Specialized Diverge Pro 4 Review: A $8,249 Gravel Bike for Rough Trails

According to Ars Technica, the reviewer normally brings a road bike on a yearly trip to Denver to ride gradients unavailable in northeastern Illinois. Ahead of this year’s trip, Specialized provided the new Diverge Pro 4, and he brought it to test on terrain not possible on the groomed gravel trails of suburban Chicago.

The Diverge Pro 4 differs from the Specialized Turbo Creo 2 that Ars Technica reviewed a couple of years earlier because it is strictly human-powered. Specialized calls it “the ultimate getaway vehicle,” and the company says it was designed with input from off-road adventure riders, scientists, and racers.

The reviewer wrote that he could not speak to the bike’s racing performance, but he called it a blast on any kind of gravel and said it does well enough on the road. The bike is priced at $8,249 and is designed for rough trails and technical descents.

Those conditions unfolded below him at the summit of a climb in Douglas County, Colorado, which he described as is-it-gravel-or-is-it-single-track. The descent was rutted and slightly more technical than anything he would encounter around Chicago. He took a deep breath and went down. He wrote that he had enough time on the bike to realize that if he had trouble on the descent, it would not be the bike’s fault.

Editor's Summary

Specialized’s $8,249 Diverge Pro 4 is a human-powered gravel bike positioned for racing, adventure, and distance rides. In an Ars Technica review, it was praised for rough gravel and technical descents and found adequate on pavement, though racing performance was not assessed.