Bike Checks: Comparing Jesse Melamed & Remi Gauvin's Rocky Mountain Altitudes - EWS Pietra Ligure 2020

 What we want and need is different to what the majority of people want and need. The bike was built for you, with us in mind!

 You can buy an angle headset too if you want and a small change in shock bolt position isn’t exactly a redesign, is it?

Do you expect a racer to run exactly the same stock setup as sold in the shops or you ‘lose confidence’? What about their confidence to ride the bike as fast as possible?

The fact we can buy 90% or more of what the pros race in this sport I think is a great thing, a few pound purchasing and angle headset and you are closer still, if you think copying a pro will make you faster that is?

 @JesseMelamed: So an Altitude won't make me a as fast as you? Cool bike. Definitely in the running for my next bike. Real question: Do you run the Mallet E pedal with the LS or standard spindle?

 @bproelofs: It could!
I run the standard spindle. Tried the longer one once but didn't really like it.

 @justanotherusername: It's not juist about being able to make changes, this bike has a ton of adjustments. it's about those adjustments not being good enoguh and extra custom changes basically being required from the get go. It's like when people ride non-sponsor tires and black-out the labels. It means their sponsors tires are not good enough, so why should the public go out and buy them? So if this brand new bike needs changes right out of the gate, then how does that not mean the original was not good enough. Especially when there are so many adjustments available on the bike, yet none of them are good enough for the ambassadors presenting the bike to the public. This whole bike is touted as having an amazing adjustment systems, but if the best riders want something that it can't provide then it isn't really that amazing, is it?

And yes, to some extent copying the pros _may_ make you faster. They ride almost everyday in a variety of conditions, so they have the best idea of what can make a bike fast and enjoyable (it's tough enough to do a 2-day EWS race, would be even worse on a bike that is miserable to ride). If the fastest riders (and the riders finishing races and not crashing) want a longer front-center or more fork trail (both provided by the angleset) or a more balance rear-center (custom chainstay adjuster), it's worth the general public taking a look at how those could help them have more fun, whether that's going faster or just crashing less.

@JesseMelamed, nice humble brag. Yes of course, professional racers are faster than the general public, that's why they're professional racers, but that doesn't change the fact that you and your teammates made changes to a brand new bike that is already supposed to be super adjustable. Yeah, you're faster than us, but doesn't that mean other riders don't want the ideal front-center (angle-set), or rear-center (custom chain-stay length adjusters), or leverage curve (custom Ride-9 (Ride-1?) insert). I mean, you made a bunch of videos about finding the fastest lines on certain trails, why wouldn't folks want to ride a similar bike as you if they try those lines or techniques?

These are things you see riders experimenting with on an existing design and that are usually integrated into the next revision of a bike. This _is_ the next revision, and the representative riders are making multiple changes out of the box. I'm not saying this new bike sucks, but just that it's hard to see the value when it seems like a bunch of changes are going to be necessary out of the box.

 @just6979: that huge rant is entirely misplaced as you take no consideration for the fact that there isn’t an ‘ideal’ geometry and that the pros often need a different geometry and setup than riders like you and me do.

How about this - try and run gearing some pros do, see if you can still climb? Try and run the spring rate some pros do, see how harsh the bike feels?

Maybe you need to look at some more race bikes and see what people are doing - pretty much half of the DH field have modified bikes from stock.

Maybe go and tell people in other sports to stop running different gear to the public too?

 @justanotherusername: I'm not saying any of the pros are doing it wrong. Not once did I say the racers should not make those changes.

I'm saying it's weird that Rocky would release a new enduro bike, and then immediately slap a bunch of custom parts on it for the pros. From the outside, it looks like there was little feedback from the racers on how this bike should be.

And don't give me that bullshit about only pros being to ride hard enough to utilize the geometry. If a slacker headtube makes it easier for Jesse to go from Mach 10 to Mach Silly-Fast and grab some wins, and also makes it easier for me to get from Mach 0.5 to Mach Stupid and maybe grab some bragging right with my buddies, or just carry enough speed to hit that one jump a little nicer.

