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What We Ride - Rocky Mountain Slayer
Posted: Oct 18 2006
From the minute the first new 2006 Slayer arrived in our shop last winter, it was a race to see who could get it out the door first. Fortunately, it was a demo bike and after the staff all had a crack, customers started using it for extended test rides.
We liked it so much that two of the team here immediately ordered their own Slayers. One was a 90 and the other a 70. We then spent the summer putting them through their paces in a wide range of trails.
If we had to use one word to describe this bike, we would say ‘versatile’! With 2.4 tires, a bashguard instead of a big ring and a short stem, the Slayer was ready to tackle most of what the North Shore could throw at it. Best of all the climb to the trails was fun too, as this bike climbs almost as efficiently as a XC bike and felt lighter than it’s low 30’s poundage.
To prove the flexibility, we put UST 2.25’s, a big ring and a longer stem on the 90 trimming it down to 30 lbs or so and rode it on some epic all-round XC trails, for example a 6 hour round trip at Whistler’s Comfortably Numb trail, and a Rocky Mountain epic – Jumping Pound Ridge/Cox hill over in Alberta. Climbs were comfortable and manageable and needless to say, 150mm travel at both ends made the descents and technical sections a blast – almost like cheating!
The engineers at Rocky seemed to find the sweet spot in geometry and suspension spec that allow this bike to behave like a holograph picture. Point it uphill and it climbed like a steep-angled xc bike, turn it back downhill and now you’re on a squishy feeling bike that is stable and confident at speed. Tight switchbacks? Presto a quick-handling trail bike. Big drop with nasty rockgarden landing? Lean back and poof it’s a confident 6” travel FR bike.
What can’t it do? Well, you’d need to be pretty large of leg and lung to win any XC races on one. Likewise, unless you can land big airs as smoothly as Wade or Thomas, we suggest there are better choices to take to your local downhill bike park. But for most of us mere mortals that need a bike that can go uphill without being driven or pushed and can tackle technical descents with challenging obstacles – this ride really delivers.
Did we have any complaints or problems? Nothing major. Factory cable routing made shifting a bit sticky, we found a better path that fixed that. A few of the bikes developed some creaks from various linkage bearings but this was easily addressed with a lube and tightening and did not seem to affect the bikes after the initial production run. (Plus we were riding the bikes pretty much every other day in our not-so-dry spring conditions). Fit and finish is top notch and even after regular beatings, the bikes looked nearly as good and worked better at the end of the season than when they were new.
2006 Slayers are hard to find now – but there are still a few left in well speced 30 and 50 models. The good news is that for 2007 the Slayer now comes in two models – the Slayer 30 and 50 continue the successful and proven 2006 frame design, while the 70 and 90 come with a new and lighter “SXC” frame. All have improved component specs, new paint schemes and prices have not gone up! The 2007 models will be landing here soon, come on by to learn more about these world class all-mountain bikes.
Coming in later issues of WWR – Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel, Rocky Mountain Element, Knolly Delirium T, Rocky Mountain Solo CXR and more…
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