Steel bikes: Specialized Sequoia Elite review

If we were the types to put bikes into pigeon holes, we’d be calling this an ‘adventure’ bike. But for now, let’s call it a fat-tyred, go-anywhere road bike-cum-tourer…

It’s a bike designed to be loaded up to the gunwales to take you wherever you like.

Adventure bike? How about ‘freedom bike’?

Frameset

The Sequoia’s heat-treated chrome/molybdenum steel alloy frame offers a decent strength to weight ratio, and Specialized has ensured that the frame tubing size is specific to each frame size available (a range of 50-61). 

The geometry of the Sequoia is designed to offer a good balance of performance and comfort – a head angle of 70.9° ensures an easy and predictable rate of turn allied to a 75.4° seat angle which forces you over the front of the bike for better leverage and control.

A carbon fork aims to take some of the jarring out of all-terrain riding, too.

A pronounced slope to its top tube results in a small rear frame triangle – good for getting the best out of the drivetrain on all terrains and also with the knock-on effect of facilitating the use of a long length of seatpost for reducing vibrations felt at the rear.

The cables for the front and rear mechs run along the underside of the down tube, but because they also have cable outers, you’ll not need to trouble yourself with frantic post-ride jet-washing.

Notable additions to the frame also include bosses for front and rear racks, bottle mounts where you’d expect to find them, and others where you wouldn’t – on each fork leg (we reckon you could use them for extra luggage, too). Thru-axles secure both wheels, rather than quick-release skewers.

Groupset

There’s a mix of parts on the Sequoia, designed to offer, again, a balance of performance and durability.

Consequently, Shimano’s 105-level hydraulic disc brakes, and coordinated shifters, plus a 105 front and rear derailleur, adorn the Specialized.

An FSA Gossamer chainset packs a 48/32 set-up, and works with a Sunrace 11-36 cassette to offer a smallest possible gear of 32-36 – even your nan could pedal that up a grass bank.

Finishing kit

Specialized’s in-house alloy finishing kit is used across the build, and it’s taken from what the firm likes to call its ‘Adventure Gear’ range.

So, compact drop handlebars with a 400mm diameter measured at the hoods splay to a 460mm diameter at the drops, while there’s also a pronounced rise from the stem clamp to raise the position of your hands for maximum comfort on the road/trail/fields.

The front end is heightened further by a 90mm alloy stem; it’s flipped on our test bike, but if this makes the riding position a little sit-up-and-beg, you’d get a more road bike-style position by turning it upside-down.

A 27.2mm alloy stem is topped with a Specialized Body Geometry Phenom Comp saddle, finished in a very attractive, and surprisingly comfortable, denim-effect material.

We’d like to put it to a longer-term test to fully gauge whether it might wear through your shorts, though.

Wheels

Specialized’s own box-section Hayfield rims are hand-built, attached to the bike by way of 12mm thru-axles, but heavy.

No getting around that… they contribute to around one third of the total weight of the bike. That said, their 25mm diameter readily accepts the 42mm-wide Specialized Sawtooth tyres fitted to the Sequoia Elite.

They roll pretty well on tarmac, offer plenty of acceptable grip on hard-packed bridleways, but struggle on poorer surfaces, especially in really wet and muddy conditions.

On the road

Tank. That’s the word that first springs to mind as we chuck a leg over the Sequoia and head off for a ride that takes in not only local roads but also a few miles of bridleways.

There’s no getting around the fact that it’s a heavy old chunk of metal, but that just adds to the impression of utter robustness.   

What, on the face of it, looks like a downright peculiar riding position, actually makes a fair amount of sense once you’re on the road – tarmac or otherwise.

The high-rise bars are an easy reach from the saddle and place no stress on the neck or shoulder muscles over several hours of riding. The splayed drops work in unison with shifters angled to match.

The overall sensation on-board the Sequoia is that it’s a willing machine despite its bulk; not what we’d call blistering in its acceleration, but we’d argue that these aren’t the feelings this bike is designed to engender.

It is, however, a comfortable bike to ride for a long time, and a particularly stable one. Its lingering impression is that of a two-wheeled steamroller – in a good way!

The easy-geared Sequoia Elite makes mincemeat of road climbs, while the 32-tooth smaller chainring comes into its own once the terrain transitions from tarmac to hard-pack, either when slogging up longer inclines on bridleways or sitting and stamping on the pedals at a high cadence.

The fork, while carbon-fibre, doesn’t quite cut it for us in the vibe-reducing department – the front end of the bike is fairly harsh, even more so off-road. 

As you might expect, the long wheelbase of the Sequoia makes it stable not just for off-road and road-based straightlining, but also for the twists and turns of both tarmac and trail.

