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Tech Specs: Specialized Diverge 4 Expert
- Price: $5,999 / £5,249 / €6,299
- Weight: 8.9kg / 19.6lbs
- Wheels: Roval Terra Carbon, 25mm internal
- Sizes: 49-61
- Groupset: SRAM Rival XPLR
- Colours: Turquoise, Dark lilac
I have fallen into a trap. Maybe it’s because I like the ‘I’m cooler than you’ buzz of niche brands, or maybe it’s just because of the size of Specialized even in relation to other mainstream brands, but I’ve overlooked the Diverge more or less since its inception when considering the best gravel bikes. It filled a place in my head as The Default Choice. Competent, but vanilla. The chicken tikka masala of the curry order, or the pepperoni pizza. This is even more mad when you consider that a pepperoni pizza would be my last meal on earth, but that’s by the by.
Whatever my previous opinions on the Diverge, having never thrown a leg over one in anger, I’m more than happy to admit that I was, mostly, mistaken. I still think it’s perhaps an uninteresting choice from a conversational standpoint if you were to ask someone what their favourite gravel bike is, but it is very, very good.
Having ridden a lot of do-it-all gravel bikes that ride like road bikes, it has been refreshing to ride something clearly optimised for the rough stuff. It’s a little less lively, a little more languid on the road, but the trade-offs are more than worth it on even moderately rough ground.
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