The new Specialized Diverge is made for rougher and grittier gravel adventures

The new Specialized Diverge has been significantly updated, borrowing elements such as SWAT storage and Future Shock 2.0 from both the company’s road and mtb collections. Geometry tweaks make this iteration of the bike even more gravel-specific and ready to take on any surface. Although many of the changes lean more towards the mtb side of the bike, the design keeps the unique and evolving disciple of gravel in mind.

Geometry innovations

The fit geometry is pretty much identical to the previous Diverge but the handling geometry has been significantly re-designed. To focus on stability and control in a variety of conditions, the new Diverge has a slacker headtube, longer reach, and shorter cockpit. The fork has an increased offset that also helps ensure stability at speed.

Previous editions of the Diverge were known for their low bottom bracket height—only 85mm. Specialized says that while this was great for stability, it came with the drawback of pedal strikes off road, especially with 650b wheels. This edition of the Diverge has a slightly higher bb drop of 80mm and a 68mm BSA threaded bottom bracket.

The Diverge allows for some very generous tire clearance, easily fitting 47mm on a 700c wheel and 2.1” on 650B.  In order to allow for this large tire clearance the drive side chainstay is a narrow, 425mm solid beam of carbon.

Future Shock 2.0

Future Shock was originally designed for the Specialized Roubaix, to absorb some of the shock of cobbles. Specialized repurposed the technology for riding rough road, thick gravel, and chunky dirt in the Diverge. Future Shock delivers 20mm of suspension to the front end of the bike, providing the rider with increased control and comfort. It’s adjustable hydraulic damper provides compression and rebound damping to protect hands, arms, and shoulders from the battering.

SWAT compartment

The ‘SWAT’ compartment, found on Specialized’s mountain bikes, is now a part of the Diverge as well. The compartment keeps gear you would normally store in your pockets tucked away inside the frame. There are two pods, one larger designed for storing a tube, tire lever, and CO2, while the smaller pod is designed for other items such as a multi-tool or keys. Specialized also sells SWAT jackets that pack into a breast pocket and can be stowed in the downtube.

On top of the two SWAT compartments, the bike also has six bottle cage mounts. It’s compatible with most rear cargo racks and low rider style fork racks.

The Specialized Diverge Evo

The Diverge Evo straddles the line between gravel and mtb. An aluminium flat bar bike, it uses Future Shock, wide tires and is compatible with a dropper-post. The reach is 30mm longer than the standard Diverge as the Evo is optimized around flat bars. It also features a 5mm lower bb and 1.75 degree slacker headtube.

Models

There will be six carbon Diverge models as well as a frameset and five aluminium models using Specialized’s E5 aluminium. The carbon frames range from Specialized’s Fact 8r carbon to its 11r carbon on the top-end S-Works model.

The S-Works Diverge frame is just under 1,000g in the 56cm size. A complete bike is about 8kg when set up tubeless, out of the box.