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Submitted by
Animal Doc
a Weekend Warrior
from Asheville, NC
Date Reviewed: September 14, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Bent Creek, Pisgah | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$3200.00 | | Purchased At: | Liberty cycles | | Strengths: | Good climber and great on down hills. Propedal works great for climbing and the active suspension while breaking on down hills is awsome. | | Weaknesses: | None so far. | | Similar Products Used: | Remedy, Mojo, Fuel | | Bike Setup: | Stock, bought the demo model. | | Bottom Line: | I bought this bike as an upgrade to an older Trek fuel that I have. I was wanting a bike with more suspension that could still climb well. In getting the used demo model I was able to get an upgraded bike that is probably more than I need at a good price. So far I have been really pleased with this bike. With the propedal feature this bike climbs better than my old bike and if it is any heavier I really cant tell at all. On the down hills the bike is great. The G2 geometry with the suspension and ABP have really increased my confidence and Ive already been able to clear some areas that I was not able to in the past. Anyone who is looking for a solid all mountain bike wont go wrong with the Roscoe. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
DMOS
a Weekend Warrior
from Edmonton, AB
Date Reviewed: August 11, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Anywhere in the river valley | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Purchased At: | Hardcore Bikes | | Strengths: | Frame stiffness, buttery travel, spot on geometry. | | Weaknesses: | Pricey to purchase, proprietary parts. | | Similar Products Used: | GF HiFi, Specialized Epic & Stumpjumper, Marin Mt Vision | | Bike Setup: | * XT crank, cassette & rear derailleur
* LX shifters & front derailleur
* Juicy 5's 160mm both ends
* Crossmax ST
* Maxxis Larsen TT 2.0 rear & Crossmark 2.1 front
* Thomson seatpost & stem
* Easton Monkeylite DH bar
* Time ATAC XS pedals | | Bottom Line: | So far very happy with my Roscoe. I received it as a frame replacement for my HiFi, after tacoing the frame for the second season in a row. GF/Trek has been very good to me!
Anyways, built with the upgraded parts that were donated from my '07 HiFi Dlx, the build for my 19" Roscoe III frame came in at 28lbs even.
While I notice the extra weight going up hills from my former 26lb build HiFi, this bike pedals just as well. On technical ascents it is faster, simply because the rear end is better able to deal with trail trash like roots and rocks, while being epically more composed over ledges and logs. The travel adjust is necessary on long steep pitches where you have to pedal versus depending on momentum. While originally I was going to get a Float or go extreme with a 36 Van, I'm glad I was able to acquire the Roscoe II spec fork for that reason alone. I'm not sure how much the G2 offset helps or hinders, but the bike doesn't possess any painful wheel flop tendencies while moving slowly.
Going downhill is where the bike truly shines. While certainly capable for a such a large bike in the tight singletrack, blasting down switchbacks or chutes is where it comes into it's own. Steps that used to cause unintentional dismounts are swallowed whole. The slackish geometry (and giant DH bar) inspire confidence compared to its more XC sibling. Given my riding season weight of 225lbs, the HiFi would feel like riding 2 unicycles from frame flex when bombing through the river valley of Edmonton. The Roscoe is better equipped to deal with my physique. Sadly this newfound confidence is tempered by the 160mm rotors on the leftover Avid brakes, they are not able to hold their own in this weight class.
In summary: This makes for quite the fun bike to ride as a Clydesdale. It is not going to compete with lightweight XC whips on a racecourse. Nor is it the optimal choice for DH shuttle runs. However, it is not going to be embarrassed at either. I rode it for a solo 8hr marathon and for my laps at a 24hr. It was complete overkill for the course, but I was comfy and when tired it made up for my bike handling mistakes. It was entertaining for runs at Rabbit Hill, though I avoided any large drops or jumps. And I think that it fits a reasonable 1 bike quiver solution as long as you aren't racing in any specific discipline. On the down side, the cost new is obscene, and I don't look forward to replacing proprietary suspension parts. Neither the shock nor the fork are going to be hanging in your LBS. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
packfill
a Racer
from Boulder, CO
Date Reviewed: May 29, 2009 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Strengths: | stiff, innovative shock/fork, tapered headtube, plenty of tire clearance. | | Weaknesses: | the bike retails for $5000 and doesn't come with tubeless rim strips or valves. the tires are pretty horrible. they have no side nobs. the only why they actually turn on anything less than hardpacked is if you run them at really low pressure (i was using (25~26psi). the fork blew out after about a month to where the talas feature didn't work at all. one last thing, a suspension bolt backed itself out after a few rides. this is a bolt that actually lived behind the chain stay, so you cant check it. needless to say, it backed into said chainstay. on the plus side, the chainstay and the bolt are now lighter as they both have had material shaved off. :) also, considering the type of bike that this is, it would have been nice to have top tube cable routing available for a seatpost remote. | | Similar Products Used: | yeti 575, | | Bike Setup: | stock, except swapped out sram shifters and derailleur for xtr, x-lite 100mm stem, wtb rocket-v saddle, joplin seat post, michelin Dry2s 2.3", shimano pedals | | Bottom Line: | I ride my mt bike almost everyday. Because of this, my race bike always seems to be in some sort of disrepair. So, i thought I’d invest in another bike. I wanted something different enough from my Scott spark to justify buying it....not that you really need to justify a new bike purchase. I did a bunch of research and the Roscoe was the closest thing to what I wanted. I test rode a 575, nice bike but the roscoe beat it out in several areas (more tire clearance, tapered headtube, ABP rear pivot, DRCV shock.....) and the new 5 spot was going to be a long wait.
