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REVIEW: 2006 Rocky Mountain Slayer 50 Words Mike Wallace Images Cam McRae

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We took a Gear Shot at the new 2006 Rocky Slayer 50 awhile back. The Slayer was being marketed hard by Rocky as an all-mountain machine at a time when the new breed of all-mountain bikes are starting to live up to their name. Not only are the new generation of all-mountain bikes enticing more people into the freeride side of the sport, they are changing the way already accomplished freeriders look at mountain biking. With the development and progression of rear air shocks and single-crown forks, combined with the slacker angles now being used by frame designers, we are now seeing bikes that climb well but are still very capable on the descent.

For 2006, the Rocky Mountain Slayer came in four different spec levels. With such a wide range of possible riders, this only makes sense. The most economical was the Slayer 30 and the high end is the Slayer 90; the Slayer 90 comes with such goodies as a Fox 36 Talas RC2 fork, SRAM X.0 shifting and Avid Juicy 7 brakes. The model we tested is the Slayer 50.

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All of the Slayers are built from Easton 7005 aluminum. The Slayer 50 is spec’d with a Marzocchi All-Mountain 2 fork, Fox Float RP3 rear shock (custom valved for the Slayer), Avid Juicy 5 brakes, SRAM X-9 rear derailleur, lightweight RaceFace Evolve cranks (X-type) and Mavic Crossride wheels. The tires are Maxxis Minion 2.35” front and rear, although for the test we have been running a 2.5 on the front.

The heart of the bike is 152 mm (6”) LC2R rear suspension system - LC2R stands for Low Center Counter Rotating. The rear triangle is solid, similar to a single pivot but it is connected to the top link via Rocky’s Thrust Link. This combination is designed to give a rising rate and the much-sought-after bottomless feel. The shock is mounted fairly low to lower the centre of gravity and the linkages are wide to increase stiffness. The 195g high-volume Float RP3 air shock has a three-way adjustable ProPedal lever, but I only used either full-on for climbing or full-off for descending.

The Marzocchi All-Mountain 2 fork is a 5 lb. air sprung fork with standard dropouts that is equipped with ETA (Extension Travel Adjustment), which allows the rider to shorten up the fork length and thus steepen the head angle for climbing.

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Impressions
This is NSMB, so we set the bike up for riding the Shore. The long 100mm stem definitely hails from an XC background, and we replaced it with a 60mm stem to get the handlebar height down and closer to the head tube. The big ring was replaced with a bash guard and as mentioned the front tire was changed to a 2.5”, which is much more winter Shore friendly. The Shimano M520 pedals were replaced with flats.

One of my first rides on the Slayer was actually with my XC buddies over in Roberts Creek. Coming off a summer of riding a downhill bike, the Slayer felt like a full XC bike. Being able to lock the front fork further down into the travel and engaging the rear ProPedal made a significant difference on the climb. The Marzocchi ETA travel adjust system doesn’t actually lock out the fork, which helps a lot when the climb gets rough or technical. At the top of the climb, two quick lever flicks released the full travel of the front fork and the rear ProPedal.

The Lycra boys were on full XC bikes so the Slayer was presented with a perfect opportunity to show its pedigree. It didn’t disappoint. On fast, tight singletrack with small hits, the Slayer feels very solid. The effort to make the centre of gravity low is not wasted and the bike corners very well - you can feel the Slayer being sucked into the berms, giving that on-rails feeling. The rear suspension works beautifully. While the guys on the XC bikes were pushing hard, riding the Slayer almost made it feel like the world was moving in slow motion.

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Since that first ride, I have been back to riding with the freeride gang on Cypress, Seymour and Fromme. After several months and several rides, I have learned what the bike is good at and when it leaves you wanting more. As mentioned already, the bike excels on trails with smaller hits. Although it is not recommended, due to the light cranks and fork, I found launches up to 3' felt comfortable. The bike is very light, so when it comes time to stand up and pedal hard the bike jumps forward like no bike I have ever ridden on the Shore. However, when the descent gets steep and rough the ride starts to suffer.

