First Look: Gary Fisher Roscoe
Posted: July 18th, 2008 by Karl Rosengarth
I’m in Durango where Gary Fisher bikes is introducing their all-new Roscoe—140mm of front/rear travel trail bike sweetness—to journalists from around the world. Roscoe is designed to be a versatile machine, suited for a bit more aggressive riding than Fisher’s 120mm travel HiFi. After my two-day press camp, I’ll post a full-blow report, but let me spill a few of the beans based this morning’s short indoctrination and this afternoon’s couple-hour ride atop the Roscoe 2.
- As with all bikes in Fisher’s 2009 lineup, the Roscoe features G2 geometry.
- The fork is a custom G2 Fox 140mm travel model that features TALAS and a a custom RP24 damper that brings Pro Pedal performance to the front of the bike.
- Front wheel has 15mm QR thru-axle for improved stifness.
- The rear shock features a Dual Rate Control Valve (DRCV) technology that was developed in cooperation with Fox and is exclusive to Trek Corp bikes. In a nutshell the DRCV has a position sensitive valve that opens a passage way to a second air chamber at a predetermined point in the travel—with the goal being to produce a coil–like spring rate curve with a lightweight air shock.
- Features Active Brake Pivot (ABP), where the rear pivot is concentric with the rear wheel axle, which was introduced last year on Trek’s Fuel EX lineup.
- E2 head tube tapers from 1 1/8″ upper to 1 1/2″ lower head tube diameter, for increased front end stiffness and steering precision.
Today’s couple-hour ride is a far cry from a full-blown bike test, but I will say that I was instantly comfortable with the Roscoe’s handling—rather agile for a 140mm travel steed. Middle ring climbing was a well-behaved affair and bombing downhil rock gardens put a smile on my face. I’ll have more to say, after the epic ride that’s on tap for tomorrow.
In the meantime, click on the thumbnails below for detail shots.
July 20th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[...] Dirt Rag Blog « First Look: Gary Fisher Roscoe [...]
July 24th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
[...] one of the primo perks of my job. Case in point: jetting into Durango to ride Gary Fisher’s all new Roscoe and Trek’s updated Fuel EX bikes. It should come as no surprise that riding the latest and [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
[...] knowledge on new products coming out of the Trek/Gary Fisher partnership was spot on. The new Roscoe is like a slightly shorter travel version of my fantastic Remedy 9. Talking of which why is it no [...]
September 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
[...] First Look: Gary Fisher Roscoe [...]
June 10th, 2009 at 7:45 am
[...] As spring rolls into summer, this season’s new test bikes are rolling into the Dirt Rag World Headquarters at a feverish pace. Allow me to introduce my trusty steed for the next few months: Gary Fisher’s new 140mm travel Roscoe Two. For testing purposes, we settled on the middle-of-the-road Roscoe Two which retails for $3,850, slotting in between the $4,950 Roscoe Three and the $2,970 Roscoe One. Frame is the same for all Roscoe models and they all use Fisher’s new Dual Rate Control Valve (DRCV) rear shock (RP23 on the Roscoe Three, RP2 on the Two and One models) which uses two air chambers to create a more linear spring rate.  Additionally, Trek’s ABP rear pivot has migrated over to the Roscoe. Our Web Editor Karl Rosengarth attended the press launch of the Roscoe last summer, you can see his thoughts here. [...]