Rocky Mountain launch a new Slayer
Rocky Mountain have brought the Slayer back. All killer, no filler.
Rocky Mountain just released their new Slayer. Realised in a full-carbon frame, and with dual wheel-size capability, the Slayer is designed to lay waste to the world’s roughest trails.
From the most aggressive Enduro World Series tracks to bike park laps and big mountain lines, its downhill-bike capability and pedaling responsiveness are said to be matched with an uncanny ability to find and hold speed in rugged terrain. That is no small claim!
“I’m super fired up that the Slayer is back,” says team rider Thomas Vanderham. “A few things really stood out to me through the development process—it pedals incredibly well, carries a ton of speed, and that extra bit of travel is awesome when you really want to rally! I see myself spending a ton of time on this bike."
New tech on the new Slayer
The new Slayer has a full carbon frame, with Rocky Mountain's Smoothwall construction. The Ride4 chip means you can make geometry adjustments to suit your riding. Thankfully, Rocky Mountain have chosen to design their bikes around running both Di2 and a dropper, with the right setup for internal routing to cater for whatever you want to do – plus all sizes from Small to XL let you run a bottle cage inside the main triangle. The bike is 1x specific.
The pivot hardware is simplified, especially with the Pipelock rocker link pivot. To keep things supple, the shock eyelet has bearings, and the Rocky uses metric shock sizing.
The rear chainstays use single sided bearings, in an effort to keep the width low. Even with a Boost rear hub, this should keep heel rub on the frame to a minimum.
The bike can take 27.5" x 2.5" trail tyres, or 26×3.0" – not your usual 'Plus' options but one the designers settled on.
Suspension
The Slayer's suspension has been tuned to eat up rough terrain and square-edged hits. Designers also increased the anti-squat values to make sure the bike pedals efficiently—whether you’re sprinting for a transfer stage or grinding towards a backcountry descent.
The Slayer features shock-mount bearings for incredible small-bump suppleness. Predictable, efficient, and capable, its rate curve provides good support at sag and a moderate ramp towards the end-stroke.
Rocky Mountain knew the Slayer would have to be built to just crush anything in its path, which was the attitude of the previous generation, while keeping the agility and efficiency that made it a favourite among aggressive trail riders. The updated geometry retains a fairly steep seat-tube angle, while the reach has been extended and the head-tube angle has been slackened.
Rocky chose to keep the BB drop neutral and the rear centre quite short to improve cornering, and shortened the seat-tube lengths to make room for the next generation of longer dropper posts.
The Ride-4™ adjustability system was chosen for the Slayer in order to provide precise geometry adjustments while leaving the suspension curve virtually unaffected. The head-tube and seat-tube angles can be changed by just over a degree, and the bottom-bracket can be raised or lowered by 7.5mm. This allows racers to adapt their geometry from track-to-track while keeping shock tuning predictable and simple.
The Slayer in Australia
We will be getting the full range, from the 730 through to the 790 and a frame only option.