Saying non-professionals can't push the geometry to it's limit is stupid. Even if I'm not pushing the bike's limits, I'm pushing _my_ limits on _that_ bike. So if the geometry helps increase those limits with a little more front-center and fork trail (main things provided by going slacker with an angleset) to keep me just that much more in control when ripping nasty steep chutes, well that's just f*cking awesome.

So yeah, Jesse needs/wants to make those tweaks because they help him go faster, but for anyone to say that similar tweaks wouldn't help the average shredder riding in similar terrain is just plain wrong.

 @just6979: Thats total crap.

You either hilariously over-estimate your standard of riding, dont understand the requirement for personal preference regarding setup, or you are close to being a pro yourself (even then, people are different and need a different setup to work for them)

Engage reality and understand that there is not always a definitive 'better' - and that at a world class racers level they have requirements different to you than when you 'shred with your buddies' - Thats the whole point, a slacker head angle may make you personally slower, not faster, get it? A different leverage curve may make the bike too harsh, but they are cool with that for efficiency reasons get it?

You are literally pulling apart the whole reason RM made the bike adjustable - if there is a perfect setting for everyone - why bother?

 @justanotherusername: There obviously isn't one perfect setting that fits everyone. That's why adjustments are awesome. I've never shit on a bike for having flip chips and such. But the adjustment range of this bike doesn't seem to jibe with the intended use. The two highest profile riders of the bike required custom parts in order to use it in the intended use. So, what I am shitting on is RM parading this bike out as the race team bike with mad adjustments to suit everyone, even touting that the entire component spec on the Rally Edition is the same as what the team runs, but that's not true, it's not the same component spec, it's not even the same geo.

I'm not saying a bike alone makes you faster, but if someone wanted to get faster, and use the excellent RM EWS team as a role model, a great place to start would be a similar bike, obviously along with training and eating well, etc. But you can't buy a similar bike geometry-wise directly from RM, you need to add parts, and that's lame, since it's being sold as the enduro race bike.

I think you are vastly underestimating the skills of other riders. I never once said that I would instantly be faster if I had an Altitude with an angleset vs without. But there are _plenty_ of shreddy groms who could benefit from some more aggressive geo to keep pushing limits. But if they buy this bike, they might want to look into getting an angleset and custom dropout chips and maybe a custom Ride9 chip, because the fastest examples of this bike can't be replicated with the built-in adjustments.

 @just6979: Im going to leave that there, you seem pretty confused right now.

 @just6979: Honestly I think @justanotherusername has said most of what I would.

The great thing about the Altitude and it's adjustments are that they can be dialled in to fit the person, their riding style, and their terrain. The reason we immediately changed some of the bits was to make it similar to the Slayer I was riding all winter long and comfortable on. Just because I am using the custom bits now doesn't mean I don't have faith that the stock adjustment range of the bike will suit me once I have time to find my setup on it. Those parts were to make the bike easier to transition on to FOR ME, not to make up for anything wrong with the bike.

 "was to make it similar to the Slayer I was riding all winter long" There it is. That's all it took.

"the stock adjustment range of the bike will suit me once I have time to find my setup" Only time will tell.

 Have you ridden in Squamish..... it's not all flow trails.

 Meh Imo flat corners in non technical spots that make you slow down to almost a dead stop aren't much fun. Not saying that machine built bike park trails are the answer, but a small support berm that let's you carry speed into the next section can make a trail a lot more fun.

 @friendlyfoe:

What do you mean by non-technical?, do you mean xc trails?

 @eugenux: I could have said that better. Was trying to differentiate between a rocky or rooty corner that obviously doesn't need a berm, and just flat dirt.

On one of my local trails there is a single lets say 140 degree corner that always makes me curse because it's just flat dirt with no support that makes you slow all the way down. If it had even a little 6" berm to support you it would be way more fun and not kill your flow.

 I definitely do not like flow trails. I think user:friendlyfoe said it perfectly. Technical corners are great until they are impossible and just kill your speed and flow