2017 Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt 790 Msl Bc Edition Review
2016 Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt 790 MSL BC Edition
Size Tested: Medium
Geometry: (Hither)
Build Overview:
- Drivetrain: Sram X01
- Brakes: Shimano XT
- Wheels: Stan's Flow west/ three.30 hubs
- Fork: Rockshox Thruway RCT3
- Rear Shock: Rockshox Monarch RT3
- Wheels: 27.five′′
Travel: 130mm Front end / 120mm Rear
Cicatrice'due south Measured Weight: 26.four lbs (12 kg) without pedals
Reviewer: 5'ix", 155 lbs.
Examination Location: Boulder City, Nevada
MSRP: $six,399 as congenital
Caveat
Interbike's outdoor demo is located at Bootleg Coulee in Bedrock Urban center, Nevada. It's a fantastic network of trails, and it's a great escape from America's neon bunghole (Las Vegas). The trails we spent almost of our time on were relatively fast, with a fair corporeality of sand and some pretty rocky sections.
Having said that…
Riding bikes at a demo is always kind of tricky. For starters, we're unable to get as much time on each bike as we like–our test durations are measured in minutes and hours, not our preferred time frame of weeks and months. One practiced ride can tell yous a lot nearly how a wheel handles, simply it certainly doesn't allow for the customary, in-depth, Blister analysis.
Demo days too don't generally let the fourth dimension needed to get each bicycle dialed to our liking. A quick suspension setup and fiddling with the bike's ergonomics gets information technology nearly of the way there, only information technology's certainly not dialed. We too ride the bike as we get it, so things like bar width and tire selection may not be optimal.
And then while we believe it's important to exist upfront about the limitations of reviewing bikes in such settings, there is also merit in riding a slew of bikes back to back on the same trails. Subtle differences that might non become apparent if our test rides happen weeks or months apart are able to come to low-cal, and each bicycle's attributes may be more easily identified.
With all that in mind, allow's take a look at the Rocky Mount Thunderbolt BC Edition
Intro
The Thunderbolt is Rocky Mountain'southward all-around, 120mm-travel trail bike. It's intended to exist low-cal plenty to be competitive on climbs, only has geometry that's still at home on the technical trails of North Vancouver, where Rocky Mountain is based.
The Thunderbolt BC Edition takes that same frame, only bumps up the travel on the fork to 130mm, and it gets some parts that skew it away from the Xc side of things and more toward the "trail" end of the spectrum. That ways wider bars, burlier wheels, and a 1x drivetrain. This is more than or less like to the concept behind the Rocky Mountain Distance Rally Edition that we reviewed last twelvemonth, which is the souped-upwards version of the Altitude.
The Build
Rocky Mountain says that the BC Edition of the Thunderbolt is set up the way they set their own personal bikes, which, I'm happy to written report, is more or less how I set my bikes, too. The Superhighway / Monarch break combo is fantastic on these type of bikes, and the X01 drivetrain always keeps me happy.
Other highlights include a smattering of Race Face parts, including Turbine cranks and 760mm-wide Next SL bars. I would, nonetheless, like to see the Thunderbolt spec'd with even wider bars (since making wide bars narrower is easy, simply making narrow bars wider costs about $150).
The WTB Silverado saddle is a personal favorite, and while Maxxis Ardents aren't my favorite tire always, they at least have the Exo casing so they'll concord up a bit meliorate. The demo bicycle I rode had a unlike wheelset than the stock wheel will ship with, but the production BC Edition is coming with Stan'south Menses wheels, which are a decent option and should concord up to some abuse.
Fit and Geometry
The Thuderbolt BC Edition, like a few other Rocky Mountain bikes, has the Ride-9 organization. Basically, it'southward a pair of interlocking squares that can be flipped effectually to adjust the geometry into 9 different positions.
I've fiddled with a lot of unlike bikes that accept various methods for adjusting the geometry, and honestly, I recollect this is the all-time organization I've used. Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to bandy things around relatively quickly (as long as yous don't drop whatsoever parts), and it gives you a pretty meaning level of adjustability. But using the caput angle as an case, you get almost ii° of adjustability – from 66.5° to 68.2° – plus a number of increments in between. It's likewise really nice that Rocky Mountain gives some pointers on how each position will affect the geometry and the ride.
When I rode the Thunderbolt BC, the Ride-9 chip was in a eye-ish position, slightly favoring a lighter, ambitious rider according to Rocky Mountain. I don't weigh that much (155 lbs.) and I like to jump off of stuff, so information technology was probably pretty close to an ideal position for me.
Since the geometry is fairly adaptable, it'due south tough to say anything concrete virtually the numbers on the Thunderbolt BC. But with the settings I used, the fit on the Thunderbolt BC is very middle of the route. The reach on the Medium I rode was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 420mm (16.v"), and a moderately steep 74° seat tube angle kept the top tube length reasonable at 590mm (23.two").
Every bit I mentioned to a higher place, the head bending is quite adjustable, but even on the steep end of that range, information technology's on the slack cease for bikes in this category. With the settings I used, it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 67°. It's also noteworthy that the Thunderbolt has some of the shortest chainstays out there: 422mm (16.6").
All of that adds up to a bike that, in terms of sizing and geometry, I felt pretty comfortable on very quickly. Some bikes experience really minor, some bikes feel like huge boats. The Thunderbolt falls squarely in the middle, which I call back for a lot of people is a good thing.
NEXT: The Ride, Bottom Line
Source: https://blisterreview.com/gear-reviews/2016-rocky-mountain-thunderbolt-790-msl-bc-edition
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