29eronline has been riding the Stumpjumper for a couple of months now and I finally feel that I have enough data to confidently write a review. Our build report can be found here.
After giving the 2009 version a terrible review I decided that I needed to spend as much time as possible riding the Stumpjumper. So for the first month it is the only bike I rode. I put the previous experience behind, opened my mind and just rode it. I am glad I did. There is a lot going for this bike so here is the information and educated opinion we have formed.
The first feature I noticed and decided to play with is the BRAIN shock . What does it do? If you want to read the marketing lingo look at the bottom of this review and follow the links. Here is what I felt and a description I came up with. It is part filter and part lock out. It seems to act as a valve choke. When you run the BRAIN shock fully open it acts like a classic Horst link bike. That is plush but not super efficient. It will bob around and occasionally have a floating kind of motion of the ocean feeling. Where I like this is when I am decending really technical terrain and under heavy braking. From this point I slowly worked my way to the firmest setting.
I went against Specialized advice and put a 140mm fork on it and I have to say I had fun. The 130mm travel rear with the BRAIN open felt at home with the long fork . DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME IT DEFINITELY VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY!

Matt R Testing the Stumpjumper FSR at San-Lee park
Lets go back to the softest setting and set a 120mm fork back on the bike. Especially in technical climbs I felt the rear end of the bike needed a little filtering. Kind of calm it down for the quick pedal snap to get over and through rocky climbs. I ended up settling on 4 clicks from fully soft. it is still really plush in this setting but creates a little bit of resistence to the rear end sagging on every pedal stroke.

From this point the BRAIN got used and abused! I rode it fully firm and started trying to see where the BRAIN kicked off to allow the suspension to do it's job including doing 2-3 foot drops. Very cool. It actually works. At times it felt like I was pedaling a hardtail. I cringed a little when I would hit a big root and ...nothing just a little click and bump no more. Pedals like a hardtail but still eats up bumps hmmm not finding a draw back on this one.

Now on really rocky sections I was much happier with the BRAIN with less platform on(less hardtail like) and when I knew I had a long smooth ride coming up I wanted the firmest setting that I could get. I really used all the Brain Settings and found myself dialing the firmness per ride I did. This really could be the only mountain bike you own as long as you aren't riding in the extremes.
If you are considering the Specialized Stumpjumper do yourself a favor, ignore the 130mm travel number and think more about what the bike is made for. This is a trail bike in the truest sense of the word. This was illustrated best on yesterdays ride. I rode 8 miles to a trail then rode the trail. The 130mm and slack head angle would tell you this would be miserable. In actuality I was very happy. Why? the Specialized pedals really light. Much lighter then the actual scale reads. I can not explain why as the frame is over 6 pounds and the total bike weight is about 29 LBS as I have it set up now. Every rider that tested it, besides the rider that rode it as the first mountain bike he ever rode, thought that it felt light. One commenter even was worried about the durability it felt so light. I can not explain why but like it.

The Specialized is also a very good handling bike. Again ignore the numbers. It rides switch backs as well as any other bike besides the RIP9 in its trail bike class. The slack angles take a bit to get used to but really don't hold the Specialized back at all when the trail gets tight. It bunny hops well and is easy to get in the air. For some reason I had a hard time staying on my rear wheel for wheelie's but never was bothered on the trail. It really has the playful feel that I love in a trail bike. After riding the slack head tube angle I am a believer. During the coarse of our testing we made a couple of converts. I now have a hard time switching back to steeper angle bikes.
Climbing the Specialized was very good. The front end is a little tall for some but I was not bothered by it at all. This is easily remedied with either a flat bar or negative rise stem. We run zero rise stems and a 15mm riser Truvativ bar.
Decending the Stumpjumper is great. It is on par with the best trail bikes. Here is where noticeable credit can be given to the low center of gravity and slack head angle. As my confidence built I started riding further and further towards the center of the bike. I found I didnt need to hang off the back of the bike like other bikes we have tested. Compared to other 29ers this is a standout feature of the Stumpjumper that, other then the Niner WFO9, stands apart from other bikes in our test.

