The covers look to have been taken off Specialized’s upcoming Demo downhill bike at the Les Gets UCI World Cup.
An Instagram post from Finn Iles revealed the unreleased bike, which appears to be fitted with an unreleased Öhlins rear shock featuring a black plastic housing that we assume suggests electronic adjustability.
The Canadian racer's bike has been under the spotlight for a while now and was only recently the test bed for Brembo’s new disc brakes.
Production-ready Demo?
For the past couple of years, the Specialized Gravity team has been using a test mule made from carbon tubes and alloy lugs, leaving many to speculate the direction the American brand would take.
Now it appears the downhill bike has moved into the carbon fibre stage of development, suggesting that the production model isn’t too far away.
The enlarged bottom bracket area from the latest prototype has carried over to this monocoque frame, which many initially believed was a gearbox. While it’s not confirmed, the design enables the chainring to be positioned away from the cranks, allowing engineers greater control of anti-squat characteristics.
While the cranks have a small chainring, it appears the drivetrain chainring is connected internally to the cranks.
The suspension system appears to use Specialized's UBB (Under Bottom Bracket) layout, which has been seen on previous test mules.
Electronic Öhlins Suspension
Öhlins has long been a partner of the Specialized Gravity programme, and it has been speculated that the brand is developing an electrically controlled.
Button’s on the prototype Demo showed up nearly two years ago, with many believing this allowed the rider to select different shock tunes to eke out as much performance on a single run.
Those buttons are still present on Finn Iles' bike, although it now appears the shock is in a more refined stage of prototyping.
We’re unsure whether this shock will take the same automatic approach as RockShox Flight Attendant or Fox’s Live Valve, or whether it’ll remain programmable with the buttons on the bars.
