Rocky Mountain Slayer Broken Frame - Photos Updated!

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Rocky Mountain Slayer Broken Frame - Photos Updated!
Author Message
flag thrice
Posted: Nov 8, 2007 at 7:48 Quote
shondo: Yeah, I would never doubt the Slayer's ability as an enduracne bike. Only downside might be that it gets hard to service around the shock and front derailer area, so that could pose a problem in the middle of the mountain. And yeah your right, I should propbably start saving for a gravity specific bike. Its just that the hype and marketing around all mountains do make it seem as if they could do everything. Some are even called light freeride bike. So yeah, dont believe everything they say.

evan547: I get you. Only problem is that I find nowhere in sight the limitations as to that bike. For instance when I wanted to put the 66 fork, I had no idea if the frame was capable of 180mm, instead of the 160. I called rocky, and they told me to ask tech questions to my local RM dealership. They said it was ok, then later on said it was ok, but not for drops and such. So I wasnt too convinced with that. Anyway, my bike if anything is a bit too big for me. The seatpost in that pic was way up. I do have it like 2 or 3 inches lower. I only ride it that high when Im doing long road climbs.

emubritish: I agree. Still, extracting part of a conversation with the rocky dealership here in florida while I was waiting for the guy to open the attached pictures i sent him through mail:

thrice: So, do you guys get a lot of broken rocky frames or is this like a rare occurance?

rocky dealer: No, we do. (not paying much attention as he was concentrated on the e mail)

thrice: Really? So you guys have been getting more cracked frames?

rocky dealer: Yeah.

So there you go. He wasnt too descriptive about it, but he acknouledged it wasnt something rare. Also, he said he's been having trouble with them co's they are taking more time than what they say the take to get replacement parts and frames.

Hummeroid: Again, the seatpost has been like 3 inches lower for the past 3 months. I find I handle the bike better that way, and still have good extension in my legs.

And you brought up an interesting point. The shock psi was in like 190-200 before, the limit being 300psi. And since at 190-200 I was getting like 30% sag, I decided I needed a bit more pressure. So the night before the frame broke, I pumped it up to like 215psi. It was giving me 15% sag with pro pedal, and 30% without pro pedal. So I figured it was a great set up. So I wonder if that had anything to do with it. Still someone once wrote on here, that even with the shock very pressurised, there is not a significant amount of stress on the frame. Only if you try to like make it a hardtail by putting a piece of tubing where the shock was or something.

bonfire : Well this is interesting. I hope you read what I said before as to what the florida dealer said. Maybe the service is better in Canada? Anyway, as to the frame, I dont doubt it. I respect Rocky, a lot. And yeah, the welds as you can see did hold up, the material didnt. Anyway, here is a question for you. Should I be afraid of the new rear triangle they send me? I mean, If they give me the same model of rear triangle, then a bit of bad set up on the seat height and an awkward jump or whatever will just snap it again. Or do they have new improved rear triangles. I also asked the dealer, and he said he will find that out. Anyway, he could tell me it is, and then it might not be, so Id like to hear it from someone else.

Thanks for all you guys comments.
flag thrice
Posted: Nov 8, 2007 at 7:56 Quote
Oh and, Im 6 feet tall or 1.83 meters. I weigh 180 pounds, or like 80 something kilos.

The bike is a 19 inch frame or a Large frame. If I stand above the bike, my crotch is like 1.5 inches away from the top tube. In the XL frame, it was almost or barely touching (scary).
flag shondo
Posted: Nov 8, 2007 at 8:04 Quote
If you're 6 feet tall, a 19 inch trail bike is probably the perfect size for you. If it were a 180mm travel freeride frame, some guys would pick the medium just so the bike will move easier in the air.
That large size should be just right for you for that class of bike.
flag peddlefaster
Posted: Apr 17, 2008 at 8:37 Quote
i have a slayer and its like amazing you upst have hit somthing hard to brak one lol
flag toooldschool
Posted: Apr 17, 2008 at 8:56 Quote
I work on bikes for a living and have had about a half dozen of the new style slayer bikes in my stand the last two seasons. All had loose pivots and one was cracked at the same place yours is. RM has had a bad run lots of broken flows and switches a local shop I know the guys at dropped them because of breakage and warranty probs. Get a Marin quad a wolf ridge or mt vision should serve you well.
flag thrice
Posted: Apr 17, 2008 at 9:06 Quote
^
To tell you the truth, I've been so pleased with the bike after putting the warrantied swing arm on. I have been trail riding and downhilling it. I hang with the hardtails on the long climbs, and I hang with v-10 and vp free's on the steep, rock garden filled, downhill courses. I recently put in a 2.5 inch tire in the front and it works great.

The only current problem I have, is that after a local bike shop put in the rear swing arm, I've noticed a small amount of play in the swingarm. My current lbs says its worn bearings. So I will order some soon.

