we've picked out the women's Comp Alloy 27.5 bike to test, here's a first look at this gorgeous steed.

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Let's start with the 'women specific element' the Stumpjumper Women's Comp Alloy 27.5 has exactly the same geometry as the men's bike and gets the same flip chip to adjust said geo. Where this bike differs is in the fork shock tune, it gets Specialized's Women's Rx Tune, designed for lighter riders. The setup features a larger can volume (they took the volume reducer out) with the goal to provide more usable travel and stop the shock ramping up so quickly. Women also get a women's Myth saddle and narrower bars (750mm vs 780mm), all pretty sensible stuff. 

We've got the longer travel option of Stumpy here giving us 150mm of travel front and rear.  This aluminium version is £2,500, it's the cheapest women's Stumpjumper you can buy in the UK unless you go for the short travel (130mm) Aloy 27.5 model. 

For your dollar you get Fox Float Rhythm 34 forks with a 44mm offset and a Fox Float DPS Performance shock, that's the one with the three position lever to adjust compression damping.

Elsewhere there is a Shimano SLX 1x11 drivetrain, running a 32T chainring and the 11-46T cassette alongside 170mm Raceface Aeffect cranks. Shimano also takes care of the braking with SLX brakes paired up with 180/200mm rotors.

Wheels and hubs are, of course, Specialized's own, Roval rims which have an internal width of 29mm built into wheels with Spesh own hubs. There is a Butcher 2.6" GRID tyre on the front and a Purgatory 2.6" GRID on the rear, but neither seems to come up as wide as we expected on those rims.

Interestingly there is no Specialized Command post, our size medium bike has an X Fusion Manic 125mm dropper post. The same post is used for the size Small, with the Large bike getting 150mm of drop and the XS just 100mm. The use of X Fusion rather than their own Command post is all about keeping costs down, it still has an underbar shifter style lever though which is good to see. 

As mentioned above there are 750mm wide bars, plenty for most women I reckon, which is paired up with a 45mm stem. Lastly and worth mentioning, the bike is entirely internally routed, uses a threaded bottom bracket and also gets that ribbed chainstay protector which features raised hollow blocks designed to dampen the noise, stop the chain slap and help make for a quiet ride.

The geometry of the 2019 Stumpjumpers looks conservative but bang on trends for modern trail bikes. With the flip chip in the 'high' position, the reach of our medium bike is 435mm, the wheelbase is 1179mm, the head tube angle is 65.5 degrees and the effective seat tube angle is 75.3 degrees. Flip that chip to low and you get a slack 65 degree head angle, a longer wheelbase and lower bottom bracket, but shorter reach and slacker effective seat angle that goes with it. Spesh don't list the exact measurements but we will be getting out there with a tape measure and seeing how the bike sizes up when in the 'low' position.

We've got about a month aboard this bike, so check back soon to see how we get on!

• www.specialized.com 

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