It belies its weight on the road, especially when powering through turns; whether you’d surprise any pure road riders on the Sequoia is doubtful, but you’d certainly be cornering in more comfort, given the low pressure, high-volume tyres fitted.

Hit rougher road surfaces, and imperfections such as smaller potholes and unrepaired tarmac are rolled over with little need to rethink your line.

On looser terrain, the tyres perform admirably in the dry, providing a good amount of grip, speed, and an acceptable compromise between paved and unpaved surface performance.

A low bottom bracket height also adds to a feeling of cornering stability. For long hours in the saddle at a sedate pace, you’ll be thankful to be astride this oddball Californian; for longer rides involving changing terrain, you might find yourself wishing for more flex from the front end as fatigue sets in a little earlier than we’d have liked or expected.

RATINGS

Frame: Size-specific geometry enhances comfort. 7/10 
Components: A decent blend of 105 and budget-conscious kit. 7/10 
Wheels: Heavy but sturdy and reliable own-brand hoops. 7/10 
The ride: Stable and speedy on both the road and the trail. 8/10 

Verdict: The Sequoia's speed belies its weight on the road, but it really comes into its own when you hit the hard-pack trails.  

Geometry

Spec

Specialized Sequoia Elite review (2017)

WordsJoseph Delves

11 January 2017

One of the first bikes Specialized ever created, the resurrected Sequoia aims to blend touring practicality with snappy handling.

Made of steel, the material may be old-school but the design is very much up to date. So much so that at first glance the bike’s oversize tubes, big carbon fork and neat dropouts belie its ferrous heart.

With a nod to the growing gravel road and adventure segment, the Sequoia is designed to be as happy off the tarmac as on it, with a beefy front end, plentiful clearance and powerful hydraulic disc brakes.

Frameset

Using Specialized’s ‘adventure geometry’ the Sequoia marries traditional road bike traits, like a low front end and shortish seatstays for fairly quick handling, with the enhanced stability provided by a stretched-out wheelbase.

Made of anonymous cromoly, the lack of a big name attached to the tubes doesn’t seem to hurt their ability to do their job.

A lot of work appears to have gone into the shaping of their profiles, with the chainstays and downtube being seriously oversize, while the seatstays remain relatively slim.

To the rear, beautifully minimalist truncated dropouts help keep the back wheel tucked into the frame. At the front, the oversize head tube supports an even chunkier carbon fork.

Carbon may be a novelty on a touring bike but the precise steering had us sold.

Groupset

Based around Shimano’s excellent 105-level RS505 hydraulic groupset, Specialized makes a couple of deviations on the spec sheet.

First is the hugely wide Sunrace cassette. Packing in a massive 36t sprocket, it ensures that even when fully laden you’ll be able to keep spinning uphill.

Paired with this up front is a FSA ‘sub compact’ 48/32t chainset. With two fewer teeth on each chainring than a conventional compact, it complements the bike’s ride-anything credentials by further lowering the range of gears available. This isn’t a bike for sprinters.

Finishing kit

Finished in a fabric-like material, the appearance of the saddle and tape is either very cool or a touch too twee.

The unique bars climb slightly as they extend from the stem, helping raise the rider’s position. Something that’s very welcome given the frame’s low front end.

The saddle features a pronounced cutout to stop your junk getting numb. We can vouch for its efficacy at this.

Wheels

At 25mm wide, the rims on the Specialized won’t play well with anything other than chunky tyres. However, stick with something broad, like the excellent stock rubber, and they’ll offer tons of support.

Unlike conventional 9mm quick-release hubs, the Sequoia’s bolt-through models feature a much larger axle that passes through the hub and attaches to an insert embedded in the frame or fork.

Ably transferring between road and trail, the tubeless ready tyres are grippy and surprisingly fast-rolling.

The ride

Hell may be other people’s taste, but in our opinion the Sequoia is a stunning bike, with a spec sheet that reads like a wishlist of all the tech we’d hope to see on a modern adventure tourer (ie a robust, tapered carbon fork, thru axles and flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes).

At the same time, it manages to do this without any of the guff that can add complexity to supposedly practical bikes. Everyone was calling shotgun on this one.

We pretty much expected the Specialized to be a blast for mucking around off road, consequently we imagined it might be a bit of a drag for tarmac duties.

Not so. The Sequoia’s stocky front end means that unlike skinnier steel frames there’s very little side-to-side movement when yanking the bars to accelerate.

The short head tube and integrated headset further reinforce the idea that this is a bike likely to reward riders prepared to pedal hard.

Coupled to this is the fact that despite their enormous 42c width the tyres’ close-packed saw-tooth tread generates only middling resistance, resulting in an unexpected turn of speed.

However, with five separate water-bottle mounts, the bike can only be so racy. The ultra-wide bars – designed to give maximum leverage off road – show the Sequoia’s true calling. And it’s dirty.