Red Bull Rampage 2014: Gully's Prototype Rocky Mountain

RED BULL

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BIKE CHECK ~ GULLY'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN

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RAMPAGE



THE SMURF MASSACRE

It's not a secret that Rocky Mountain has been working on a new downhill bike platform for a few years now, but Gulevich competing at Rampage is among the first times that one of their team riders has attended a major event on the yet to be named bike. In fact, it's been three years since Rocky decided to go in a different direction than their Flatline, and while the industry wide move to 27.5'' wheels that came part way through this bike's development is surely one of the reasons for the long lead time, Rocky is adamant that there's more to it than that. ''We decided to use this bike's development to research some dramatically different theories and approaches compared to what other people are doing, as well as what we've done in the past, and we knew that would take longer than a typical product development cycle,'' they explained when I prodded what the hold up was. ''We have two new patents pending from this project, and we're confident that both the bike and the learning we've done with it will have been worth the wait. It'll be available when it's ready.''

And what will the new machine be called? Your guess is as good as ours, but Gully's custom painted bike, done up by PaintHouse Customs, is affectionately knows as 'Smurf Massacre' for pretty obvious reasons. Word is that only a handful of actual Smurfs were sacrificed in order to get the bike's unusual look. It was clearly worth it.



Although not eager to share much when it comes to the details, Rocky did reveal to me that Gully's bike is one of twenty one different ridable prototypes that have come out of their machine shop in Vancouver, with four different takes on rate curves, wheel paths, geometries, wheel sizes, pivots and other design points. ''We've worked hard to improve pedalling and square-edge performance, among other things'', they said, while also making it clear that the bike could sport some interesting geometry when it does become available. ''We've also been honing in on pretty progressive geometry, and working on some developments around braking - allowing you to brake less and later.'' Vanderham is said to have had the biggest influence on the bike's design so far, which not only bodes well for the freechuckers out there, but also the racers. ''He's been an ideal partner in the project because he's insanely fast - he's actually placed well at World Cups and World Champs, and also has the freeride skills to push the bike super hard.'' So, no excuses for you racers out there who are on the bike in the future, then.

Gulevich has gotten on the bike more recently, just within the last couple of months, but Rocky says that one of their engineers has actually made the trip down to Rampage to rig his bike up with data acquisition equipment, with the aim being to gather information in one of the most extreme settings that a bike can ever see. Rocky actually did acknowledge that the final product could look nothing like the bike you see here, and that the test mules, including Gully's bike, are exactly that: mules for the sole purpose of evaluating ideas.



SUSPENSION

The prototype bike might have been seen in public many times by now, with it even breaking cover during the feeding frenzy that is Crankworx, yet Rocky Mountain is still not overly keen to share too much beta about it. And understandably so, especially given that much of what you're looking at here could change by the time it reaches production, but there's also the competition to keep in mind - no direct side shots allowed because those would let rivals work out important suspension details. The threat of a little industrial espionage isn't going to keep us from speculating, though, is it?



Rocky's tight-lipped approach even extends to how much travel the bike has, although one wouldn't exactly be going out on a limb to assume that it has somewhere between eight and ten inches out back, and I'd lean more towards it being closer to double digits than single. As far as adjustments go, there are a few things for Gully to tinker with, but those don't have anything to do with travel according to Rocky: ''We can tell you that the adjustments on Gully's bike have almost no effect on the suspension travel,'' they explained. Geometry and rate curves changes are what we're looking it, surely, and the two-position axle design is likely employed to accommodate both 26'' and 27.5'' wheels, although it's likely more complicated than just dropping in a different wheel size when you want to change things up. A closer look at the lower shock mount shows that it appears to use a square shaped insert that would allow for many different geometry options, similar to Rocky's Ride-9 system on their shorter travel machines that lets riders roughly preserve the bike's geometry while still letting them alter the suspension rate, or vice versa. Whether this setup will be on the production bike is a question that we couldn't get answered, but we wouldn't be all that surprised to learn that it was only used for development purposes. Then again, maybe not.

One thing that Rocky Mountain can't deny is the use of bushings at the suspension pivots, all of which seem to be up-sized versions of their Angular Bushing Concept (ABC) pivots found elsewhere in their lineup. Made up of two angled contact surface polymer bushings and tapered aluminum hardware, the ABC pivots are said to provide a more rigid interface than what a sealed bearing could ever dream of, which should make for a much more torsionally rigid frame, and they also save weight over a more commonly used sealed bearing system. We've actually heard whispers about a version of the bike being overly stiff, and we suspect that part of the prototype's long lead time is down to Rocky working on nailing the sort of ride characteristics that they're looking for. ''Gully's test mule actually has bearings in his main pivot on an oversized version of the expanding collet system we introduced with the Thunderbolt MSL,'' is what I was told when I asked if it was bushings all around, although they've been evaluating a number of different options when it comes to pivots.''Having a full fabrication and prototyping shop here in North Van lets us do these sorts of fast turnaround, back-to-back comparisons.''



A prototype bike that's going to be ridden off of cliffs at Rampage certainly deserves some custom tuned suspension, right? For sure, which is why Gully's Manitou Dorado Pro and Revox Pro shock have both been been massaged to deal with the next-level impacts that make up every line at the event. The Revox's base tune was developed though much testing in Whistler, and that, combined with the expected Rampage rowdiness, has added up to a two-stage, medium firmness shim stack that's mounted to a custom piston head. There's also a max charge in the shock's piggyback, with Maxima's 3wt oil used for the re-build. As for the Dorado fork, it's closer to stock than you might assume: the standard shim stack has been left alone, with a reduced air volume to create more ramp-up through the stroke being the only update. The result, I've been told, is a setup that, while being ready for some serious sending, doesn't sacrifice the open and supple feel the Gully prefers.


Check out all of our images from the Red Bull Rampage 2014 here.

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