For those that know me - they know that I like a bike that can handle long days in the saddle on rough roads. Specialized has a great bike for these types of adventures in the Tri-Cross but know they are going into the gravel racing/endurance events with the Specialized AWOL. Although there is not a lot of information out about them currently, I am hoping they will have them at the upcoming demo days so I can maybe go AWOL on one Friday evening after work!
Here is what Specialized has released so far:
AWOL: Specialized just dipped two 29″ toes into the adventure cycling market
From the press release: “The AWOL is an adventurous soul wrapped in a heavy duty, do-anything body. It’ll tackle the mean streets as your durable commuter rig, but come the weekend it’ll be more than willing to let you strap on all the gear you need for an overnight camping trip and head on out into the rugged hills with you.e the mean streets as your durable commuter rig, but come the weekend it’ll be more than willing to let you strap on all the gear you need for an overnight camping trip and head on out into the rugged hills with you. Indulge your wandering spirit and go on an epic touring adventure, on or off-road. The AWOL has many faces—all you gotta do is pick one.”
And this is from a test rider recently:
Looking at this I immediately thought Salsa Fargo, but still different. The AWOL Comp (and available separate frame set) has a rocker dropout that allows for SS use (it splits on the drive side), Gates Carbon Drive applications, and internal geared hubs. Steel Reynolds tubing, a steel fork, rack mounts, drop bars and relaxed geometry…interesting. It is spec’d with a 42c tire but will accept a 29×2.2″ tire. I think Guitar Ted needs to get on one of these to see if it is the deal or not.
It has disc brakes and it looks to be sporting a mountain bike cassette in the rear (I know on my bike I have a 12-32 and need an XT or X9 rear derailleur to handle chain length. When I first built my bike up for these events I went with a 1x10 build but this shows a 2x10 and you could even go with a 3x10 build and use barend shifters instead of the brifters that are shown on the stock build.
Hopefully there will be some available to test ride at our Specialized Demo Days August 23rd and 24th:
Don't forget we have our Summer Clearance Sale happening now:
LAKE ONTARIO RIDE - August 11th - Metric Century
XTerra is Returning to WNY - XTerra ASP September 28, 2013
XTerra is Returning to WNY - XTerra ASP September 28, 2013
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