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# Tested: Specialized Diverge Comp
- URL: https://www.cpj.fyi/posts/tested-specialized-d/
- Published: 2018-04-24T04:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-02T12:24:03.000Z
- Description: I gave Specialized's Diverge Comp a test at Rasputitsa in Vermont. It's great!
- Author: Clay Parker Jones
- Tags: Bicycles

📸

All photos here by Matt Vandivort

Specialized was kind enough to toss a Specialized Diverge Comp my way for [Rasputitsa](https://www.tobedetermined.cc/journal/2017/4/rasputitsa-2017-how-the-weekend-was-won?ref=cpj.fyi), and (TL;DR), it's a perfect bike for that event. (*Side note: stay tuned for our Rasputitsa race report tomorrow!)*

### What is it?

Part of Specialized's Adventure & Touring line, the Diverge Comp is the middle-of-the-range offering for Gravel enthusiasts. It's got a range of perfectly capable components (largely 105 with a few cost-cutting measures thrown in) and features two *most excellent* features that made my day at Rasputitsa a lot easier than it would have been if I were on my normal cross bike.

![Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-532.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/73/a9/73a90ce4-1663-4169-a7cb-efdf906b6b25/content/images/2023/11/Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-532.jpg)

### Feature 1: Hella BB Drop

Most of my teammates were on cross bikes, which these days have around 65-70mm of BB drop. (WTF is BB drop? It's the distance that the center of the bottom bracket drops below the the center of the wheels.) The Diverge has 85mm – so in a few cases I was two full centimeters closer to the ground than everyone else. This makes the ride incredibly stable, particularly on descents. So if you saw a big dude bombing a descent and wondered if it was the shots of bourbon that he just took...nope, it was the BB drop. 

![Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-529.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/73/a9/73a90ce4-1663-4169-a7cb-efdf906b6b25/content/images/2023/11/Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-529.jpg)

### Feature 2: Future Shock

I was skeptical as hell when I picked up the bike. Yeah, Sagan just won with a Future Shock equipped Roubaix, but I still thought it was marketing BS. Specialized's Future Shock is a steerer-tube mounted suspension device, and holy crap does it work. There's a washboard section early on in Rasputitsa that ejected everyone's bottles (seriously, there were \~100 bottles covering the road by the time I went through, and I wasn't that far back!). The folks next to me were rattled all to h\*ck by the bumps, but I sailed through. What's more, it's easily removed from the frame, making service, cleaning, and height adjustment a no-cutting-required snap of the fingers.

There's a ton more to like about the bike, but they're largely things that are changeable/available on lots of bikes in this category: the 38c Trigger tires were great (fast and grippy); the 48/32 front double was the **right** gearing for the course, even if I missed my Di2; the CG-R suspension post mostly disappeared underneath me (a good thing); hydro disc brakes are *correct* for this application.

![Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-536.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/73/a9/73a90ce4-1663-4169-a7cb-efdf906b6b25/content/images/2023/11/Photo-Rhetoric-Rasputitsa-Specialized-536.jpg)

### Would I buy one?

Since I primarily race road and cross, and don't have a season of gravel grinders ahead of me, I won't personally be buying one. The suspension is legit, and that BB drop *really* works. Unfortunately, though, the BB drop has a downside: Cyberia was nearly rideable for me, but I kept dragging my pedals through the edge of the snow-rut. That loss of momentum and lingering concern about pedal strikes does preclude the bike from being useful on a CX course (at least, for me). But if you're doing Rasputitsa, Unbound, D2R2 and Vermont Overland, this is absolutely a perfect bike to get.