Because you keep asking - Cooper's bike checks and updates

I get a reasonable number of questions on social and in article comments about my bikes. So here you go - a thread with photos, I'll do my best(-ish) to keep this updated as they inevitably change, and for bikes I've had for a while I'll try and show the history. Anyway ask whatever questions you like.

So we'll start with the newest bike in the fleet, a 2023 Rocky Mountain Element. Its a large, currently in Ride 3 but still playing around.

• Fork: Pike Ultimate Charger 2.1 RC2 @130mm

• Shock: SIDLuxe Ultimate

• Wheels: We Are One Sector on I9 Hydra

• Brakes: SRAM Code RSC

• Handlebar: OneUp, 20mm rise, 780mm

• Grips: ESI Chunky

• Stem: RF Turbine R, 35mm

• Cranks: XO1, 170mm

• Chainring: 32t

• RD: XX1 AXS

• Cassette: XO1 10-50t

• Seatpost: 170mm Reverb AXS

• Saddle: WTB Silverado Carbon

• Pedals: XT Trail

• Dashboard: Karoo2

Forgive the trashed handlebar - I promise I don't generally ride around with a great risk of taking a core sample of myself - I've got a fresh one to put on here, but I think I might try cutting this one down to 770 or 760 just to try it before I saw to the fresh one.

Nice Rocky...but I'm mostly interested in the gravel bike :-)

Blasphemy, I know.

So that isn't his gravel bike?? ;-)

Ha, I'll try and do that one next, @gdharries. 

And no, Niels. While you're correct in other threads that anything you can ride on a gravel bike you can ride on a mountain bike, that doesn't actually make it a good tool for the job. ;-)

Apologies, I must have been thinking of gravelduro.

Now show us your other bikes!

Is that your main ride for sea to sky or one for more toned down, long day trails?  Do you find yourself using this more than, if you own them, longer travel bikes? I'm thinking of the contrast between this and for example the Instinct in terms of travel/model choice in the Rocky lineup?

I don't actually know how things split out between mountain bikes - things tend to ebb and flow as seasons and moods change. 

The Element would be great for long days (the Spur was fantastic... about 12 hours into a 15 hour day, we were bushwhacking up a ridgeline and a friend on a Slayer - his only bike - was starting to crack, so I offered to swap him bikes to the top. I think his brain just about exploded picking it up.), but the reality is I don't do a ton of those these days with a kid, job, etc etc etc. What my Element generally gets used for is either:

1. North Shore XC-ish smash. If I'm really tight on time, I can crank out a fun ride with a solid fitness component, and on basically anything in the sanctioned trail realm the Element is amazing. When my kid was still very young and time was even tighter, I'd go for like... one Boogieman lap, and it was about 35 minutes from truck to truck on the Spur. The Element was also way nicer to pedal from home on than the Assegai/DHRII combo on my Arrival.
2. If I do have a bit of extra time, say 2-2.5 hours, linking up and around from home in interesting ways is fun, or as a way to link together classics that maybe an Element shouldn't be on.
3. Its also a great bike for places like the Sunshine Coast, where there can be a lot of pedaling, trails are STEEP, but generally not too rough. You need geometry and brakes, not as much suspension. Or Vancouver Island jank.

I haven't spent much time on the current Instinct - just the Altitude (which I had prior to my current Arrival), and with a light build it was a solid all-arounder. I did have an Instinct BC as well, but that was the previous generation, and a fairly different bike.

how is that rideable without the new AXS?

Posted by: cooperquinn

I don't actually know how things split out between mountain bikes - things tend to ebb and flow as seasons and moods change. 

The Element would be great for long days (the Spur was fantastic... about 12 hours into a 15 hour day, we were bushwhacking up a ridgeline and a friend on a Slayer - his only bike - was starting to crack, so I offered to swap him bikes to the top. I think his brain just about exploded picking it up.), but the reality is I don't do a ton of those these days with a kid, job, etc etc etc. What my Element generally gets used for is either:

1. North Shore XC-ish smash. If I'm really tight on time, I can crank out a fun ride with a solid fitness component, and on basically anything in the sanctioned trail realm the Element is amazing. When my kid was still very young and time was even tighter, I'd go for like... one Boogieman lap, and it was about 35 minutes from truck to truck on the Spur. The Element was also way nicer to pedal from home on than the Assegai/DHRII combo on my Arrival.
2. If I do have a bit of extra time, say 2-2.5 hours, linking up and around from home in interesting ways is fun, or as a way to link together classics that maybe an Element shouldn't be on.
3. Its also a great bike for places like the Sunshine Coast, where there can be a lot of pedaling, trails are STEEP, but generally not too rough. You need geometry and brakes, not as much suspension. Or Vancouver Island jank.

