2007 Rocky Mountain Vertex Team

[rockyrider]

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Scandium. Nifty. Pretty.

I'm a Rocky junkie. I'm a bike junkie. I own bikes I don't need and need bikes I don't own.

I've had a 2000 Rocky Vertex hardtail since, well... 2000. It's always been my favourite bike despite owning a variety of other bikes simultaneously. It is stiff, fast and nimble and with the Easton Ultralite tubing rather unforgiving and abusive. I've also owned a Rocky Mountain Blizzard steel hardtail which had some nice qualities, it was more comfy, but the frame was almost a full pound heavier than the Vertex. It was smooth to ride, less vibration and thrashing, but it was a bit whippy, the rear disc would rub a bit when cornering hard and it was a bit flexy under hard acceleration.

For a while I had been contemplating either a titanium or scandium frame, just because, sometimes ya' just have to try something new. I had an opportunity to acquire the last 19" 2007 Rocky Team Vertex frame that was uncommitted to a shop or team rider/racer somewhere in the world. I was very curious at the ride quality of scandium, and it seemed like a good way to find out how it worked. And it was at least $500 cheaper than a good Ti frame. It is made of Easton 7000 series scandium tubing with really radical tube shaping. The seat tube is the only round tube on the bike.

The Rocky Scandium frames are all wet painted in Delta, BC (powder coat baking process is too high a temp for the Scandium heat treated frames). My LBS gave me an opportunity to schedule this frame into Rocky's paint shop for a custom GM silver/black paint scheme to match my other Rocky bikes, but the red and white Team paint scheme grew on me, so I had a chance to take delivery of my red/white frame right away or wait 45 or so days for my spot in the custom paint lineup. I went with the red/white, it's a beautiful paint job (7 coats in total).

I built this frame up in a full-on weight weenie form, ending up at 10.1kg (22.3 pounds) with an XTR/SRAM X-0 hybrid and Magura Marta SL brakes. A 120mm long stem and flat bars round out the XC build. It's a full pound lighter than my 2000 Vertex with V-brakes. When I started the build I kept things like the seatpost and stem, bars, saddle and the tires the same as my 2000 Vertex had so I had a good basis to compare the ride quality of the two bikes back to back.

I have a lot of miles on my alooniemum and steel hardtails on very familiar trails. It was easy to take the Team frame out and see how bad it might abuse me. Scandium really is like the best of steel and alooniemum. It is light fast and stiff, but it doesn't transmit as much vibration to the bars or seat as my Easton Ultralite Vertex, and yet it just flies with every pedal stroke. It's a pound lighter, but it just invites climbing in one or two gears higher than my 2000 Vertex. It just flies down crunchy singletrack that shakes my teeth loose on my alooniemum hardtail and invites going faster. The bike just feels fast and invites hard cornering. With an 80mm Marzocchi Corsa SL World Cup fork it has classic race bike geometry (71/73 H/St angles).

I have a new favourite bike, and it's not silver/black.

Age: 51
Weight: 200 pounds
Height 6'-1"

[pharterman]

Nice ride you got there. my '04 Vertex 70 a bit less eye-catching in Black/grey. such a great hardtail!
RIDE ON

[rockyrider]

This is my 2000 Vertex (the previous favourite). If it didn't beat me senseless on rough chattery trails,my eye wouldn't have strayed to younger, curvier, sexier frames. :D

[Spalls]

Great review, Rocky - thanks!

By the way, how do you get your bikes to keep their rooms so neat and clean?

[rockyrider]

They just clean up for the pictures. That's the wall that usually has a line of bike stuff like Camelback, helmet, gloves, shoes, etc. Just to the left of the view of the "clean wall" is this ongoing scene of mayhem. Just above the bikes leaning against the clean wall is my framed Dirt Rag 105 poster.

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I just came back from another ride on the Vertex Team. I'm still smiling. There's certainly no sign of lightweight flimsiness or flexiness in the frame or the XTR wheels and cranks.

