Element Carbon Frameset

I'll mostly write this review about the frame since I stripped the bike down to the bearings for a custom build. I will say about the stock build, it's very nice and capable but 2 pot brakes shouldn't be anywhere near this bike...the fact they're on every build is crazy. This bike outperforms it's brakes by a large margin.

So the frame itself, the geometry is fantastic. It handles features you could only dream about hitting on an XC bike 5 years ago. It's super comfortable for all day pedaling and the kinematics are spot on...zero pedal bob. Bike absolutely comes alive on flat/slightly downhill trails. Only lost a star for me because of pressfit BB. What a pain in the ass that is...get with the times Rocky, threaded please.

I absolutely love this bike when it works. Rides amazing. The issue is I have now gone through 2 rear hubs and a front hub in 3 months (it spent 3 weeks in the shop for the first rear hub). I understand that Rocky Mountain does not make the rear hub but when I talked to them they openly admitted that they knew there was an issue with that hub. It seems outrageous to me that this is being specked on a $7000 bike.

I love Rocky and like I said, it rides great. But this will likely be my last and I would discourage anyone else from buying this bike.

I demoed this bike at Outerbike Moab alongside the Revel Ranger, ibis Ripley, Fezzari Signal Peak, Canyon Spectral 125, among others. This was far and away my favorite as well as my gf's favorite. It had the speed and efficiency of all the other bikes but with significantly more stable and fun downhill capabilities. The slack head angle was only noticeable when riding the steepest of rocks but wasn't a major issue as I just needed to shift my weight more forward to keep it in control.

I would take this bike over any of it's competitors, except that it uses a PF bottom bracket. The BB on both my and my gf's bike was creaking the entire ride and drove me crazy. The Revel Ranger and ibis Ripley both use sensible threaded bottom bracket and were close enough in performance that I'd much rather take those and not deal with the headache of pressfit.

In the short time I had to demo an Element C70 I enjoyed the bike. I'm 5'8" 155. 31 inseam & long arms. I found the more upright seated posture on the Medium bike very comfortable. Climbing seemed easy & efficient. The downhill was a combination of flow & some short but not steep technical rock & root sections. The bike handled that well & invited me to pop off features and play. It seemed liked it was just waiting to pop when asked and hardly took effort to get it to to comply. When I chose more difficult chunky indirect lines it seemed to absorb and handle those fine. I'm no all-out ripper but do fine on the Fruita & Moab classics where I'd like to take something like this annually.

I like the spec on the Element C50 and could envision buying based on the comfort of the seated position & climbing alone. Would like to test the suspension further on more difficult technical long downhills. The jury is still out on that for me due to the limited time I had to test. But I'd gladly go for another test ride on this compared to other bikes I tested that don't compel me too return nearly as strongly.

I had the pleasure to test ride a Rocky Mountain Element as part of a demo. I really appreciate being able to test a bike on my local trails to really see how it compares to my other rides. I was surprised to find the Element to ride incredible. I did have some creaking as from the carbon frame seatpost but other wise the bike cleared some truly major rock trail section with no pedal strikes. Climbed pretty good with short cranks for a xl bike…..170mm and descended like a enduro bike…..fast and with but stable control. The forward geometry of the Rocky Mountain Element works awesome