Despite its humble beginnings, Specialized's Status became an immensely popular bike for being affordably priced and pretty darn good. Now, for 2024, the brand has revised is popular trail bike with a tweaked geometry and greater simplicity to offer a bike to please many.

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With sublimely advanced bikes such as the Stumpjumper 15 and Epic 8, Specialized acknowledges that a tech-loaded bike isn't everyone's cup of tea. In steps the new Status 2 – a bike that's built to be tough, reliable and ridden everywhere.

2024 specialized status 2 shock.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Coming in three builds (although the 140 won't be coming to the UK market,) and each is built around Specialized's M5 alloy frame complete with a flip-chip for all of the geometry adjustment. The Status has a Horst link and provides eight millimetres of bottom bracket height adjustment and half a degree of headtube angle adjustment.

MY24_Specialized_STATUS-2_170_FRONT-3QUATERS_2106_MedRes.jpg, by Liam Mercer

And as we're on the subject of geometry, this bike benefits from a 77-degree seat tube angle, a 63.5-degree head tube angle and a 437mm chainstay. An S4 frame boasts a 495mm reach and all of those are found with the bike in its 'low' position. Then, for the smaller riders, Specialized has added a smaller size that runs on a 650b and 26-inch mullet wheel setup while welcoming suspension arrangements ideal for little rippers.

As Specialized won't be bringing the 140 bikes into the UK, there are three bikes available, the Status 2 170, Status 2 170 DH and Status 2 170 Zero. The Status 2 170 gets a Fox 38 Float Rhythm fork with 170mm of squish which is paired with a DHX Performance coil shock that damps a similar level of travel. Shimano provides the drivetrain from its Deore 12-speed lineup and TRP's Trail EVO brakes slow the bike down. Specialized then supplied the rubber with a pair of Butcher tyres including a Grid Trail 29x2.3in casing up front and a Grid Gravity 27.5x2.3in casing at the rear.

2024 specialized status 2 dh fork.jpg, by Liam Mercer

The Status 2 170 DH, as you might have guessed, gets a more downhill-focused build that includes a RockShox BoXXer Select fork with 180mm of squish and a Super Deluxe Select Coil shock. SRAM sorts the gears with a GX DH 7-speed drivetrain and there's a set of SRAM Maven Bronze brakes. 

The Status 2 170 Zero is the smaller rider bike that uses a Fox 36 Rhythm fork, a Fox Float X shock, a SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain and SRAM Code R brakes.

Pricing for the adult bikes starts at £3,000 for the Status 2 170 and the DH build will set you back £3,500.

• www.specialized.com

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