If you’re wanting to stay on a coil shock, I would not purchase into the SJ/SJ Evo/Levo lines, they are known to cause too much lateral flex that breaks the pistons on coil shocks. I have a regular ‘19 SJ and it just destroyed my Mara Pro air shock after being installed for 10 months on the bike. My SJ is a fantastic bike, and the SJ Evo sounds even better, but I’ve decided that I don’t want to purchase new shocks every year. I was looking at the Smash or Gnarvana, so your input on the Smash helps me as well. I also like what I’ve seen on the Canfield Lithium. If you’re willing to look at alloy, it’s an enduro bike that climbs like an XC bike. If you want to stay carbon, then Revel bikes licensed the CBF system from Canfield, with a slight difference in the set-up to allow a water bottle to fit inside the frame.
Edit: From what I’ve been able to tell, the Cascade Link only adds around 5-7mm of travel, but it also voids the frame’s warranty. So don’t tell Specialized you use one if you go that route.
Edit: From what I’ve been able to tell, the Cascade Link only adds around 5-7mm of travel, but it also voids the frame’s warranty. So don’t tell Specialized you use one if you go that route.
