Is it about time that your current mountain bike needs to be upgraded? Are you looking for a full suspension bike that has decent travel, but is also a bike that you can ride all day, all over the mountain? Like most people, IS money the object (to save)? If you answered ‘yes’, the Camber line of bikes from Specialized might be for you.
The Camber line of bikes is touted by Specialized as being “The best high-performance, high-value trail bike. Perfect as a first ‘fully’ or hard-earned upgrade.” On a recent trip to Northern California, I was able to throw my leg over one of these bikes and hit some familiar trails. I signed a Camber Elite 29 out from the Tam Bikes’s ‘Test’ fleet in Mill Valley and hit some trails on Mt. Tam.
I spend most of my mountain bike days on a 26-inch Moots YBB so I was looking forward to having 4″ of front and rear travel along with the larger 29-inch wheels. We rolled out of my friend’s place and had to ride the pavement for a few miles before hitting the trails. The previous day I had test ridden a Specialized Epic Comp 29, so I was used to some of the features on that bike like the automatic lockout of the rear shock. The Camber is not meant or designed to compete with the Epic line…the top of the line Camber is about $100 less than the bottom of the line Epic 29.
The first thing that needed to be done while riding on the pavement was to reach down and flip the lockout lever on the RockShox Ario RL rear shock. This was a fairly easy task and the results were immediately noticeable as the bike did not bounce or ‘bob’ while pedaling on the road. The RockShox Recon Silver TK 29 fork also needed to be locked out as it too bounced while riding on the road, especially when climbing or standing to pedal. Through there was no remote lockout for the fork, that was also an easy task to accomplish by just reaching down and turning the knob 90-degrees.
Once we hit the trails, we had about four to five miles of climbing ahead of us. I chose to leave the rear shock locked and unlocked the front fork. There was no noticeable loss of traction, so this seemed to offer the best setting for the most efficient climbing. For being advertised as a ‘high-value’ bike, it really did climb well and there was no sense of sluggishness or loss of power while climbing. I was riding with on person for the first time, but the second rider, I have ridden with numerous times. There was no issues with keeping pace with the other riders, even on steeper terrain.
At the top of the climb the rear shock was unlocked. We immediately descended on loose, rocky terrain that had sections of water running across the trail. Since the Camber line of bikes has a slightly ‘slacker’ geometry than the Epic 29 that I had ridden the day before, I expected the Camber Elite 29 to understeer in the turns. This in fact was not the case – the Camber went where I pointed it and really held to the trail on the rocky terrain. We quickly picked up speed, launching over some water bars with ease. The Custom Avid Elixir 3 R SL hydraulic disc brakes easily controlled the speed of the Camber and though the descents were short, no fading was noticed.
As the trail traversed the mountain, I chose just to leave both of the shocks unlocked. There was some slight bounce, but since we were not racing, it was not a big deal if the pedal strokes were not as efficient as they could have been. We arrived at the top of a trail named Tenderfoot; I had never ridden this trail before so it was going to be a treat. The trail was wet from the rain that past through a few days prior, so this left the roots and rocks a bit slick. The first rider, who was familiar with the trail, took off and was out of sight quickly. I was the third in line, but unfortunately was faster than the rider I was directly behind. I could not get to full speed until I was able to pass the second rider on the inside of a switchback turn. I was quite surprised that this slacker geometry on the 29-inch wheels was able to take this tight of a turn with ease – frankly I expected to overshoot the turn. There was not much left of the trail once I past him, but the Camber handled the rocks and roots with ease. We arrived to the bottom of Tenderfoot and were back on the pavement once again.
The entire Camber line of bikes uses the proprietary Specialized M4 alloy. The ‘M’ alloy can be a little stiff when used in a rigid frame, but is an excellent choice when used for a full suspension frame as there was no noticeable flex in the frame. The Camber Elite 29 is equipment with a mix of Shimano XT, SLX ans Specialized branded parts. With a retail price of $2150, the Camber Elite 29 is quite the bargain or as Specialized put it, “High-Value”.
Riders might be a happy camper with the Camber Elite 29.