Fresh Goods Sunday - Specialized Turbo Creo 2 Comp - 56cm / Harvest Gold

 

If you have been a follower of my blog for a while you will know that I mainly ride electric bikes now and I bought my first Specialized Creo back in January 2020. I got on really well with the bike for the type of riding I do - distance, terrain wise etc so I treated it to some bling DT Swiss wheels, I was running a road and gravel set up and swapped the wheels over to suit. Then Bike Scene at Guisborough had a great deal on some sell off Creo's, next model up in the road version with Ultegra / XT Di2. I did the deal and had a Creo set up for gravel with 27.5"/650b wheels set and 700c wheels on the Creo set up for road so did not have to swap wheels over every time. 

My original Creo has been without fault and nothing gone majorly wrong apart from a snapped seat post collar which is a common fault. The motor / battery etc all need software updating but the bike still runs sweat as a nut!

My second Creo not so lucky, it had an intermittent fault on the motor / electrics which was resolved by Bike Scene with updates to motor, battery, system and did a re calibration. Then the bike lost all power, Evans Cycles thought it was the wiring loom so replaced it to discover it was not the wiring but the motor. They replaced the motor and all has been well since. The Di2 battery failed so that had to be replaced and the bike has had all it updates done again inc the Di2 system. 

As I have mentioned before the Creo on my 27.5" wheelset is the most comfortable, enjoyable bike I think I have ever owned and had it set up where the bike was perfect for me. As all my bikes, it gets washed, dried, lubricated and charged so its always ready for the next ride out. 

So the new Creo 2 was launched last year and I went to have a look at it in Infinity Cycles and Specialized Harrogate. To sum up the new model briefly the bike has had a redesign with new geometry, gravel / off road based, much larger clearance on the forks and rear end for bigger tyres on 700c/29" wheels. They have changed to standard hub spacing, new 1.2 motor - more power and quieter, same battery, upgraded / update on the head shock units. Groupset's are Sram AXS with 10-50t cassettes. There are three models, all gravel based and two colour choices on the lower and mid spec models. Pricing is about the same as the latest version of the Creo 1 and sizing has changed from S, M, L etc to 52, 54, 56cm. 

I thought long and hard about buying the newer version as the 1.1 motor has enough power for what I want, the noise from the motor does not really bother me. There is just enough clearance for a 2" tyre on 650b wheels and the head shock unit works and I never turn it off (apart from my road model). 

Down side to the Creo 2 was Madison / DT Swiss UK confirmed I could not convert the road boost spacing on my hubs on all three wheels sets back to standard. Specialized don't recommend you use 27.5"/650b wheels on the new model due to lowering the bb height. They also recommend the minimum tyre width on 700c is 38mm! 

The other factor was Specialized normally reduced the new models around 3 - 6 months after launching in the UK so that was putting me off buying one at full rrp. Stock in the UK is low with not many coming into the country on the first batch. More are due on the second batch in Spring. 

Bailfe Cycles had 10% off over the festive period on all new bikes inc the Creo. Then I noticed by accident that Infinity Cycles had an offer of 15% all new stock, this swung my decision. 

The S Works is priced out of this world but the spec sheet is top draw. The middle model Expert is £7.5k with carbon wheels, adjustable head shock and mid range Sram groupset. 

I opted for the lower model at £5k with alloy wheels, non adjustable head shock and lower range Sram AXS. The reason being was the price difference I could swap to carbon wheels and upgrade a few comments from my existing Creo gravel and still have money left over. 

I did not need the adjustable head shock as I run the bike with it on all the time, the parts I was not going to swap were the same on the expert so opted for the Comp model. 

I will do further blogs on the parts / components I have swapped / replaced and how the bike performs compared to the Creo 1 in future blogs. 

Factory standard apart from the shop converted the wheels into tubeless so the weight will have been 33lbs from the box. 

My original Creo was 30.11 lbs from stock nearly 3lb heavier with standard inner tubes. 

Time to swap / replace some components / parts 

Shaved over 3lbs off the bike and I have fitted a lighter stem and chain since this weigh in. 

A local spin on the Trek Marlin+ e MTB - Durham, Houghall & Maiden Castle

 

I was not out n about on my bike until later this morning so decided to have a spin around my local mtb loop down to Durham, over to Maiden Castle, a very muddy loop around Houghall woods then back home via The Trod, Frankland, The Sands and The Carrs. Durham was very busy with students and dog walkers etc so it was very stop / start but the sun had come out so made the ride a lot more enjoyable. The Garmin was hovering around 1 to 2 degrees and there was a biting cold stiff wind on the way back home. The Trek was going well with the new carbon riser bars and Shimano XT 4 pot brakes. I have to change the grips as they are too thin for my liking but apart from that it is more or less done, oh I have a KMC X12 silver / black chain to fit. All in just under 16 miles in 1 hr 30 mins with 900ft of climbing. Below are a few snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon including this afternoons Fresh Goods Sunday - on my new Specialized Creo 2 bike. 

Another cold and miserable local gravel ride on the Creo 2 & Hope Technology Pro 5 Hub Bling

 

Well another day and another right old miserable ride. Still no sun or any form of heat but the wind was not too bad. This local loop is one of my regular ones taking in Bishop Auckland as I had to pop into Inspiral Cycles and pick up an order and have a chat with Gary, see bottom of the blog. There was a few others out and about but not many. The tracks, trails and lines were not too wet and the mud has dried up a little but its still half a mud fest to say the least. I took the Creo 2 again after fitting the new USE stem and finishing off the setting up. The bike is going well now and I have not had any real problems to date. The Sram XDR freehub on the Hunt wheels goes out with a crunch now and again for some reason, all my other DT Swiss wheelsets have never done that on my other Creo's. All in 22.5 miles in 1 hr 43 mins with 850ft of climbing and 59% of battery left. Below are some rather cold and damp looking photos from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon - 

I seen these before Christmas, Hope's new keyring design - Pro 5 hub, they come in loads of colours so I decided on a red one as I moving all my keys for my red tool cabinets onto this shiny new bling KEYRING

A cold and wet ride up and down the old C2C railway line on the Spec Creo 2

 

Back out on my new Creo 2 again for a short spin up and down the old railway line- C2C. The forecast was for 5 degrees and dry, the Garmin was hovering around 1 degree and there was a heavy fine drizzle for nearly all the ride. The visibility was poor in places with a misty / fog lingering around. As you would expect there was no other cyclists out and only a few dog walkers. The new bike is going well, just waiting for my new stem to arrive to finish dialling in the set up. I might look at buying some Sram rotors to replace the Shimano Dura Ace ones! they work spot on apart from squealing like a pig now and then. Below are a few snaps the cold and wet 19 miles, enjoy and hopefully some more soon -