I've very please with the roscoe. I’m 5'10". I bought a large and am running a little longer stem. I wanted it to still fit similar to my other mt bikes. It weighs in at a little over 29 lbs with the above set-up, minus the Joplin post.
The Roscoe climbs really well, and decends like crazy. I really don't use the talas feature on the fork unless I’m going up something really steep and I normally climb with the RP23 fully open (on trails). The avid brakes are superb. The power with the 185 front rotor is night and day as compared to my spark (xtr 160 rotors). The overall stiffness of the bike is also very good. The 28mm rims and 15mm thru axle combined with the tapered head tube on the fox fork makes for a bike that goes where you point it.
All said, this is a great bike. There are just a few minor issues that I’ve encountered.
| | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
DonCuillin
a Weekend Warrior
from Aberdeen, Scotland
Date Reviewed: May 16, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Witches Trails | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$4350.00 | | Purchased At: | Alpine Bikes, Aberde | | Strengths: | Nimble, light for spec/travel. White is the new black it looks great! | | Weaknesses: | Tyres not that great for wet roots which are typical of most of the local trails I ride. Have bought Bontrager Jones to upgrade to. | | Similar Products Used: | Previous bike - Trek Liquid 25. Tested Roscoe against the Trek Fuel EX9.9 and an Ex8. Had also considered Blur LT. | | Bike Setup: | As spec, but will change tyres. | | Bottom Line: | I wanted a change to my previous bike - more travel and a beefier bike. This is the one. I was initially looking at the Blur LT, but the price for high spec bike was just too much. The Roscoe 3 is the same price as the off the peg LT, but blows it out the water on components and hence weight.
I am looking forward to hitting some serious obstacles. As a middle aged rider, my wariness of hurting myself has increased over time! This bike gives me some more confidence! | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Andy
a Weekend Warrior
from Fort Collins, CO
Date Reviewed: May 13, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | The one I'm on... | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$3899.00 | | Purchased At: | Lee's Cyclery, Fort | | Strengths: | S-T-I-F-F!!! love the frame, light for what it is at 28.4 lbs, the most simple, proven suspension design with innovative enhancements, top notch parts spec, Bontrager OEM parts beat similar stuff from Specialized, Race Face and only slightly behind Thomson, Rhythm wheels are excellent, Bontrager tubeless works better than the DT / Specialized stuff I used formerly, great new technologies in DCRV, RP24, tapered headtube, ABP, frame shape, super wide bars. This is an innovative, well thought out bike - and it works. | | Weaknesses: | Proprietary fork offset limits after market upgrades as does rear wheel spacing. If Trek / Fisher ever abandon ABP, compatible rear wheels could be a very big issue for the long-term. After several rides, I believe this is a non-issue but, on my first ride the derailleur hanger snapped in half with no visible impact to the derailleur. Since replacing, there have been no problems - probably just a minor QC issue with the parts contractor. | | Similar Products Used: | Nomad, Blur LT, 09 Enduro, Fisher HiFi Pro 29er | | Bike Setup: | I'm 6'2 / 215 on a 19 / large frame - running 190 psi in rear and 100 in front - for now - still waiting for the Fox stuff to break in correctly. | | Bottom Line: | After just a few rides, this is an admittedly early review but so far, it's almost all good.
I like the fact that this bike isn't just another 67 degree HA / 73 degree SA long travel trailbike. Fisher uses some innovative engineering and geometry corrected parts to reach what seems to be the best possible compromise between agile climber and confident descender.
With other bikes of this genre, it always seems that the design either favors climbing (for instance, the Enduro) or descending (for instance, the Nomad). Unfortunately, this always comes at a large cost to going the other direction (for instance, I don't think the Enduro descends as well as it climbs - not even close). This bike seems to cut it right down the middle. It honestly climbs as well as it descends and I think it does so largely because of the out-of-the-box engineering found in the super wide bars, strange fork offset and other minor tweaks found throughout this bike.
I won't go too far in to it with this review as it's early season, the trails are super tacky and I'm still in ski-season shape but, so far, I'm very impressed with Fisher stuff and this bike in particular. I love my HiFi 29er but needed something a little more fire road climb friendly (Fisher if you're reading this, us old guys need a 29er specific drivetrain.)
I'll post again in a month or two but, if you're considering this bike, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the least. I was never a Gary Fisher guy but between this and the HiFi 29er, they seem to be on top of their game in the two most popular categories - trailbikes and 29ers. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
SoFlaBiker
a Weekend Warrior
from Fort Lauderdale, Fl
Date Reviewed: January 24, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Markham Park | | Duration Product Used: | Tested or demo'ed only | | Strengths: | Super fast bike considering I'm 6ft tall & 235.lbs.Very agile and climbs like a hard tail. Takes the hills and ramps like a Goat on Crack ! | | Weaknesses: | Not really wild about the white color on the top of the line Roscoe 3. | | Bike Setup: | Stock, factory reps really set me up nice. What a difference it makes when you are dialed in just right for your body type! | | Bottom Line: | Outstanding bike ! Now I have to figure how to sell my 09 hard tail Fisher and get enough money to get at least the Roscoe 2 model. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
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