How Does a 43-Year-Old Mountain Bike Nicknamed “Stumpy” Resonate to This Day?

It’s kinda hard to imagine now, but not that long ago – in the scope of human history – “mountain biking” did not exist, let alone “mountain bikes.” Then along came the seventies, and Gary Fisher, Alan Bonds, Russ Mahon, Charlie Kelly, Wende Cragg, Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey, Mike Sinyard and more.

Each of these folks, in their own way, helped the newfangled activity evolve from a bunch of jeans-wearing Marin County hippies bombing down Mount Tamalpais on pre-WWII Schwinns to the almost embarrassingly respectable world-class — and even Olympic — sport it is today.

They helped the bikes themselves evolve, too, from “klunkerz” into the ultra-light, full-squish, dropper-post-having, 1x-drivetrain marvels we enjoy today.    

The last name on that list may have arrived late to the early off-road party, but Sinyard, the founder of Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc., initiated one of its first major steps toward respectability by introducing the revolutionary Stumpjumper in 1981.

Specialized

Now, 43 years and hundreds of “revolutionary” MTBs later, a new set of wheels promises to be almost as game-changing as that model. It’s called, ahem, the Stumpjumper 15 Comp Alloy.

The first mass-produced, affordably priced mountain bike opened the sport up to thousands of new riders — a contribution recognized when it became part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History collection.

Specialized

Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Comp Alloy

• $4,500 at Specialized

A quantum leap in customizability

Great as it was, the original Stumpjumper may have been a tad limited when it came to adjusting to different conditions. You could, umm, change the air pressure in the tires?

But just as that bike opened the sport up to a new audience — many of whom had probably never even heard of “mountain biking” — the Stumpy 15 Comp Alloy does too, in a host of ways.

Specialized

For starters, the bike offers six distinct geometry settings, enabling you to tweak the performance for pretty much any riding style or terrain. The spring curve is tunable as well, and you can even adjust the head angle and bottom bracket for stability or clearance.

With Spec’s aftermarket shock links, you can also choose between 29-inch wheels, front and back and a mullet set-up — 29 front and 27.5 in back — for a fun, flickable ride.

Next-level suspension

That said, we are kinda burying the lead, as the real breakthrough here is that many of the new Stumpies, including the Comp Alloy, boast a little something called … GENIE.

It’s what Spec calls its new patent-pending air spring tech, which gives trail riders the unmatched grip of a coil spring, minimizes the risk of bottoming out and provides the ability to tune mid-stroke and end-stroke support independently. Essentially, you get the best qualities of a coil spring and an air spring, plus incredible tunability. 

Specialized

If that’s all a bit too jargon-y for you, here’s some hard stats: GENIE offers 16.3% better bump-force management than a standard air spring shock, enabling the 15 Comp Alloy’s 145mm of rear wheel travel to suck up as much impact as the Spec Enduro’s 170mm of travel. In other words, you get a cross-country bike that takes bumps more like a down country bike. 

A couple more big numbers for ya. In testing, Specialized found that by mimicking a coil spring, GENIE keeps your wheels in better contact with the ground, providing 57% better traction than a traditional air-sprung shock. They also report 39% fewer bottom outs, meaning you can hit bigger jumps than ever, stomp the landing and keep right on rolling.

Spacing out

While it’s hardly a brand-new feature, we’d be remiss not to mention a thing we love that Specialized helped pioneer, downtube storage. The brand calls its latest version, Swat 4.0, the smoothest, most weather-resistant flush-mounted system on the market.

Specialized

This handy compartment should give you plenty of room to stash your off-road essentials. You know — tools, snacks, an extra layer and of course latest issue of Smithsonian magazine.

Availability and pricing

The Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Comp Alloy is available now as a full build for $4,500. The Stumpjumper 15 frameset, which includes GENIE shock technology, costs $2,300. (While these numbers are not “low,” they are surprising in the sense that you are getting Spec’s newest, most progressive suspension tech in a bike that costs less than half of the highest-end Stumpy.)

Two other full-build Alloy Stumpjumpers (without GENIE) are also available: the Stumpjumper 15 Fox Coil Alloy ($5,500) and the most affordable new Stumpy of all, the Stumpjumper 15 Alloy ($3,000).

Specialized

Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Comp Alloy

• $4,500 at Specialized

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