Specialized Bicycle Components

Few bicycle names are more recognizable—at least among dedicated mountain bikers—than the Specialized Stumpjumper. The “Stumpy” is credited as the first production MTB, introduced in 1981 and heralding the coming mountain bike boom of the “Me Decade.” But Specialized has roots dating back to 1974, when cyclist Mike Sinyard sold his Volkswagen bus for $1,500 to fund a bicycle tour of Europe. Along the way, he snapped up a modest inventory of stems and handlebars from Italian brand Cinelli to sell back in the States. Specialized Bicycle Components was born. With Sinyard still at the helm of the company today, Specialized resides among the “Big 3” bicycle brands in the US (alongside Trek and Giant), with an expansive offering of road, mountain, gravel, BMX, kids’, and lifestyle bikes across a wide range of price points. “The Big Red S” introduced its first ebike in 2012—an urban model called the Levo. The Levo was far ahead of the times in terms of its stylish design and sophisticated integration of the ebike’s electronics. But ebike sales didn’t really gain traction for Specialized until the introduction of the wildly popular, Stumpjumper-inspired Turbo Levo electric mountain bike in 2016. The Turbo Levo lives on in the Specialized ebike line alongside other eMTBs like the long-travel Turbo Kenevo and lightweight Turbo Levo SL trail model, urban models the Turbo Vado and Turbo Como, and the lightweight drop-bar Turbo Creo SL road and gravel ebikes.