Ollie's Specialized Status 160 Review

After riding my commercial clash pretty much into the ground, I knew I was well over due a new bike. I decided on a Specialized Status 160, as I thought it would best match my fast and loose riding style, and would give me the confidence to send any jib or track feature. When I first became interest in Specialised Status, “Big Willy J” lent me his status 140 for the weekend. The 140mm travel (Status) really surprised me, showing just how capable a 140mm travel trail bike could be. Proving that my usual bike 180mm of travel bike, may have been a little overkill!!!

After 4 months of waiting and countless delays, my Status 160 finally arrived. While the wait was a bit longer than I had expected, the benefit from it was that I had plenty of time to sort out upgrades and earn the money needed to get them. As soon as the bike came off the courier, I had my upgrades lined up, my first wave of upgrades was the addition of some Magura MT7 pros, followed by upgrading to a Burgtec cockpit and 5010 Fabric Seat. These upgrades gave my bike a new level of stezz (coolness) and performance benefit.

After two months of riding, I’ve done may rides and a many more upgrades. Switching to an X01 derailleur, as I noticed that the stock NX derailleur was a little loud and would struggle to shift under load. And upgrading the rear rim to a DT EX511 after pushing the original Roval rim a little too far.

One piece of set up that I puzzled over was deciding whether to run the shock in the high or low setting. Right off the bat the low felt very planted and confidence inspiring on steep trails, but I found the high setting to be far more playful and “springy” in the rear, allowing you to hop and manual with ease.

After many weeks of testing I decided to run my bike in the high setting, as I feel it suits my style of riding better than the low. In my opinion the high setting isn’t any less downhill capable, it just takes a little more ride time to get used to. Overall I find the high setting to be much more fun and playful, which ultimately is what I want to be.

- Ollie Waters

See the Bike Here