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2012 RMB Dealer Day
Posted: Aug 15 2011
Following Rocky Mountain's 2012 Product Launch which took place back at the BC Bike Race in June, Rocky gave dealers a chance to demo thier new bikes last week in North Vancouver. The event took place at the Seymour Demonstration Forest where we had access to trails such as Circuit 8 and Richard Juryn. Over coffee, Rocky walked dealers through a product knowledge session covering their new bikes for 2012, the Element 29" and the Vertex full carbon 29" hardtail race bike (both covered in full detail here) and updates to their current bikes. Product Manager, Alex Cogger is pictured below going over the 2012 Slayer 70.
Following the PK session and while the burgers were grilling, we hit the trails to see if all that they were claiming was true! The first bike that I took out the was the new Element 950. (Leslie @ DB)
It was my first time riding a 29er and I was really curious to see what it was like. When I first got on the bike, I was surprised to feel how comfortable the bike felt. I was expecting to feel a little stretched out on an agressive 29" XC bike but the new RTC (Race Tuned Compact) 29 geometry felt great. The frame geometry characteristics include a super short wheelbase and chain stay length, a shortened top tube and a 70.6 degree head tube angle.
When I started riding the bike, I discovered that although comfortable, it still rode very agressively. I had a great ride in Curcuit 8, a trail that Rocky Mountain has put a great amount of work into through NSMBA's Trail Adoption Program. In fact, I probably rode it better than I have before. I didn't have any problems getting up and over tight, rooty sections or making the tight turns. Another thing that I noticed was that my pedals weren't hitting objects as often as they usually do which could of course be attributed to my riding! Rocky has raised the bottom bracket slightly over their previous 29" bikes to 39.5 mm.
I am not a gear-head so I can't explain why certain things felt the way they did, but I did feel that this bike had more travel than it did. The Element 950 has 90-120mm of front travel (RockShox Custom Relvelation RL 29 Air U-Turn 20mm front fork) and 95mm of rear travel. I believe the front suspension was set at 100mm for this ride. It's the smallest travel bike that I have ever ridden but it didn't feel that way. It decended over steep sections just as well as a bike with more travel. All in all, my first 29er experience was pretty impressive!
I then took out the 2012 Slayer 70 for a couple laps of the Richard Juryn trail. New for 2012, the Slayers incorporate: Rocky's Angular Bushing Concept™ (ABC) Pivot Technology and the Slayer 70 has the RockShox Reverb 30.9mm seatpost.
How did it ride? What can I say...it's a Rocky Mountain Slayer!
