S-Works Stumpjumper ST 29

Is there any better feeling than ragging a firmly-planted trail bike like the new Stumpjumper around bends and over berms We don't think so. Not everyone needs 150mm of travel though, which is why we put together a version of the Stumpy that offers greater agility and responsiveness the S-Works Stumpjumper ST 29. We teamed a still-impressive 130mm front and 120mm rear travel with a geo that's a wee bit steeper, allowing you to get a true connection with the trail.

The goal of the 2018 Stumpjumper was a spooky ability to communicate with its rider. We were aiming for a bike that knew how you should approach the trail ahead, almost before you did. Stiffness, it turns out, is the source of a great trail bike's telepathic powers because a bike that offers too much flex is going to be sending mixed messages to your brain with your feet experiencing one thing and your hands another. To fix this, we had to really lock in the materials, shapes and layout that we used to build this awesome machine.

After scheming up a mountain-specific test for stiffness we subjected the layout of the new Stumpy to Finite Element Analysis on the hunt for opportunities to improve that ever-elusive stiffness. While we found that the Large and X-Large frames needed greater front-end stiffness, the Medium and Small options were already bang on the money. With this insight we managed to improve efficiency by a huge 20%. We're delighted with how it turned out with the Stumpjumper weighing in as one of the lightest trail frames available on the market.

The new Sidearm we designed was a result of the aforementioned stiffness-obsession we brought to the development process. The front and rear ends are linked at three key places with the Sidearm there to make sure those important connections have as much rigidity as possible. This has the lovely extra benefit of shaving 100 grams from the weight of the rear end and really minimises the frame flex whenever the rear sus kicks in.

The inclusion of our Rx Trail Tune on both the rear and front suspension systems gives you a hyper-tweakable ride, with the inconsistencies created across varied wheel, frame and rider sizes neatly smoothed out. Rx Tune ensures every bike sits right in the middle of the adjustment spectrum, allowing you to go on and fine-tune the way it performs to your heart's content. This component spec comes with 29er wheels, and the suspension is tweaked to suit that size of hoop right out of the box so you'll experience suspension that is perfectly linear.

The use of a standard metric shock means you can run any after-market shock you wish helping keep life simple. Other fuss-free features include a threaded bottom bracket returning to the Stumpy for 2018 and clearance for tyres up to 3.0. Our beloved SWAT box gets a revamp too it's sleeker now and boasts more storage while the Flip Chip let's you tweak the geometry of the bike to your riding style.

This build boasts only the dopest of components, with SRAM's Guide RSC discs and a full XX1 Eagle drivetrain. The front and rear suspension come care of FOX Factory. Hoop duty is taken up by the world-beating Roval Traverse SL 29s.