To many of the regular BM forum dwellers this bike is nothing particularly new. A large number of my posts of late have been punctuated with "my Epic..." but it has as yet remained unseen. Well, now seems like a good time to show it off and unveil it to the masses!

At least one person has said it is just a Specialized Epic - it has a fair smattering of light weight, tarty bits, it's not really a particularly exciting bike. Whilst this is true, and there's certainly not the kudos of riding something a bit more "boutique", this seems to me like one hell of a bike.

The frame is a 2007 S-Works Carbon Epic, kindly provided for me by Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh. This employs the new Specialized AFR Brain shock, which I'm very impressed with. I've always liked the theory of the Epic, but I think this shock really does make it one of the best XC race bikes around.

A Reba World Cup fork keeps the front end on the ground as much as possible, with the help of a Ritchey/Bontrager cockpit. Shifting is taken care of with some SRAM X.0 grip shifters, X.0 mech and XTR chainset/cassette. Seatpost is a Ritchey WCS Carbon affair, with a Toupe saddle. Stopping the bike are some Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes.

As nice as all that stuff is, it doesn't "push the limits" as I wanted to with this bike - that required some more unusual parts. The wheels are particularly special. Tune King and Kong Superscharf hubs sit in the middle, the latter featuring titanium pawls, springs and a drilled aluminium freehub body. These are laced to Stan's ZTR Olympic rims with Sapim CX-Ray spokes. Add to these some Stan's aluminium rotors and Tune skewers and you arrive at one of the lightest wheelsets available. The KMC X9SL chain features hollow pins, and drilled inner and outer plates. A pair of Xpedo Ti/Ti pedals help me stay attached to the bike most of the time, and now that they're Loctited in they shouldn't fall out so much!

Carbon fibre jockey wheels in the rear mech drop the weight by 20g, while costing less than the original SRAM ones! Various titanium bolts and no granny ring (who needs one anyway?) help to bring it down to its final 22.5lb weight. Most of these little upgrades are obviously totally frivolous, and will make absolutely no difference to my middle-of-the-sport-field performance, but it's damn good fun thinking of ways to make it lighter! I'm still waiting for a Ritchey carbon stem, and maybe some carbon Nokon cables when they're available...

So far I've only done a few rides and races on the Epic, but unsurprisingly it feels very fast. The low front end makes steering very sharp, and the adjustability on the rear shock allows for as harsh or as plush a ride as I want. The ability to alter the Brain threshold for smoother or rougher terrain, or just for one's style of riding, really gives the bike a level of versatility that the Epic lacked when it first arrived.

So, I've got the bike, now I just need to win something... I'm off for a ride!