Here comes the complicated part. While decending the Stumpjumper was very confident it could be potentially negated on rough trails with the BRAIN set too firmly. While cornering on rooty corners with the BRAIN on I could feel the rear end chatter around the turn kind of like a hardtail. Not surprising as that is what you are mimicking when you use the BRAIN in the first place. Same corner with the BRAIN soft and the issue is no longer a problem. While the BRAIN is effective and I used it a lot, you will need to find the happy medium or be willing to compromise. The way I see it is that it is nice to be able to pick what and when you will compromise. The BRAIN in the firmest setting seems to do better when there are well spaced hits or smoother trails with larger hits but less of them.
As usual no bike is perfect. Where the Specialized falls short is that the shock seems to be over sprung. Coming through sections where the trail is rutted out, if you dont have the rebound dialed back the suspension would pop you all over the place. Without the right technique some riders actually popped out of the seat on these types of climbs. I rode the bike with the rebound 1 click from fully slow. Still at times I would sink to the bottom of a rut, the suspension would fully compress and pop me, and at times, the rear wheel in the air. The only way I can describe it is if you have 2 springs. 1 spring is tightly coiled with thick steel and the other is loosely coiled with thinner steel. The one with the tighter spring rate will return after being compressed at a faster rate then the loose one. We are dealing with air springs and it seems that similiar rules apply. My suggestion to Specialized is to tune the spring rate a little more linear with the same bottom out.
Here is something cool. When I mentioned this to Specialized PR man Nic Sims he set me up with Mick Andrews, Specialized suspension guru. Evidently they are refining the design and tuning the Stumpjumper. In other words they are not sitting still and saying good enough(and it is truly good enough as it sits) but are always improving their designs. The fact that they would spend the time talking with our little site really makes me rethink the corporate monsters I had envisioned them to be. Here is the deal though if we wait till next years newer supposedly better design we will always be waiting and not riding a sweet bike. There is always a promise of bigger and better but since this bike is so strong as is, I wouldn't necessarily hold back from buying this year. There is no guarantee that next year will actually be better just different.
Four other things I would like to see. First the ability to run a 140mm fork without voiding the warranty. In Specialized defense this would mean steepening the head angle so it does not ride like a chopper when you add a longer fork. With the longer fork the bottom bracket height would be a little higher which for us east coasters wouldn't hurt. I understand why they wouldn't but it would be nice especially since Rock Shox is offering the Reba in a 130 and 140mm option for 2011.
Second is getting away from an internal head set. From a consumers stand point I worry about the internal types starting to creek. In Specialized defense the creaking we discovered seems to have been from over tightening the headset not the head tube. However we are getting some creaking in other brand bikes and it kind of makes us nervous. Plus the choice of a headset is nice. If an external type starts to act up, worse case scenario it is a $150.00 fix for a Cane Creek 110 or Chris King Headset. These makers allow the use of a 1.5 lower and a 1 1/8 upper with the press in variety.
Third: The linkage that holds the shock came very loose. It had blue Locktite on the threads from the factory so it is not an over site or a quality control issue. I reapplied some blue Loctite and it has held now for a couple of months. If you buy a Stumpjumper FSR 29er and the rear end feels flexy check your pivots. This frame is plenty stiff.
Lastly our Specialized Stumpjumper paint job started to chip around the disc tabs and the seat tube at the seat post clamp. I am a big anodize fan as it eliminates these sort of problems and saves weight in the process.
So do we like it. Yes there isn't much not to like. Specialized delivered a go anywhere do any thing bike that, short of the extremes, with a couple of parts changes can be almost anything a rider wants it to be.
Helpful Links: Specialized Stumpjumper 29er Expert Overview
Brain Brain Washing
Ben the guy Ed Norton is trying to look like, explains the BRAIN
(mindbender: If Ed Norton looks like Ben does Ben's ex girl friend look like Salma Hayek)