In case anyone's interested, this is the build list on this bike:

Fork: Marzocchi Corsa SL World Cup OEM white
Wheels: XTR WH-M975
Cranks: XTR FC-M970
Fr.Der: XTR FD-M970
Rr Der: SRAM X-0
Shifters: SRAM X-0 triggers
Cass: XTR M970
Brakes: Magura Marta SL (pimpin' red ano)
Headset: FSA Orbit MX
Stems: FSA XC-115
Bars: FSA K-Force flat bar (600mm)
seatpost: Race Face Deus XC
Saddle: Selle Italia Flite Ti
Tires: IRC Mibro 2.1 UST

As a side bar, the Marz Corsa SL fork out of the box needs some work. It would bottom out easily and went through low speed compression travel like mad. Marzocchi Canada did a warranty service on it and it now behaves just as well as my 2006 Marz Marathon Race. I also had them replace the remote TST release with a standard top cap, I'm not fond of more stuff on the bars and bob on an 80mm fork isn't really a big issue. The TST cartridges are prone to exploding if you hit a big bump with the fork locked out, so I would never lock out the Corsa or the 2006 Marathon Race.

The Corsa has a feature called SFA (yeah, that was my first reaction too), Single Function Air which requires the SFA chamber to be deflated completely, then the PAR (Positive Air) chamber is filled to suit the rider's weight, and then the SFA chamber is refilled to the correct pressure to offset the positive air. If you're wanting to just tinker with the positive air a bit to get the range you want, it's a very tedious process and makes me miss Fox's simple one valve approach. At least it doesn't seem to have the negative air pressure leak down to equalize the positive pressure like the Marathon Race tended to do.

I'm not sure what Marzocchi do to tweak the Corsa fork exactly but after they do their magic it won't bottom out, it's really well damped with a bit of anti-bob platform. Hats off to Naz at Marzocchi Canada (http://www.marzocchi.com/spa-canada/) for the magic wand work.

The 32mm stanchions are pretty sturdy although there's a bit more twang in the fork legs than a Fox fork when you pluck the front brake lever, but it's much sturdier than a SID. The Corsa is right around 3.62 pounds with the cut steer tube so not quite as light as the 2008 Fox F80's. hmmmmm. I wonder if I can get some red anodized top caps and knobs for the Fox?

[bremerton ryan]

That bike is so gnarly!

Oh to be out of college and in a well paying job.

I think my standard of living will stay exactly the same, but I'll have wayyyyy more bikes, skis, and guitars.

/jealousy

[PlatyPius]

Howdy. Another Rocky Mountain Vertex freak here. I bought my Rocky frame on employee purchase several years ago. The only picture I can find of it sucks, but I'll post it for now anyway.

http://www.pagan.us/cian/bikes/rocky.jpg

It has a Manitou X-Vert Super, Race Face cranks (one black arm, one silver arm), RF bash ring, Hayes discs with RazorRock lever blades, SRAM "Woody" rear, XTR front, and a bunch of other cool, but old (now), parts. It may be time to start replacing some of the parts with newer stuff. I was out of the bike scene for 5 years or so while I worked as an I.T. contractor. The contracts dried up, and I'm working as a bike mechanic again. I've missed it.

[rockhound]

That bike is so gnarly!

Oh to be out of college and in a well paying job.

I think my standard of living will stay exactly the same, but I'll have wayyyyy more bikes, skis, and guitars.

/jealousy

Keep dreaming. :D

With more pay comes more bills and responsibilities.

[rockyrider]

Keep dreaming. :D

With more pay comes more bills and responsibilities.Only if you take on the responsibilities, I am devoid of wifey, kidlets and mortgage responsibilities. Now if I could only list my bikes as dependents for tax purposes. :rolleyes:

That silver and black frame looks familiar.

[bremerton ryan]

I have the same plan as you rockyrider.

I'm an environmental geology major, so I'm just going to move to the mountains and work for the BLM. Then I will buy bikes. And guitars, and sweet amps. Then when winter comes, I will buy an AT setup. Bwahahahahahahah!

[Mo0se]

That's a purdy bike ya got there. :D

[rockyrider]

Why thank you, yes it is.... yes it is. :D:D:D

[rockyrider]

An update on the Vertex Team. Having had a summer and fall to tinker with and ride the heck out of this bike, I am truly, madly, deeply in love with it.

