First Look: Rocky Mountain Instinct MSL
Home on the Shore:
Rocky Mountain's
New Headquarters
Rocky Mountain's
New Headquarters
Raymond Dutil during the BC style
ribbon cutting ceremony.
After moving to a new office and research lab location at the base of Mt. Seymour in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Rocky Mountain Bicycles now has one of the best locations imaginable for product testing and development. The trails of the North Shore have played a key part in Rocky's history, which began in a Vancouver bike shop in 1981, but their previous office location wasn't as conveniently located, and involved dealing with miles of busy traffic before reaching the trailhead. This is no longer the case, and the technical, rooty trails that made this region famous are now only a short pedal away. We stopped by to check out the new location, as well as learn more about the 2014 Instinct MSL, the new carbon fiber version of the company's 130mm 29er.
The day began with a British Columbia style ribbon cutting, where instead of a ribbon, Raymond Dutil, the company's president, sawed through a log to mark the official opening of the new location. The front of the building houses the desks of Rocky Mountain's engineers, sales and support staff, while a full featured testing and design center occupies the other half of the building. A CNC machine, welding station, and numerous devices to test frame strength lets designs to go from concept to reality in the same location. Rocky has always been a firm believer in real world testing, and with riders like Wade Simmons, Thomas Vanderham, and Geoff Gulevich on their team, there's no doubt the test sleds see a proper thrashing.
After touring the facilities, we went with Wade Simmons, Andreas Hestler and a few other Rocky Mountain employees to see how the Instinct MSL handled its home terrain. There are two versions of the new bike, the Instinct and the Instinct MSL BC Edition. The BC Edition has a carbon front triangle and aluminum rear triangle, along with a longer travel front fork that slightly alters the geometry compared to the standard version. Plus, it comes spec'd with a burlier build kit for riders that find themselves seeking technical, demanding trails. That description fits our riding preferences, so we snagged a BC Edition and headed out for a slightly slippery Shore ride.
The day began with a British Columbia style ribbon cutting, where instead of a ribbon, Raymond Dutil, the company's president, sawed through a log to mark the official opening of the new location. The front of the building houses the desks of Rocky Mountain's engineers, sales and support staff, while a full featured testing and design center occupies the other half of the building. A CNC machine, welding station, and numerous devices to test frame strength lets designs to go from concept to reality in the same location. Rocky has always been a firm believer in real world testing, and with riders like Wade Simmons, Thomas Vanderham, and Geoff Gulevich on their team, there's no doubt the test sleds see a proper thrashing.
After touring the facilities, we went with Wade Simmons, Andreas Hestler and a few other Rocky Mountain employees to see how the Instinct MSL handled its home terrain. There are two versions of the new bike, the Instinct and the Instinct MSL BC Edition. The BC Edition has a carbon front triangle and aluminum rear triangle, along with a longer travel front fork that slightly alters the geometry compared to the standard version. Plus, it comes spec'd with a burlier build kit for riders that find themselves seeking technical, demanding trails. That description fits our riding preferences, so we snagged a BC Edition and headed out for a slightly slippery Shore ride.
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 The machine on the left tests seat tube strength - the chain pulls vertically for a set number of cycles to ensure the frame meets Rocky's tolerances. The green beast in the top right is a seat tube reamer, and below that are various bits for the CNC machine. |
FIRST LOOK:
Rocky Mountain
Instinct MSL
BC Edition
Instinct MSL
BC Edition
| Instinct MSL BC Edition Details • 130mm travel • 29" wheels • Smoothwall carbon monocoque front triangle, 7005 series aluminum rear triangle • Weight: 30lbs (claimed) • Price: $5399 USD | • ISCG-05 tabs • 142x12mm thru-axle • Ride 9 Adjustable geometry and suspension rate • Internal cable routing • Availability: Late October |
Frame Construction
The Instinct uses Rocky Mountain's Smoothwall construction for the carbon portions of the frame. Smoothwall construction involves using a rigid inner mold during the carbon layup instead of relying solely on an air bladder, a process that helps prevent imperfections in the frame, creating an inner shape that exactly mirrors the frame's outer shape. There is also a high fiber to resin ratio, which helps to create a frame that is as strong as possible and relies on the strength of the fibers rather than the resin.
Suspension Design
Like the aluminum version, the Instinct MSL uses Rocky's Smoothlink suspension design, a true four bar design where the pivot is positioned above the rear axle by 10mm. The design is intended to remain neutral when riders are climbing, allowing the suspension to absorb bumps without interfering with pedalling. The Ride 9 system, a chip system that is also found on the Instinct MSL, allows riders to alter both the geometry and the suspension rate of the bike. To simplify figuring out the correct configuration, riders can visit ride9.bikes.com and use the interactive chart to figure out their settings.
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Component Check
The Instinct BC Edition comes decked out with a properly wide (785mm) handlebar, a short stem, and 29” x 2.4” wide tires, which falls in line with what many riders are doing to their bikes as aftermarket upgrades. A 140mm FOX 34 slackens the head angle slightly compared to the standard Instinct. Depending on the orientation of the Ride 9 chip, it's possible to set the bike up with a head angle of 66.6°, making this one of the slackest 29ers currently on the market. In addition to the longer travel front fork, the FOX CTD rear shock has a firmer tune than what is found on the standard Instinct, making it less likely to blow through its travel when ridden by a more aggressive rider on rowdier terrain. A Rock Shox Reverb dropper post and a 2x10 setup with a chainguide are the finishing touches on the bike, making it extremely well equipped for long days of bombing down the nastiest trails around.
Geometry
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| We were able to take the Instinct MSL BC Edition out for a spin on the trails where it was conceived. |
First Impressions:
 | What better place to get acquainted with a bike than on the trails it was designed and tested on? Our test lap on the Instinct MSL BC Edition involved a little bit of everything - dirt road climbing, slippery, rooty singletrack, and even a swoopy, berm filled trail that had just opened, thanks to the hard work of the North Shore Mountain Bike Association (NSMBA). The Instinct ate it all up, but it seemed to have the biggest appetite for charging downhill and encountering obstacles head on. This makes sense, given the Instinct's longish wheel base and chainstay length, geometry numbers that tend to work better at higher speeds. While our time on the Instinct was quite enjoyable (it's hard not to have a good time if Wade Simmons is the ride leader), we'll need more time on the bike to come any firm conclusions. For now, Rocky Mountain seems to have created a bike that should be well suited to their backyard, a backyard that's even closer than before. - Mike Kazimer |
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47 Comments
The Slayer is pretty much the standard by which I judge other bikes, even road bikes, for their fun factor.
26 incher for life!