A bike decorated with World Championship titles and Olympic victories no longer needs to be tested for its suitability for competition - especially not by amateur racers like us. Nevertheless, we were interested to see how the comparably under-equipped Epic Expert Carbon performs in the field and to what extent its character alone makes it fast. Geometry, handling, feel: great! The automatically locking Brain suspension is a blast on the 25 kilometres of cycle path to Neukirchen, which is peppered with countless intermediate sprints. However, on the 1000 metres up to the Wildkogel, some of which are very roughly gravelled, the tight suspension becomes a pain. Every stone bigger than a child's fist knocks through to the rider, and you have to get off the bike to fine-tune it. On the last descent, the Wildkogel trail, something happened that could not be ruled out with the narrow tyres: a puncture on the rear wheel, ruining the planned race to catch up. But: flat tyres are always riding mistakes ...
ConclusionThe comparatively weak equipment does not prevent the Epic from being incredibly fast.
PLUS Pleasantly sporty geometry, very good uphill and downhill handling characteristics
MINUS Weak shift group, weak rear brake
The alternative: If you want the best, buy S-Works: The frame set of the top model costs 4399 euros (complete bike 7999 euros), for which you roll to the start with the material of the Olympic champion.
