Inside Line: 2015 Specialized Era 29

Specialized will update its women’s specific line to include a redesigned Era 29 to go along with the Fate hardtail. The Era is essentially an Epic with women’s specific geometry. Previously, the Era was only available as a 26-inch bike. At the top S-Works level, it, as well as an updated men’s Epic will feature a custom inverted 2015 RockShox RS-1 fork with Brain inertia internals.

There will be three price point Era’s available next year. The S-Works (shown here) will be debuted by Rebecca Rusch at the Leadville 100 on August 9. It features a FACT 11m carbon frame with SWAT EMI tool cradle. While Specialized made it a point to outfit its 2014 race bikes with dual bottle cages, even on size small Epic’s, the Era can only fit one bottle cage similar to pre-2014 designs. Rear suspension travel from the Fox/Specialized remote Mini-Brain shock with AUTOSAG is 95mm.

At the front of the S-Works bike is a custom RockShox RS-1 inverted fork with a Brain inertia valve, Solo Air spring, tapered carbon steerer and top-mounted BrainFade adjust. Travel is size specific, with a small getting 90mm while medium and larges get 100mm of travel.

The Era Expert Carbon 29 has a FACT 9 carbon mainframe, alloy rear triangle and RockShox SID Brain fork. The Era Comp Carbon 29 has the same frame with a non-Brain RockShox Reba RL 29 fork. Both of these bikes have a non-Kashima coated Mini-Brain inertia shock with AUTOSAG.