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Since the first posts I have changed the rear derailleur and shifters from X-0 to XTR. The XTR shifters are the slickest thing Shimano has produced since 7 speed thumbies. With the XTR shifters you can get multiple shifts up and down, fixing the biggest gripe I have with the X-0 shifters, the tedious up-shifting process. The shifters are very light and adjust easily with more detents in the cable tension knob (not just 90 degrees apart). I have to say that the combo of XTR shifters, normal rise rear dérailleur, cassette and cranks form a remarkable team for seamless shifting. Now if Shimano would just do something about that flaky freehub which still pops, crunches and skips a pawl engagement every now and again.

The Magura Marta SL brakes have been terrific.

I also got brave and installed a Race Face Next SL carbon seatpost on the bike. Not much weight savings, but a noticeable improvement in ride comfort over the Deus post, which was buzzier than the old RF XY post. What little bit of hardpack/pavement tire buzz gets through the Scandium frame is completely nuked by the carbon post. There's no trace of flex in the post, it just doesn't transmit vibration.

The bike sits at a nice even 22 pounds with 1.95 Kenda Nevegal Stick-E tires with Maxxis flyweight tubes. I tried a set of 2.1 Maxxis Ignitor Exception tires on the bike in the brief warm and dry period we had this summer and the bike was down at 21.9 pounds. Those are light tires, but just barely 2.0" wide and a bit bouncy over rocks and roots, I've become spoiled by low rebound rubber and it's behaviour over slippery roots and rocks.

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I'm also 52 now, so more comfortable is even better. :D

[rockyrider]

Since the last post on the Vertex it has received a shiny new 2009 SID Team fork which is a massive improvement over the Marz Corsa. The SID Team uses the same Black Box damper as the WC version and only weighs 0.1 pound more than the World Cup. Very stiff, as good or better than my Fox F80RLT. A truly terrific fork.

In this shot I've also got a set of Continental Race King 2.2 tires on the bike. They are huge at a true 54mm carcass width, but weigh a scant 488 gms each. The Black Chili rubber should be grippy for my soggy part of the world.

The bike weighs in at 21.51 pounds as shown in this shot.

[Hand/of/Midas]

i 2nd the greatness of this sid, to bad the WW crowd give it a bad rep for gaining .7 grams. its soo awesome. a future legend.

[LeeMcGough]

"The bike weighs in at 21.51 pounds as shown in this shot."
Just think, Rocky. You could drop a considerable amount of weight if you just ran it 32/16 or so. Want a link to the "Magic Gear" calculator on Sheldon's site?

[rockyrider]

"The bike weighs in at 21.51 pounds as shown in this shot."
Just think, Rocky. You could drop a considerable amount of weight if you just ran it 32/16 or so. Want a link to the "Magic Gear" calculator on Sheldon's site?Oh you flat landers are so cute with your ideas of hills.... :rolleyes: :p

[LeeMcGough]

Sorry Rocky, I couldn't resist.:D

[mimbresman]

Rocky,
That about a pound lighter than my Litespeed with its current configuration. Impressive!
MM

[rockyrider]

Sorry Rocky, I couldn't resist.:DThere's only a handful of hills here that require something lower than 1:1 but at least 70% my rides have climbs require that 32:32 combo for the ascent and 32:18 or 32:20 for the technical trail surfaces, and I end up in the big ring coming back down hills quite often. So I could likely get it down to a 3x5 if I had to... but that wouldn't save much weight. :rolleyes:

[longhaultruker2]

yea,but when ya loves a bike that much,who's countin grams anyhoo?:rolleyes:

i wuz glad to see some fresh pics of this one rocky,i always loved this one!

now,if i could just put my blizzard on a diet...17" frame...about a pound heavier...don't believe i ever owned anythin under 24lbs or so:p

[rockyrider]

My 2000 Vertex with Avid Ultimate V-brakes and XT/Mavic wheels is sitting at 22.8 pounds

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The carbon tail proto Vertex Team is sitting at 23.25 pounds with that hefty Marz Corsa fork

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So getting the red/white Vertex Team down to 21.5 reliable pounds is satisfying.