Ok…you are thinking it and I am saying it. What is the Specialized design team thinking lately?
The paint jobs coming across the Specialized mountain bike line seem to be getting worse with every release. For me, it all started with the “candy corn” SX Trail. A fellow riding friend, APPBLING, sent his off to the powder coater straight out of the box to get stripped and re-coated silver. According to his comments on the frame, the paint was even more laughable in person. Now, look at the gallery below…the Big Hit’s, Stumpjumpers and Demo’s all look just as bad. If you take a look at Specialized.com, the rest of their lines seem to be going towards these dark and light browns like the Stumpjumper below. I don’t know about you guys, but I do not think this color scheme is working.
I am saying nothing about the bikes or how they ride. Specialized has built its reputation on great riding bikes over the years. Other than the Future Shock program taking longer to get dialed in than some had hoped, these terrible looking frames still hold true to the ride quality of a Specialized bike. Hopefully, they get the kinks worked out on the Future Shocks so that they do not do any more damage to the line.
I have to think that the designs of some of these frames are hurting sales. Not every buyer is able to have their brand new frame re-coated if they do not like now it comes standard. With the competition (Trek, Fisher, Gaint, Cannondale) going to bolder designs using more standard colors, most potential frame/bike buyers are going to pick the better looking frame given cost and quality being equal. Like it or not, most riders (myself included) are pretty picky on how their bike looks on the trail. I applaud Specialized for going outside the norm, but I think they made a wrong move by going in this direction. Hopefully, 2009 will bring back the Specialized bike line that we have grown to love, and these radical colors and designs will be something we all joke about at trail heads in the future. In the meantime, it looks like we are stuck with these designs for awhile.