I haven't spent much time on the current Instinct - just the Altitude (which I had prior to my current Arrival), and with a light build it was a solid all-arounder. I did have an Instinct BC as well, but that was the previous generation, and a fairly different bike.

ok, so this is your main FS ride as it were or do you have a longer travel bike as well for MOAR bigger days? I'm always interested in the bikes that fit my particular niche i.e. #dadlaps 80% of the time. Do you now find yourself looking less for drops/hucks that long travel needs and more for being able to get up into the environment.
Thanks for taking the time to do this as well

what's the build weight on that? i guess a benefit of having only one (37lb) do-it-all bike (and not ridden anything significantly lighter in recent years), is that i don't know any different.

@LoamtoHome - Oh, don't worry. As soon as I took these pictures I threw the whole drivetrain in the bin and went and dropped $3k. 

@DanL - Yeah, I also have a 170 Arrival.... which I'll try and cover after the gravel bike. Having not been on the big bike for a couple weeks and only on the Element/gravel/DJ.... its wild to hop back on 34lbs of coil sprung plow. I probably spend more time on the big bike in the summer, and more time on the small bike in the winter? But that's me guessing, TBH. 

@xy9ine - 27lbs and change with pedals, I think.

Curious about your Arrival, 34 lbs is pretty light for a coil sprung 170 mm bike. 34 lbs == 15.4 kg.

Weighed it again before today's ride for you, Niels. 34.25lbs... I'll get some photos of it here in the next little bit. Gravel bike will probably be next, tho.

Its also the heaviest bike I've owned in a while! My Altitude was sub 32lbs before I put a Zeb on it.

Bike two, and the oldest in the fleet. And maybe something a bit more unique than the Rocky. 

Its a size M/L Bjorn SS, a company started out of Squamish BC by Aussie Fast Mountain Biker Dennis Beare. Considering I've had it since 2019, and the design started well before that, its wild to see how "modern" gravel geo is just catching up to Dennis' "mountain biker's gravel bike". My bike has seen some evolution and changes over the past few years as you'd expect. 

Fork: Bjorn Alloy

Wheels: We Are One Faction on I9 1/1

Tires (winter): Specialized Pathfinder Pro, 38c

Tires (summer): WTB Riddler, 45c

Brifters: SRAM Force 1x HYD

Brakes: Force Hydraulic, metallic pads

Handlebar: Easton EC90 AX, 42cm

Tape: Easton

Stem: WZRD, Brazed steel and Al faceplate, 55mm

Cranks: Force 11, 172.5mm

Chainring: 40t

RD: X01 w/ RatioTech 1x12 Wide kit

Cassette: XO1 10-50t

Seatpost: Easton EA70 AX dropper, 80mm (27.2, shimmed)

Saddle: Reform Seymour

Pedals: Shimano PD-EH500

Rotors: SRAM Centerline XR 160/160

Fenders: Velo Orange Smooth Fenders, 45mm

Frame Pack: Apidura 2.7l

Dashboard: Karoo2, K-Edge mount

Front Light: Lezyne Lite Drive 1000xl

as it sits now... its spring so I've taken the front fender off, but not the rear yet... 

For quite a while, I ran it with an Easton EC70 seatpost, and EA50AX 44cm handlebar. Also, standard Force 11 10-42 RD and cassette. 

There's been various colors of cassettes on this thing... I prefer the more subdued colors for this build, but currently its got a rainbow. 

Stem by Em.

38c is absolutely the limit on tire size with fenders. and 45c is pretty much the limit without. 

This tape is LONG overdue for a replacement, but considering how many times its been on/off, and even on different bikes, its a 10/10. 

Easton's little drop bar dropper remote is clever, and accessible from hoods or drops. 

Its hard to recommend anything for saddles, as everyone is different, but I really like the Reform.