This was largely due to the fork. The All Mountain 2 is simply not designed for aggressive descending, because the regular dropouts and quick release are not very stiff. More noticeable, though, is the quick ramping up of the air spring. On quick, harsh and successive hits the fork starts to feel a bit like a pogo stick. To be fair, the Slayer 90 comes with a Fox 36 Talas and this just may remedy the problem. The sure fix would be to upgrade to nice oil/spring fork.

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The fork is definitely outclassed by the performance of the Slayer's rear end. I never found myself wanting more. To find the bottom of the rear suspension, it was necessary to slam the bike into a flat or uphill landing.

By increasing or decreasing the air pressure in the shock, the behaviour of this bike is drastically changed; those craving a stiffer XC feel simply need to increase air pressure. I weigh 165 lbs. and 175 lbs. of air pressure gave a very plush feel.

A multi-pivot bike such as the Slayer is obviously more prone to pivot issues than simpler designs such as a single pivot. After several hard rides, the bike started to creak significantly in the rear shock area. I was never able to determine exactly which pivot was the problem, and the only remedy was to dismantle and re-grease all the pivots.

The only other negative that I came across is the set up of the brakes. The bike is spec’d with Avid Juicy 5s, which don't have the adjustability of their big brother Juicy 7s. I found them difficult to set up so they felt just right. To get rid of the severe on/off feel, we inserted the thickest spacers we could find and then bled off some fluid. Again to be fair, the Slayer 90 is equipped with Juicy 7s so that might lead to a better lever feel.

When looking at the overall package, the fork and brake spec make the Slayer 50 a good choice for riders who choose less technical trails. Rippers who want to challenge themselves will definitely want to consider the Slayer 90.

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The nimble handling of the Slayer combined with the light weight makes the bike an excellent women’s freeride bike. My significant other, who rides a full suspension XC bike on the Shore, gave the Slayer a few rides on Fromme. The only words I could discern from her first excited return were, “I am never riding an XC bike on the Shore again!”

What Rocky has done with the Slayer is combine new fork and shock technology with a 68° head angle, a light weight (7lbs.) frame and a low centre of gravity. The result is a chassis that feels light and nimble, climbs well, corners very well and can handle all but the gnarliest freeride descents.

Spec: 3  Ride: 4 Price: 4 Overall: 4

Pros: Cons: - Many spec levels - High performance rear   suspension - Excellent handling - Light weight - All spec levels are fairly pricy - Fork is outclassed by rest of bike

Rocky Mountain's Dirty Little Secret If you are thinking about picking up a Rocky keep in mind that these bikes are not made in Taiwan or China.  Virtually all the welding, mitering, alignment, paint and even much of the CNC work happens at Rocky Mountain's Delta facility. They have a patented tack welding process that ensures a remarkably precisely aligned finished product and their paint work is second to none.  Even the stencilling you find on most RMB products is done by hand.  It's nice to know that every step of the way your bike was molded into existence by people who are as passionate about riding as you are.  Is it worth an extra hunny spot or two?  I'll leave that to you do decide.

About the timing of this test... You may have noticed it's 2007.  You also may have noticed that this is a test of a 2006 bike.  I'd like to blame the timing on Mike or Hurricane Katrina or even Al-Qaeda.  Unfortunately they are not to blame.  Editing and formatting a test like this - one that has a lot of photos and info to double check - takes a big slice of time.  Well it does for me anyway.  Quite often around here we spend our energy putting out fires and making sure the boat stays on course. Squeezing in a large project is sometimes difficult and as a result this test kept getting pushed back.  So to be clear all the blame lies squarely on my shoulders. We're getting better at producing articles in a timely fashion but sometimes we (paricularly my portion of we) slip up.  My apologies.  In the meantime Rocky added a model to the Slayer line-up.  They kept the frame you see here as the Slayer 30 and Slayer 50 and they added the Slayer SXC.  As the name suggests this frame is skewed toward the XC set.  It has a lighter frame, carbon fibre upper stays and a Fox DHX Air rear shock. Cam McRae

Want to talk about the review? Here's the place to do it.

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