Decathlon made waves earlier this calendar year when their reasonably priced Rockrider mountain bikes turned up on the expert cross-place race circuit. So when the UCI MTB XCO Planet Cup rolled into our backyard at Nové Město, we popped in excess of to the Rockrider Team pit to get a nearer glimpse at Stephane Tempier’s carbon race bikes – the two the 900 hardtail & 900S FC entire-suspension… and some prototype equipment!
Decathlon’s Planet Cup Rockrider XC bikes
We had been amazed when we very first spotted the information that French large box sporting products retailer Decathlon was sponsoring a Earth Cup XC mountain bicycle team with their price range Rockrider bicycle line-up. So we took a nearer glimpse and understood the brand had redeveloped a stock carbon & alloy bicycle into an all-carbon flex pivot bike.
But we wanted to know even far more, so we bought in touch with the Decathlon progress staff directly for an in-depth job interview on where they are headed in the Bikerumor Podcast #58 before this thirty day period!
Rockrider Racing Staff XC 900S FC total-suspension
We acquired a first rate look at the facts of the new 120mm vacation total-carbon one pivot with carbon linkage-pushed shock again in February.
But only now do we truly see the formal name of this pre-generation cross-nation prototype – the Rockrider XC 900S FC – with the S telling that it’s bought rear Suspension and the FC that it is Comprehensive Carbon.
As we suspected, the carbon entrance triangle is unchanged from the alloy-rear bikes you can purchase in Decathlon’s huge box shops these days. But from that primary pivot back again, the 1-piece UD carbon rear close is all-new, introducing a seatstay flex zone to eradicate the want for a pivot above the dropout.
Rockrider Racing Crew bikes have been all set up with Manitou air suspension. A Manitou Mara distant shock handles the 120mm of rear wheel journey, paired to a 120mm Manitou R7 Professional fork up front with vintage Reverse Arch structure.
Stephane Tempier races on a carbon-railed Fizik Antares As opposed to Evo R1 Adaptive saddle with all-black 3D-printed padding.
Halting is handled by a new established of personalized painted-to-match TRP Slate Evo disc brakes, the lowest priced and lightest to get TRP’s most new comprehensive braking method EVOlution.
As an alternative of the stock just one-piece stainless rotors, the Rockrider Racing Team employs the two-piece TRP TR-33 rotors with alloy 6-bolt carriers for improved heat dissipation and laser-slice cleansing slots.
Rockrider Racing Staff XC 900 hardtail
The XC 900 is a funds hardtail you can by now buy right now for just 1900€ full, but it’s even now a able-adequate race bicycle – at minimum for the additional tame Planet Cup XC programs.
Develop package on the hardtails is really significantly the similar on the entire-suspension bikes, though it does seem like the workforce may well run the R7 Pro forks in a shorter 100 or 110mm vacation placement.
Cockpit is the exact same with carbon bars from ProTaper and mild alloy LYTI stems from French element maker Dulight. And the two are developed up with the light-weight BikeYoke Divine SL dropper seatpost and Triggy remote.
The very same TRP Slate Evo brakes and TR-33 rotors.
The bikes are all on Mavic Crossmax carbon wheels, wrapped with prototype Hutchinson Racing Lab growth tires. Virtually all of the Rockrider Racing Staff bikes had this low-profile tread set up for the dry Nove Mesto class. The sample seems to be to be the same as the extended-functioning Skeleton, but the knobs may well be a bit reshaped or at minimum have a reduce profile for more quickly-rolling.
