2009 Specialized SX Trail
Saddle Time in Marin
Words by Cam McRae.
Date: 2008-07-10
Normally I heap scorn on mountain bike journalists who skip rides. There’s always time to work but how often do you get to ride in Sun Valley or Whistler or, in this case, Marin County. And yet here I am in the birthplace of our sport sitting at the keys. Sometimes content is too fresh and juicy to serve later. I did ride this morning and I managed to wrangle some time on one of a very small number of 2009 Specialized SX Trails. Only a handful of Specialized employees have ridden these and before now not a single journalist. I’m a little giddy about sharing some info about the new bike so no afternoon ride for me.
Not a production Spec; The SX Trail I rode belonged to Specialized Engineer Jason Chamberlain. Photo ~ Cam McRae
The first two incarnations of the SX Trail were, with a minor exception, very well received. The very first bike was an Enduro frame with a coil shock. It had 6” of travel and in Canada it bounced on a Progressive 5th Element shock that worked very poorly. When replaced with a Fox DHX 5.0 the bike began to sing. The next year the Trail put some distance between itself and the Enduro with more travel - growing from 150mm to 170mm - and a slacker head angle. That bike was one of the few that achieved consensus; even riders and industry folk who favoured other brands were forced to admit this was a very good bike. It was nimble enough to toss around and yet burly enough to survive being Bearclawed frequently. You could build it up light and make it a rowdy all mountain machine or burl it up for the Whistler Bike Park and beyond.
Specialized does a very thorough job of testing all of their frames and components. Here an SX Trail is going through a test that simulates multiple impacts. An upward force acts on the rear dropouts repeatedly to simulate what might happen under Darren Berrecloth or Matt Hunter. Photo ~ Cam McRae
How do you improve on such a refined and well-received bike? One shortcoming was the lack of post adjustability. When I was on an SX Trail I was forced to use a telescoping seatpost - a heavy and awkward solution. Specialized felt the square edged bump performance could be better and that more standover clearance would be beneficial as well. With this wish list they went back to the drawing board for 2009.
The 2008 incarnation of the SX Trail (pictured above in 'II' trim) with an interrupted seat tube and a straight toptube.
2009. This one is a production spec bike and you can see the generous standover clearance and uninterrupted seattube (albeit with a kink lower down) It looks even better in person.
The new bike is still clearly an SX Trail. First glance makes that obvious, but you’ll notice the seattube is no longer interrupted to allow the shock to pass through to its forward mount. Instead there is a two-part linkage that mates the seatstays with the Fox rear shock. Despite a kink lower down, it appears that this seattube will provide enough adjustment for just about everyone under 6’2” or so. Since there is no XL frame size extremely long fellows will need a telescoper.
What's that there concentric bolt? The rearward shock mount does not have a DU bushing (hurray!) Photo ~ Cam McRae
This union between rear triangle and shock is a showcase for Specialized ingenuity. The DU bushing, a source of maintenance in wetter climes, has been banished in favour of a pivot within the link. This also allows for better small bump performance due to reduced friction. A closer look will reveal a concentric element in the main pivot. Specialized strives to avoid pinch bolts in favour of cleaner solutions. Jason Chamberlain came up with a system that allows the pivot bolts to be bottomed out without putting any pressure on the bearings. There is a concentric hole drilled in the pivot so that when the bolts are installed the pivot rotates with the linkage plates without the need for pinch bolts.
An elegant solution for the main pivot. Photo ~ Cam McRae
In terms of performance, Product Manager Brandon Sloan sought to improve square-edged bump compliance and bottom-out resistance. From the sag point down the old axle path was close to vertical. Like the recent Demo bikes, the new SX moves rearwards for the next 10-20% of travel from the sag point. To enhance progressiveness the leverage ratio now moves from a beginning point of approximately 3.3:1 to an end point of 2.7:1. 
No Argyle here. This year's finishes are much improved from some of the flash of 07 and 08 - in my humble opinion. Photo ~ Cam McRae
Specialized is now using their DMD (Direct Mount Derailleur) system for the front changer on the SX Trail. DMD uses an E- type front changer but instead of mounting by clamping behind the bottom bracket cup, you toss out the ring and bolt the changer directly to the chainstay. This way your front derailleur moves up and down with the chain as the suspension moves through its travel. Based on my experience with smaller S bikes using this system I can tell you it rocks. 
Specialized's DMD - Direct Mount Derailleur. The SLX front shifter from Shimano is meant for a dual ring set up. Photo ~ Cam McRae
The bones of the SX trail have evolved as well. There are several cold forged parts – BB shell, chainstay yoke, dropouts and headtube – that are beaten out of raw aluminum in the same factory where Apple stamps out MacBook Pro cases. In the past forged pieces were welded onto each end of each seatstay so they were robust enough to be clamped in place, but not too thick and heavy in the middle. To further tidy up the design, a new butting process has allowed the stays to be drawn in one piece, eliminating welds while preserving the structural properties of the welded stays.
Good bones and elegant cable routing to boot. Everything about the new SX is a little more polished and refined than the previous frame. Photo ~ Cam McRae
I expected to see a 1.5" headtube on the new bike but Specialized has instead opted for their tapered solution. At the end of the steerer nearest the fork crown you'll find a 1.5" steerer while at the stem it narrows to 1 1/8 (1.125"). This serves up many of the benefits of a 1.5" fork in terms of stiffness and strength but with very little weight penalty. At Interbike last year Trek was suggesting that other companies would not be able to use tapered steerer tubes because of a patent they acquired when they purchased Klein. Now it seems that Fox and Rock Shox will be producing these forks for Specialized as well as Trek.
An SX Trail headtube which tapers to accept 1.5" at the bottom and 1.125 at the top. Photo ~ Cam McRae
For Specialized the focus of this media camp was the new Epic - a featherlight carbon XC race bike - and they came armed with enough of these bikes for every journalist in attendance. The only SX Trails that arrived were Jason Chamberlain's personal bike and one properly spec'ed display bike. Fortunately Jason was kind enough to let me saddle up his size large ride to take a lap here at Camp Taramancho. The trail we spent most of our time riding was a nice windy loop with equal amounts climbing and descending. It never got challenging technically but there were some spots where you could carry some speed and get a feel for the bike. The first thing I noticed was the way the bike climbed. The more progressive rear shock performance may get some of the credit but I also suspect that Jason's bike was a little over-sprung for me. Once gravity took hold I was impressed by the quick handling (the chainstays are 6mm shorter than before) and the turning capabilities of the low slung machine. Because of the nature of the trail I can't comment on the square-edged bump performance but I was impressed with the robust feel of the tapered steerer up front. When the trail gets steeper you'll appreciate a .5 degree slacker seattube. The 2008 SX Trail has a two-position foreward shock mount that allows you to choose between 66.5° and 67.5°. The 2009 bike will have only one position at 66° even.
These Avid Elixir brakes are custom for Specialized spec. They have a reach adjust but no contact matched up with carbon levers and lighter weight pads. Photo ~ Cam McRae
I have more stuff to show you from Specialized, both stuff for our core audience and some stuff for those who like to travel light and fast. For me this was by far the most exciting new product but the new Bighit looks pretty interesting as do a couple of other trick items. I'll get that stuff posted as soon as possible.
Anyone lusting after the new SX Trail? Did Specialized mess with something that was already dialled or is it more of a good thing? Like the colours are do you want more argyle and dayglo yellow? Step up to the mic...
You had to look hard to find any technicallly challenging trail where we were riding - but the SX was happy when I was successful. Photo ~ Forrest Arakawa
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