Here is the current setup minus the 2.5 inch tires.

photo

1815206
flag toooldschool
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 6:52 Quote
Marin has ten year pivot and bearing warranty
flag bonfire
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 7:35 Quote
You shouldn't be afraid of it snapping again. They have tweaked the rear a little bit. I would much rather have a Rocky over a Marin any day of the week.I hate the ride of Marins and I have seen way to many snapped Marins, and from what I have seen they have a great warranty in words, but in practice they sucked.
flag shondo
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 9:14 Quote
I'd come down in favour of Marin too. They make a gorgeous bike these days, and the Jon Whyte Quad suspension design is brilliant. I have seen and heard more than a few Rocky customers waiting through what's left of the riding season to have frames replaced or parts delivered, but sadly that is also the case with too many other manufacturers too.
At the end of the day, if you like your bike, that's all that matters. A lot of dudes look sideways at my bike, as it's not a "typical" gravity brand, but whatever...they're only bikes, not rockets.
flag thrice
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 12:33 Quote
shondo wrote:
A lot of dudes look sideways at my bike, as it's not a "typical" gravity brand, but whatever...they're only bikes, not rockets.

You mean the king fisher in your profile?

Anyway, you're right. RM made me wait a good amount of time to get the warrantied swingarm. They didn't have the best costumer service. Really cool guys, just hard to get a hold of. But I've kind of given up on that. Before I had a Trek Fuel 90 frame which I broke on two occations. They did replace it both times, but it was a hassle. Rocky was supposed to be the end of that for me. A "smaller" company, rider owned and whatever. Hand made frames, more attention to detail. I also think its about luck sometimes. Sometimes company's run through everything smoothly, then sometimes they're backed up with stuff. I really haven't thought about my next bike. Maybe a Chumba? But they're expensive.
flag shondo
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 16:30 Quote
thrice wrote:
You mean the King Fisher in your profile?

Actually, either of my Gary Fisher bikes. It's not a "freeride" oriented brand right....so, both bikes are often disregarded as if they may be "incapable" of the task at hand. Whatever.....Up until very recently I was way too obsessed with brand/logo snobbery and silly stuff like that, I'm starting to realize the truth in the old axiom that "it's not the bike, it's what the rider does with it."
Those Rockies are decent sleds, but they have been "crackly" in the past. I suspect that if you were going to have any other problems they would have shown up by now.
Cheers
flag toooldschool
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 22:18 Quote
bonfire wrote:
You shouldn't be afraid of it snapping again. They have tweaked the rear a little bit. I would much rather have a Rocky over a Marin any day of the week.I hate the ride of Marins and I have seen way to many snapped Marins, and from what I have seen they have a great warranty in words, but in practice they sucked.

Ok I am biased I ride a Quake and sell Marin bikes where I work. However I can report excellent warranty service from Marin they rock. I have worked in two shops that sold RM and was mostly disgruntled by the warranty department. They have made some beautiful bikes in their day for sure everybody has a brand they love but I feel RM is hugely overated. I would have to say the switch is a pretty sweet toy until the headtube rips off and they make you send the frame back with shock and make you wait six weeks and then send you a new frame without a shock and then deny ever seeing your shock and 3 weeks later you finally get your shock back but it got no freaking hardware and then they send the hardware cod. Yes that was a long sentence but so was the warranty procedure.
flag bonfire
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 22:34 Quote
That is rough. When they had the Switch frame problems and the Flow problems they just sent us a whack of frames. We were told to just take the customer's frame and just give them a new one.

I think the longest we have waited for a warranty issues was 3 weeks, and that was because they had to weld a new frame for the guy. He destroyed his old slayer. He liked that bike for what it is did, he didn't like the new Slayer for what he was using the bike for. So rocky built him a new old slayer frame.
flag ridedabrodie
Posted: Apr 18, 2008 at 22:36 Quote
u have put alot of forks on your slayer haha
flag thrice
Posted: Apr 19, 2008 at 0:22 Quote
shondo: Guilty. I've seen a King Fisher being worked on at my lbs, and never thought much of it. I had never associated the brand with anything freeride or dh. But you're right, its the rider. Some riders get the best out of some models, some get out the worst.

bonfire and 2oldschool: See. This is exactly what I mean. Out of 2oldschool's example, a rider would have the worst experience with rocky mountain. But on the other hand, someone in bonfire's case would have been stoked with rocky for showing up to the dealer with a cracked frame, and recieving a new one right away.

rideabrodie: Wink Not really. See, the stock Fox 36 Talas broke on me, so in the mean time, my bike shop lent me two forks. They first lent me the Hanebrik fork which was a total mess. Then they lightened up and lent me the 40 tup , which was pretty fun. But I only had it for like a month while the Talas was being repaired. Finally I got the Marzocchi so I could forget about messing up my fork.

 


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