[Iceman2058]

...will be a single crown fork, at least if I am to believe what I read today in an interview with Mike Mc Andrews (published in a French MTB mag). He was quoted as saying "When we developed the fork for the SL in search of the best compromise, we ended up with the dual crown fork [that we have today]. The new tapered head tube technology would allow me to create a long travel fork that is lighter, stiffer, and with a single crown...".

So there you have it. Start up the rumour mill.

My 2 cent's to fuel the fire: this explains why the 09 SL has the 150mm Fox 32 - it will be easy to beat for the new Spesh single crown long travel fork! That would have been harder to do had they specced a 36 RC2 on the 09 instead...

 

[HTFR]

Fox w/15mm axle.

 

[iguanabartola]

hmmm, interesting. So, my guess is that to continue with the 5 year warranty:

- Spesh will be fixing old E150 faulty cartidges to keep available stock during the warranty period until it finishes.

or

- Spesh will continue producing the E150 on the S-Works only therefore having always new stock available.

 

[huck*this]

Actually aren't the higher end SL's still coming with the E150?

 

[huck*this]

And the lower end Comp

 

[Lipps64]

The maybe good news is that; should this announcement eventually prove to have meat on the bone in the near future/2010 generation; then this is a clear indication that Specialized intend providing continued commitment to an in-house suspension programme for the long-haul and are not about to scamper away from their initial forays with tails between their legs :thumbsup:

The maybe not-so good news is that; Specialized (I presume) would be unlikely to introduce the new fork widespread accross the Enduro SL range; erstwhile amortising the development & forecasted warranty costs across a high number of projected unit sales, in a similar manner to that applied to the E150 Forks (and for that matter the AFR Shock);

Reason being; following the events of 2007/2008, whereby very high numbers of frustrated owners were caused to be in possession of unsatisfactory products as a consequence of seemingly premature release of items proving not to have been adequately developed and/or fabricated to a sufficient quality standard; which resulted in a significant financial forfeit to the to be incurred by the brand. Ultimately resulting in the E150 being dropped from the range (with exception of the token S-Works);

Despite a more than generous five-year warranty patch being applied by the brand in order to appease the PR puncture, enabling the relatively high numbers of E150's already in the field to pedal home quietly; I am sure that Specialized would concede that the same market-place would be less likely to demonstrate similar levels of enthusiasm towards being early purchase-pioneers of unproven products a second time around ("once burnt; twice shy"). Most-certainly one would expect there to be a liberally applied period of cautious observation prior to seeing widespread committal by buyers, pending sufficient market confidence that another 2007/2008 E150 situation is unlikely to be repeated;

Likewise, from Specialized's perspective; if a marketing strategy for the supposed new single crown fork did indeed encourage high numbers to be initially sold and an ensuing 2007/2008 E150 situation did subsequently prove to be repeated; then what (drop it for 2011 and bring out yet another replacement "Messiah" fork design in 2012)?! ............Or scamper away with tails between legs? :skep:

It has to be said that the most encouraging aspect of this forthcoming single crown E150 successor announcement by Mick McAndrews is that this will hopefully put paid to any more, "Oh, The E150 Fork is having a 12 month hiatus and will be back in force during 2010" clap-trap

:cornut:

 

[darkslide18]

I think what Iceman is getting at is that the fox 32 on The lower SL's are only an interim fork untill 2010-2011 when spesh will unviel a lighter 6 inch fork comperable to the the fox 36-rockshox lyrik to spec on their SL line up. Im running a Lyrik on mine right now and it is as stiff as the E150 and is better damped and performes better than the E150 in my honest opinion. If they can come out with a fork that performes as well as the fox's and rockshox and doesnt have the reliability isssues I think they will have a winner. I just hope that if they do they will ditch the 25mm thru axle and go with the standard 20 to make things easier for those of us who want to change wheelsets or hubs. The 25 is good but I dont think there are any significant gains with the 25....I mean if full on dual crown downhill fork can perform with just a 20, and those forks take much more of a pounding than any of us would put the SL through than I think a 20 will suffice. Even better would be a Maxle type design like what is found on the Rockshox. I know this is all rumor and hearsay but I think it would be a smart move on spesh's part. The New SL with the 32 looks like a stumpjumper and with that fork stretched out to 150mm it looks really dorky not to say the least flexy. The stanchions on the new fork should be at l;east 35mm. I know the slickhoney treatments and all that make the E150 work great and I have no problem servicing my own equipment but I think a fork should perform right out of the box and require annual maintanance to keep it performing...not the other way around....especially givin the price we pay for these incredible machines....I mean would you buy a porsche if you had to upgrade it to make it perform as it should?? I think not....anyways Ive rambled on enough here and this is just my two cents


P.S. How about a coil version that they could spec on the SX trail??:thumbsup: :thumbsup: