The 2023 Specialized Diverge STR gravel bike adds a unique rear Future Shock seat tube with a hydraulic top tube motion damper to control the flex. Combined with their steer tube Future Shock up front, the bike keeps the rider floating over chatter for a smoother, faster ride.
The design is wild, leveraging almost the entire length of the seat tube (not seat post , but seat tube ) to provide flex, giving it a lot of travel. Here’s everything you need to know about the new Diverge… What’s new? What’s the same?
The Specialized Diverge STR will sit at the top of their gravel bike lineup alongside the Crux S-Works , just with a very different rider in mind. The Crux will remain their lightest, race-focused bike, but the Diverge STR will likely be the bike of choice for their pros on rougher courses.
The standard Diverge design, without the rear Future Shock, will remain in the lineup, too. In fact, the new STR model shares the almost the same geometry, with a few subtle tweaks: Stack & Reach are identical
STR BB drop is 85mm, 5mm more than standard
Chainstay length is 429mm, 4mm longer than standard
Seat tube angle is 0.5º steeper, but… …the slightly steeper seat angle is offset once you sit on it and the system is sagged, making the effective seat angle the same as the standard Diverge once your weight is on it. Specialized suggests sliding your saddle 5-10mm more forward to account for […]
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